We've hied a car and driver for the day to visit the famous tombs of the various self-appointed emperors. We get lucky and Mr. Tien, the agency boss, takes us himself and is a mine of interesting information about Hue, Vietnam and its history. We discover that Ho Chi Minh went to the high school here!
But our day begins with an exciting start. Ted looks out the window and there's a horse and buggy and parade of people in the imperial red silk outfits, the occasional one in emperor yellow, all lined up for a wedding coming ot of our hotel. I rush into clothes, grab the camera and get some nice shots on the street from very willing subjects, especially little girls.
We visit the 3 tombs which all have a very different character. It costs us $18 in entrance fees for all three. Tu Duc is a huge formal complex, the most impressive, with a huge moat with ducks and koi, singing ladies in a small room over a lake, rich red/gold pillars, renovated aareas and worshipping ancestor temples throughout. It's hellish hot so we do everything very slowly.
Second we visit Khai Dinh, very ornate where everyone wants to be photogaphed by the actual tombs of king and queen, very colorful mosaic decoration everywhere and beautiful renovated ceilings too. The tomb has a guard of elephants, horses and warriers lined up in front on the plaza again. There's a good DVD of the history of all the tombs there too.
Lastly, up in the green verdant hills, we visit the Minh Mang tomb et on a peaceful lake, visited by far less tourists so really quite deserted. It's a half km walk in so bus trips don't go there. Before we go in I ask for a cold coconut to drink, not cold, she will do it for my return.
We climb the 3 levels to the final resting place of Mang to find we can't enter, he was buried underground and noone knows quite where. Our driver tells the lady we have probably had a cold drink at the tomb but in fact, she is ready for the nearly most expensive coconut, that's yet to come, and happy that we returned. It's a lovely drive back through the green rice fields and crop fields, to some lovely avenues in Hue too.
We find that the local rice is consumed in Vietname but not valued for export. Vietnam is the second largest exporter of rice in the world.
Mr. Tien has a souvenir for our day together, a nice little sketch of Hue, and we promise to put a good word in for him on TripAdvisor, which is god around here! We use it so much in SE Asia, so does everyone else, but it's so so subjective really.
We return to the Family Home Restaurant that night, which gets such a good writeup on TA to have a disapponting experience there
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