Hue, the former Capital — The road liss traveled

Hue is a pleasant medium sized city of over a million in Central Vietnam, just a bit smaller than Danang, but quite a bit less touristy. It’s the former capital of Vietnam, from 1802 to 1945 during the Nguyen dynasty. It was also a major battleground of the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War, which was lost to the Vietcong with many civilians being massacred. It’s well located on the Perfume River, which is supposedly named because it carries lots of aromatic plants and flowers during autumn, although I have trouble imaging this, as boat exhaust seems to the primary smell near the river. Doing a dragonboat ride at sunset down the river is a very popular thing to do.

Hue is famous for it’s walled Imperial City, which was taken after Beijing’s Forbidden City. But it’s also got a bunch of historical cites, a citadel, a few massive mausoleums of the former rulers, and even an abandoned waterpark. It’s also got some nice countryside and it’s only 30 minutes away from the ocean. I stayed just two nights, but definitely could have done three. I’m not going to write too much for this post though, just provide the photos with some comments. Like usual, I just rented a moto and spent the day cruising around. The first stops are the mausoleums, the big 3, built by emperors Tu Duc, Minh Mang, and Khai Din. Sadly I did not dress in traditional Vietnamese clothes for these places haha.