Friday November 3rd

We awoke as we crossed the Ben Hai River, which once divided north from south and were soon in Hue (not before we were served Vietnamese Pot Noodle/ Ramen Noodle for breakfast). This city was the old imperial capital from 1802 when the Nguyens took control of the whole country (not a bad idea moving to the center in a country with two traditional seats of power at either end) until the last emporer abdicated in favor of Ho Chi Minh in 1945. There are still a lot of historic buildings in the vicinity, though the place took a pounding from bombs and fighting within the city.

After getting off the train we were dropped by taxi at a convenient hotel (Binh Minh) and it was pleasant enough to warrant staying. Our first act was to head down to the river to get a snack and suss out the lie of the land, then we found a cyclo tour for Tracy while we walked a short distance to the citadel. The old city has a fairly complete city wall (I dont know how much was rebuilt) with a moat, once inside you can pass through the old citadel gates to the emperors abode. Once again the place began with an appropriate arrangement of gates, ponds and bridges, with buildings to commemorate ancestors and mandarins. Once the whole central section was the "Forbidden Purple City" where the emperor kept wives and concubines, but that was pretty much destroyed with a few ruined buildings and a lot of wide open space. The citadel walls are complete and the gates are still beautiful, and a number of the compounds within that housed family members are complete and nicely renovated so it was well worth a few hours wandering the extensive grounds.

Tourism complete for the day we retired to a good local restaurant to sample some of the local delights. With the imperial legacy (some were fussy eaters) there is a history of novel cuisine in the city and we were not disappointed. Much less Chinese influence here, and subtle flavors.