The main attraction in Hue is the Imperial City, a walled enclosure that was home to the Nguyen Dynasty. It was modeled after the Forbidden City in Beijing and so the inner sanctum, where only the royal family was allowed, is called the Purple Forbidden City.
The entire complex is inside a bigger enclosure called the Royal Citadel, with a perimeter wall almost five miles long.
One of my goals on this trip was to lose all the weight I gained after my second back surgery. I hoped to lose 40 pounds. By the time I left Nepal I'd lost 60! But since I came to Southeast Asia all I've done is sit on buses and chow down on the wonderful (and cheap) cuisine. I wanted to do a walking tour of the Citadel and try to burn off some of the weight I've put on since I left Nepal.
Sudden changes in the weather tend to aggravate my old back injuries. The weather in central Vietnam had been surprisingly cool before I got to Hue. But I awoke on my first full day here to a hot, humid and smoggy day. My back was acting up, so I was feeling creaky and grumpy when I left my hotel.
I walked for a while before I realized I was not in the right frame of mind or body for a long day of walking in the hot sun. I'm glad I waited to tour the Citadel. This is the Thuong Tu Gate on my first day.
Here it is the following day.
I'm glad I decided to take a rest day. I spent a full day walking, which is really the only way to get to know a city.
The main entrance to the Imperial City is the Ngo Mon Gate, on the southern wall of the city, just opposite the flag tower.
Above the stone wall is the Belevedere of the Five Phoenixes, where the emperor would sit for official functions.Once through the gate you cross a bridge over to the Thai Hoa Palace. I enjoyed touring the grounds partly because, unlike the Forbidden City, the place wasn't mobbed with tour groups. This photo was taken from the main entrance and there is exactly one tourist in the picture.
This palace has been completely restored. There's a short video with a really cool digital re-creation of what the complex would have looked like when it was used.
Which wasn't that long ago. It's tempting to use the word "ancient" to describe the grounds, but it was all built in the early 1800s. It looks old, in part, because it was allowed to fall into disrepair when the Communists took control of the country. It was neglected as a symbol of Vietnam's imperial past.
But now the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Much of the palace is being renovated. Those areas are not off-limits.
It's okay to see areas that are under construction, but it's sad to see areas of the complex that are neglected, including some places that are literally used as trash dumps.
Just to the right of this is an abandoned garden. I walked in and found two elephants.
I felt a little bad for them. They were chained in place with no food or water. I could see scars on this guy's back from the howdah, the chair that is strapped to his backs for tourists to sit in. I could have walked right up to him but a couple guys in a nearby hut, who I assumed to be the mahouts, or drivers, waved me off. It probably wasn't too smart to stand next to an unhappy bull elephant, even if he was staked to the ground.
In some places the unrestored, weatherbeaten buildings had a fun, haunted house kind of look.
In other places there were gardens and canals where, with no other tourists present, it was easy to imagine the emperor strolling and enjoying the peace and quiet.
Other buildings showed the French colonial influence. I didn't realize until I looked at this picture that there's an elderly woman sitting in the hut on the left.
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