After leaving Hoi An, I continued to work my way up Vietnam's surprisingly long coast, and my next stop was the city of Hue. It has been called the “Jewel of Vietnam” (check) for its combination of ancient buildings, sleepy cafe culture, languid pace of life, and for giving travelling, uh, travel writers the notion that it'd be a pretty groovy place to live.
One key detail – sure, it's still a pretty interesting city, but the Tet Offensive hit Hue like a ton of bricks from which it's still recovering.
All the way up to 1968, Hue was curiously immune from the ravages of war. Right next to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the North and South, it should have been a magnet for combat, but it skated along until the Vietcong launched their countrywide attack.
In Hue's case, that meant taking over the Citadel – a massive palace in a palace in yet another palace, surrounded by high brick walls - and raising their flag over the city. It was pretty stunning – and losing a major city was a big embarrassment to the South.
What did that mean? Hue was pretty much leveled in a month-long battle, that went from street to street.
Being a bit of Vietnam war buff, I was curious to see how the city had fared in the last 40 years. I got into Hue around 11, and was immediately pounced on by Vietnam's most persistent hotel touts. After 2 months of traveling, you'd think I'd be really good at giving them the brushoff. So would I, but man these guys just would not take no for an answer.
The one guy following me for literally ten minutes was so tenacious that I finally lost patience:
“My hotel, very good, very cheap.”
“No, thank you.”
“Ah, see you have Lonely Planet, my hotel better.”
“No, thank you, I've got a reservation.”
(and so on... through every combination of saying “no”, “no, thank you”, and anything else I could think of, I finally had to stop and look him dead in the eye...)
“I will never go to your hotel. Never.” (Polite, but very, very firm.)
He even mustered up a somewhat plaintive “never?”
“NEVER.”
On the plus side, the hotel I scored on my own was quite literally the best hotel I've stayed at all trip so far. I actually walked right past it, as it had changed it's name to the Hue Queen 2, and it was amazingly immaculate. Turns out they were going for the upscale crowd, but business was slow – so I was able to negotiate a $20 a night rate... for flat screen cable TV, a king-sized bed with fluffy duvee, icicle inducing AC, and one of those cool showerheads that are directly over your noggin and produce its own mini-monsoon. Lovely.
(Note: I'm writing this from Australia, where $20 by comparison gets you one of four dorm beds in a basic hostel... sigh.)
Refreshed, it was time for a bit of pho at local stand, and then a walk to the Citadel. The weather was general grayness, verging on rain, so which was actually fitting to see a place that has so many ghosts and memories. Alas, for all of the buildup of seeing the city's #1 sight, it was actually a little disappointing.
Once inside the 2nd set of walls, you can wander around the vast complex – all designed to serve the needs of the French-backed emperors from the 1800's. It's pretty, it's neat, but that's pretty much about it.
The most interesting thing was to watch the care involved in restoring the palace – with so many buildings destroyed, it's very slow going, and I'd say probably only about 20% finished so far.
So, it was time to tackle my other major task of the day... I scored some more drinks at an oddly-named bar called “Bar Why Not” and even tried some funky rice dumplings wrapped in banana leaves. Think whitish/reddish semi-congealed paste... just goes to show that looks ain't everything, these were surprisingly tasty.
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