Vietnam: Hue

At the end of our second day in Ninh Binh we were able to catch the evening bus to Hue. Our bus ticket booklet got us on board, and so we settled in for our all-night bus ride.



As you can see from this pic, we were ZOMBIES with headphones! Neither of us got much quality sleep overnight, but at least we made it in one piece. Arriving early morning, we were greeted with torrential rain. As we have traveled south, we have known of the nasty weather creeping north up the country. It was inevitable that it would meet us in the middle somewhere..



The bus dropped us in the middle of town, and we checked into some accommodation close by. It was awful outside and we were tired, so we relaxed in our room for most of the day watching TV.

The next morning we had a break in the weather, so we got out to stretch our legs and look around. We wandered through the city, and visited a major feature of Hue: the Imperial City.



This bridge leads into the Imperial City, which was was modeled after Beijing's Forbidden City.



There are many leftovers from the war, such as these cannons. The city of Hue is positioned just south of the north/south divide, and suffered badly during the war. Lots of rebuilding is ongoing to restore the Imperial City.



This is one of the temples that has been restored. The zen style gardens are amazing.



The gardens were pretty cool, lots of Bonsai.



Who is that in the reflection? A pretty cool picture.

The outer moat and Northern gate.



Unlike the Forbidden City, there are moats inside the walls also.



We wandered around the ruins as the weather started to sour.



Toolman investigates a Hobbit hole amongst the quiet ruins.



As Toolman poses, the clouds loom grey...

We headed for the exit when it started spitting. It picked up intensity quickly, us sheltering in the gate as it pelted down. A smart salesman was selling purple ponchoes by the gate, making good money no doubt. We both put one, making us look like Grimace impersonators. They do keep you dry, though!



These tanks are parked outside the museum we sheltered in to get out of the rain! The museum had lots of old furniture from royalty and other important Vietnamese people. It also had a creative arrangement of tarpaulins, cups and pots all set up to collect the water that was leaking in all around the building.



Toolman thought Ryan would like some tank pictures - here ya go mate.



As we walked back to the center of town, it continued to rain! The constant rain caused really bad flooding in places. Unfortunately this all too common for the locals, they have just learned how to deal with it.

Some streets are elevated enough to not flood, but over half of the city was at least ankle deep. We found some streets that were knee deep, with houses set lower than the road!



Here is the front door of a nice restaurant where we had dinner - water to the door!

The next few days were spent relaxing in the hotel, and ducking out for a look around the city when the rain slowed. We found a yummy Italian place run by an authentic Italian guy called Vince. We dined there a few times, as it had great food and was very hospitable.

A Dong? Toolman might have chuckled at this sign.

Here is a little kitty the Princess met at another shop in town. Meep! Hope its not on the menu..



Thankfully, the storm continued heading north, and after a few days most of the rain had passed over us. The markets reopened as the rains receded, but we decided to head on to the next town: Hoi An.