Pronounced ‘Hway’ (hence the pun), Hue is the ancient capital of Vietnam. As the location of the Nguyen dynasty’s citadel, the city offers an opportunity to explore the beautifully ornate buildings and gardens the emperor and his family once strolled in until as recently as 1945.
400 km south of Hanoi, we travelled to Hue via the overnight sleeper train. We shared a 4 person berth with a Swiss couple- Victor and Nina. It was surprisingly a really comfortable 12 hour journey in which I happened to sleep straight away for a solid 10 hours whilst dad stayed up to chat to Victor and Nina. I’ve also been rereading the Harry Potter series whilst we’ve been out here and got through quite a bit of the Chamber of Secrets during the last couple of hours.
When we arrived at Hue on the 11th of January, it seemed to be as grey and cold as up in Hanoi, at about 15 degrees Celsius. We got a taxi to ‘ Home Hotel’- a cute family-run place which was really friendly. They recommended a local restaurant for lunch where we tried the local delicacies of rice pancakes and dumplings filled with shrimp and pork scratchings which you could then dip into a salt and chilli sauce. They were absolutely delicious! Dad even tried a somewhat gelatinous shrimp that had been steamed with rice whilst wrapped in a banana leaf! Safe to say I stayed far away from that one…
We then walked about a kilometre to the citadel which consisted of local men trying to encourage us to go on their one man rickshaws so that they could cycle us to the citadel. However these rickshaws just looked so much like prams that I felt it was one step too far in the WALLE direction.
However maybe we shouldn’t have been so quick to judge because if there was any overriding theme to our day in Hue, it would be walking. The health app on my phone says we walked 9km but it definitely felt like a lot more. We walked around the ancient buildings of the citadel, admired the architecture and gardens and commented on the fact that this place was still in use when Granda Jack was a teenager. It’s crazy how much the world has changed in such a short period of time! A lot of the citadel had been destroyed in the Vietnam war which made it look a lot older than it was. Although the site was beautiful, it would have been interesting to get a bit more information about the history of the emperors and the history of how the war affected Hue. The UNESCO world heritage site is still under renovation and development which is pretty noticeable by the lack of meaningful information linking the site together.
I think my experience was also clouded over partly by the fact that I knew I would be hearing back from Cambridge today and was bracing myself for the ‘unfortunately…’ email. After visiting the citadel we stopped at a cafe: Bistro 34. I connected to the WiFi and refreshed my emails. No email. I checked my junk and…there was an email! ‘We’re pleased to tell you…’ I literally couldn’t believe it and still can’t to be honest. I immediately phoned mum and messaged my friends to tell them the good news. It’s such a relief to have all my hard work pay off and to finally know where I’m going next year!
After- you guessed it- walking a kilometre back to the hotel, we left our backpacks and went out to a hipster rooftop restaurant where we had a ‘comfort food’ dinner of pizza and satay chicken to celebrate. Hue almost reminds me of a beach town despite its lack of proximity to the coast; it’s pretty quiet save for a few streets that are the busy hub for the mainly fluid population of tourists that flow through every day.
The next day we left Hue for Hoi An on a minibus, doing the ‘Top Gear’ coastal tour on the way down. It was so great to be able to see the rural side of Vietnam as our bus drove through plains of rice paddies and small villages, the real Vietnam without the tourist glaze
The bus stopped at an incongruous ancient bridge in the middle of a rural fishing village, an isolated beach and a mountainous lookout point over Danang. When at this point dad and I overheard a familiar accent and ended up chatting to a guy who was from Armagh. It’s funny how when you’re at home you wouldn’t talk to everyone in NI but when you’re in a foreign country, anybody from NI is like an old friend.
The highlight of the tour was definitely the stop at the Marble Mountains. Having seen a popular photo from Pinterest I was really keen to visit this place and I’m so glad we did! The Marble mountains are a cluster of five hills made from limestone and marble, dotted with caves, tunnels and temples. We only had an hour to explore but we managed to visit the Huyen Khong cave which was so majestic, it felt like we were in a movie. However it was a very short watch and soon enough we were back on the road to Hoi An (which is where my next blog post will start.)
Reflecting back on Hue, I think it will always be special to me because of the pivotal news I received whist there. Hue and Danang have also given us a real taste of the rich history of Vietnam (more by show than by tell) and has inspired us to try and learn more about it to deepen our appreciation, so I would definitely mark Hue and Marble Mountain as stops on your itinerary in Vietnam even if it is just for a day each!
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