Tombs, Citadel, Pagoda & Mr Hoa

Tuesday 27th June
* Our day of cultural in the old Imperial city of Hue began with an 8am pickup from our hotel, we booked our own tour, mini van and an english speaking guide, Mr Hoa. He is a local independent tour guide and had excellent english, with an American accent.
* First stop was the Tomb of Minh Mang, about 20km from Hue. The tomb is set on about 18ha and was built by Minh Mang before his death. Mr Hoa told us many times that Minh Mang had 600 concubines, had 142 children and 83 sons and the story was that he was so strong he had 5 concubines in 1 night & 3 got pregnant! Not even sure if Minh Mang is really buried there as all the workers who transported the coffin were killed immediately after so no-one knew for sure where the emperor lay. Took 10,000 workers, 3 years to build the whole tomb site. As we were early it was not crowded until we were leaving which was good. Hot already and our shirts were soaked after walking around the site.
* Was only a short drive to the Tomb of Dong Khanh who was leader when the French occupied the country and he spent some of his life in France. His tomb combines both Vietnamese & French themes & architecture. Looks fairly plain outside but it is immensely ornate inside with the main chambers being totally covered in mosaics, made from local and imported tiles, stones, pottery, etc. This tomb took 11 years to build, mainly to finish the mosaic.
* Along the way we stopped at a small shop where they make paper models - of everything. Clothes, household appliances, houses, everything that is considered a possession, all hand made out of special paper. These models are the bought by families and burnt as a special sacrifice to their ancestors. Tradition is that on the anniversary of the death of ones elders (for 3 generations back) a sacrifice & rememberance is carried out. Over 80% of Vietnamese are "athiests" in that they revere their ancestors rather than a religion.
* Back into Hue to visit the Citadel (the Hue Imperial City) which was the palace for the Emperor, until 1945 when the French took control. Much of the original palace was destroyed by war, firstly by the French in the 1940's and then by the Americans (& Sth Vietnamese I assume, but they are never mentioned) in the 1960's. Some is original and some has been rebuilt under the UNESCO World Heritage program. We visited all the main parts of the Citadel, with Mr Hoa getting us together for "Important Iformation" before setting us off to look and take photos. His catchcry here was " All Gone, because of the Bombs".
* Time for lunch so we were taken to very nice place in amongst a lush garden, supposedly originally owned by one of the officials from the last emperor. Nice but expensive.
*After cooling off, we jumped back into our van & headed of to the Pagoda ofthe Celestial Lady (Thien Mu Pagoda). This is a Buddhist Pagoda built in 1602 to honour the celestial Lady (Buddha). The legend has it that unmarried couples should not visit as the lady will be influenced by the pagoda and they will break up soon after. Behind the pagoda is some formal gardens including a Bonsai garden will trees that were hundreds ofyears old and 1 monk has the responsibility for 1 tree.
* By this time Mr Hoa was pretty relaxed and cracking jokes and there was plenty of chat about families and life in general.
*The last part of the tour was a short walk down to the river where we got on a dragonboat and they took us back up to near our hotel. Apparently the family who have the boat live on it, packing away their home each day and the passengers sit on plastic chairs during the journey and the owner brings out a series of souvenirs to try and sell to make a bit extra. Was nice and cool on the water and the 1/2 hour trip back was very pleasant.
* Then a 10 min walk back to the hotel and it was done. We all decided we were very lucky to have Mr Hoa, he was easy to talk to and had lots of information about every site and was happy to tell us all about his life, family and Vietnam culture. Well worth the extra $ for his services.

* We all needed a cool shower & a relax before re-convening for a drink and then dinner at a nearby restaurant. Retired pretty early but no one complained.

Important Information (Mr Hoa)
The Vietnamese flag is red (represents the blood of the people) and the yellow star is the colour of their skin. The 5 points of the star represent the 5 levels of socialist society 1- intellectuals, soldiers, peasants, workers and youth.

Highlights
* Cultural tour (see above);
*Mr Hoa (Also see above);

About 36C and >60% humidity made for a very hot day, all day.Read more