Hue (pronounced almost like “way”), is a charming city and former imperial capital on the central coast of Vietnam, an overnight train ride south of Hanoi. It is yet another stop on the World Heritage trail, famous for its beautiful mausoleum complexes for former emperors and for the imperial palace and citadel. Hue is also very close to the 17th parallel, and was one of the cities held by North Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
The buildings that still exist at the imperial palace are intricate and beautiful. However, 90% of the buildings in the complex were destroyed during the Tet Offensive in 1968, and some of those still standing suffered damage and are riddled with bullet holes.
Beautiful countryside in central Vietnam
Incense burning at a pagoda in Hue
A lotus blossom
A 3-hour bus ride through the mountains led us to beautiful Hoi An, a small city set between a picturesque river and a white sand beach straight out of a Corona commercial. Hoi An has been an important Asian trading city for over 1,000 years, and shows its heritage through its meritage of cultural and architectural influences, especially Japanese, Chinese, and French. Its narrow streets are still packed with vintage merchants’ houses, although today they house art and handicraft galleries and tailors instead of spices and fish.
Hoi An is *the* place to have clothes made in Southeast Asia. In the several square blocks that make up the old town, there are over 300 tailor shops that can whip up anything from a silk gown to cowboy boots in less than 24 hours. Our tour leader offered to take us to a few shops that she could personally recommend, and I tagged along because I was curious, thinking that I wouldn’t actually buy anything. It turns out that that’s not possible. I picked up a catalog in one of the shops (really more of a scrapbook cobbled together from Vogue and Cosmo issues and internet print-outs), and 16 hours later I have a handmade royal blue silk cocktail dress that I love. And it cost me a whole $27. I was incredibly tempted by the gorgeous wool coats and suits on offer, too, but I held myself to one dress… until next time :)
Did I mention that there’s a beach here? A few friends and I rented bikes and rode the 4km out to the white sand beach and indulged our Corona commercial fantasy. It’s so hot here that you can’t actually sit in the sun or on the sand, so thankfully every few yards there is a cute little cafe serving cold drinks and fresh seafood to the lounge chairs and thatched umbrellas they have set up on the sand. The sun is BRUTAL here. My lobster-colored knees were worth it, though.
Yesterday morning I visited a nearby fishing village and also tried my hand at hand-wheeled pottery. I’d never seen pottery made like this: one woman spins the pottery wheel with a foot while the other shapes the clay. They were incredibly efficient and turned out about 25 pots in the 5 minutes that I watched them.
I wasn’t nearly as efficient, but I still had a good time! :)
Hoi An is endlessly photogenic. I could spend weeks here just taking photos of the world going by. Here are a few of my favorites from the past couple of days (click on an image to see it larger).
In a few hours I head to Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, to see one of the busiest cities in Southeast Asia before heading to Cambodia and Angkor Wat!
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