Old wars and older empires

Hue was the capital of Viet Nam for more than 100 years between the 19th and 20th centuries. Consequentially, lots of its main attractions feature relics from the days when it was home to emperors. The city’s other tourist pull is its proximity to the demilitarized zone, which is the area 5km to the north and south of the Ben Hai River, which was the landmark that separated North and South Viet Nam from the time when the country was divided following the independence from the French, to the fall of Sai Gon in 1975.

Our bus trip from Hoi An to Hue was one the most scenic journeys we've experienced. There were two sightseeing stops, the first at a place called Marble Mountain. We stopped there for 20 minutes, but we could have easily spent a day exploring the place. Marble Mountain is a town resting at the bottom of some jagged mountains speckled with colourful pagodas. We're not sure if the mountains are made of marble, but the townsfolk certainly get plenty of it from somewhere, as half the town is taken up by shops carving and selling marble statues of all shapes and sizes.

The road to Hue also passes through the city of Danang, which sits around a couple of vast masses of water - inlets, lakes, rivers, maybe - we're not sure. The city was ultra clean, modern and colourful, with wide roads and drivers who actually seemed to be following road rules of some sort. The scenery around Danang's water bodies was stunning. While driving along one side, we could look across the wide, dead calm water to mountains obscured by haze. Driving along another side, we were looking across at a skyline of highrises, all painted different colours - it was as if, when someone was building another block, they said to themselves, "well there's already a lime green, blue, yellow and orange, so maybe I'll go for turquoise". The colours of buildings are one thing that has really stood out across all of Vietnam - very few grey buildings.

We arried in Hue about midday and checked into the first room of our whole trip that had airconditioning (just had to add that). We wandered across the road to a cool looking cafe with its walls covered in writing - autographs, messages etc. The cafe was called Cafe on Thu Wheels, after its owner, Thu, and before we knew it, she had booked us on a motorcycle tour of the town for the afternoon. Thu's chalming, friendly and cheeky character also led to us eating at the cafe for every meal.

There were about 10 of us on the motorcycle tour, which was led by Thu's brother, Minh. Minh was always entertaining and as bad as his sister with his smutty jokes "same bananna, different colour".

Our first stop on the tour was at the oldest Pagoda in Vietnam (first pic), built in 1601. The Pagoda's monastry had been home to a monk who, in the middle of last century, drove to Sai Gon, doused himself in petrol and burnt himself alive in protest of the catholic Emporer's persecution of buddhists. The pagoda was also home to the biggest bell in Vietnam, which is only rung when the king visits (so, now that there's no king, we guess it's never rung). When a member of our group said to Minh, "so, can I ring it?" Minh replied. "No, monks very good at kung fu."

The second stop was at some bunkers built by the French during the first Indochina war. On the topic of war, Minh told us about how many of the locals lived underground during the Vietnam war, but not all of them escaped Agent Orange, and the effects the chemical had in the following years, with many children born with deformities. "But I am lucky," Minh said. "My mother did not breathe Agent Orange, so I am strong, like tiger."

Our next stop was at the tomb of one of the Hue emperors. The tomb is not just a simple burial place, but a large area with beautiful gardens and many buildings. It was built during the emperor's reign and while he was alive he used the area as an escape from his everyday duties. Minh told us that the workers who built the tomb were made to work 24 hours a day. He said that of the 4000 people who worked on the site, 1000 died. The second photo is of a pavilion in the tomb. A sign on the pavilion said the emperor used it for writing poetry, but Minh told us that he went there of an evening with his concubines to drink vodka and play cards. (He - the emperor, not Minh - had 104 concubines, but no children because he had smallpox when he was young.) The third photo is of one of the other buildings in the tomb.

Despite the great sights we visited on the motorbike tour, the highlight was when we were on the back of the bikes. In between attractions, we rode down narrow leafy laneways and past colourful incence sticks, rice, mushrooms and corn laid out on the road to dry in the sun. We also rode along tracks through rice fields (fourth picture) where we could see the local workers harvesting the rice, then past narrow canals, along which people ferried tiny wooden canoes laden with bushes and sacks of rice.

On our second day in Hue, we went on a tour to the demilitarized zone. The tour took us first to the Ben Hai River, then to some tunnels (see pic of Niels) where local people lived for four years during the war, then finally to the American war base of Khe Sahn. On the drive to Khe Sahn, we got another reality check about the horrors or Agent Orange, this time its effect on the environment. As we mentioned in the Sai Gon chapter, Agent Orange was a chemical herbicide used by the Americans during the Vietnam War to wipe out forests in order to drive out the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese communist fighters). The mountainous journey to Khe Sahn passed through kilometres of plantations of eucalyptus and pine, which our guide said were planted because they were hardy enough to grow in the damaged soil left behind after the war. She said that before the war, the area was thick jungle that was home to wild elephants and tigers.

The next day we were to catch the night bus to Ha Noi, leaving us a final day to spend in Hue. We decided to visit the city's citadel - against the recommendations of Minh, our guide of two days before, "citadel costs 55000 dong, if you don't go there, you can buy five Tiger Beers".

In the end, we really liked the citadel, which is the ruined capital of the emperors (final three pics). Much of it was destroyed by bombing during the war, and the ruins that are left pale in comparison to many others in South East Asia, but the place was peaceful and quite surreal. There was hardly anyone around - for much of our time there we didn't see another soul - and most of the gardens in the citidel seem to be used as a plant nursery. There were large, quiet ponds covered in water lillies and, in one courtyard, a couple of elephants.