Hue

Hue, just south of the DMZ, lies in the area which suffered the heaviest fighting in the American War and was actually the political capital for over one hundred years until 1945.

Here we hired bikes and cycled to the city’s Citadel, previously a huge imperial city. Within this beautiful, moated citadel is the Forbidden Purple City: this was only used for the Emporer’s private life. Both Chris and I agree that this place makes Beijing’s Forbidden City look tiny! Part of it’s charm lies with the fact that until now, this ancient city has remained un-renovated; in fact, it was unfortunately heavily bombed by the Americans.

We spent only one night in Hue and in fact, it was arguably the most authentically Vietnamese we had in our trip. On the night bus down from Hanoi, we met a Swiss couple who were signed up to a site called ‘Couchsurfing’. Through this site, they met a local student from Hue with whom they had arranged to go for a drink in the evening. We were invited along and he took us on a long walk out of the touristy area, filled with backpacker bars, to a small local place where we were the only foreigners.

One by one, more and more of his friends began to turn up and we enjoyed a fantastic few hours sharing a few beers with them and sampling local food (the kind that only a Vietnamese person could know how to order!) and listening to stories and opinions about their country. We were horrified when they began to fill our glasses with ice before pouring beer into them but have found since that this is the thing to do here!

He and most of his friends were either students or teachers of English, either way all keen to practice their English. This was a great opportunity for both them and us - we were able to ask many questions about Vietnam about things that had intrigued us. We found out so many interesting facts, not least that Vietnam apparently has the third highest abortion rate in the world! I am surprised at this for a country with only 85 million people. Hmmm, will have to check that.

CHEERS!