Wednesday in Hue

We began the day with a visit to the Citadel, a large fortress surrounded by a moat with many palaces and temples, including the Imperial City at its center. The complex was built in the early 19th Century, damaged in the Indochina wars, and has since been largely restored. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site. As we saw in Japan, tourists rented and wore the traditional garb. .
Next we visited a Buddhist nunnery for a vegetarian lunch and a group Q/A with one of the five nuns who live there. She talked about the requirements to become a nun and a bit about the lifestyle. Her only question for us was: “how do you measure your happiness”? Later this afternoon we visited a Catholic orphanage where 18 kids now live. Several have physical or mental disabilities, and some can neither speak nor hear. Two residents are accomplished artists who went to art school with financial support from an OAT-related 501 c3 organization. We met a charming little girl (not more than 3-4 years old) who sang several songs (heads, shoulders, knees and toes, and Frere Jacques, among others) and a large young man directly embraced one of the men in our group for a very long hug - very moving! Dinner out, ending with a taste of “the kings wine”, a strong brew made from rice liquor.Read more