Hue

We spent the last three nights in Hue. Hue is just farther up the coast from Hoi An, although it’s a little removed from the coast, so doesn’t have a beach town feel. Hue was the capital city of the Nguyen dynasty, which ruled much of Vietnam during the 1800s and early 1900s. Unfortunately, the weather was quite poor during our entire stay in Hue. It was either raining, drizzling, cloudy, windy, or some combination. Luckily, our first day there, the hotel receptionist told us that there was a “happy evening festival” to celebrate Tet. After a good lunch of western food (plentiful in this tourist hot spot) we asked her when the party would start. Well, apparently she didn’t quite get the meaning of ‘evening’ so we joined the party in progress. It was an absolute blast. It amounted to continuous toasting with four hotel promoters on the second floor lobby of the hotel. The hotel promoter who took us to our hotel was there, as well as the hotel promoter we had turned down; luckily he didn’t take our refusal personally. With the weather being so poor, it was a great way to spend an afternoon, learning some Vietnamese and enjoying the local Huda beer. Now, if a hotel promoter is a strange profession to you, then you haven’t been to a tourist town in Vietnam. Immediately upon unloading the bus, you are confronted with moto-taxi drivers, taxi drivers, and hotel promoters clawing at you like cats claw at birds in a tree. So, it was cool to see these business competitors hanging out and having fun, due to the holiday season. That night, Tran, the promoter (and owner’s son) of our hotel, took us to the popular spot in the city center to watch the Tet fireworks. It was a great show, and the unbelievable motorcycle traffic to and from the center of town was amazing on its own.

The next day we checked out the Citadel, which contains all the old imperial palaces, forts, buildings, etc. inside its walls. There were some pretty cool structures and the many gardens and minor buildings still in ruins from the war gave it all a very Vietnamese feel. One of the most enjoyable parts of our three nights in Hue was the culinary experience. We had two delicious meals at pretty classy joints. Vietnam is the place to go if you are looking for a well-presented, eight-course meal for less than $12 (including the fantastic fresh fruit shakes). The place where we had this meal was a little classy for our t-shirt and dirty cotton shorts with flip flops attire, but luckily Vietnam is laid back and we’re tourists, so it wasn’t an issue. Another night we had a delectable, candle light meal at the Tropical Garden restaurant. It had a cool environment of white tablecloth and tie-clad waiters combined with an open-air thatched roof. The good food was enhanced by traditional Vietnamese musicians who played throughout the evening. Dave even bought their CD, so contact him if you’re curious. In addition to some good burgers and sandwiches, I had a few of the Hue “pancakes” (fried ground rice stuffed with shrimp, pork, and vegetables) which were quite tasty.