Hue, originally the imperial capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen dynasty is a vibrant and busy town. We decided to stop here for a couple of days on our way through to Hanoi.

The goal for our first day was to reach the Citadel and explore the inner grounds. The Citadel is a brick walled perimeter which houses the Imperial City, built for the family of the Nguyen Dynasty. It took us around 25 minutes to walk to the Citadel and move inside the outer wall. We then spent the next HOUR walking around and around the citadel trying to breach the second wall. It was around 40 degrees by this stage and we were getting desperate. Tim resorted to yelling loudly and incoherently at the giant brick walls of the Citadel. After walking around the entirety of the complex, we found the entrance. Right where we came in. I maintain that there was a distinct lack of signage, Tim didn’t say anything at all. We comforted ourselves with the knowledge that we had just completed a substantial amount of exercise, “I reckon we just did 10km” Tim boasted. We were later told that it was less than 3. Whatevs.

Overall the Citadel was pretty nice but our favourite parts were the areas either side of the tourist attractions; the areas that had been destroyed by the war or the weather and had been left just as they were. They allowed for better photos and it was much more interesting trying to determine the history of these buildings. In some places, the foundation ruins were left untouched and now had wild grass and flowers growing across them creating a meadow overlooking the Citadel.

Hue has some pretty amazing food. We spent our days there feasting on pork mince skewered by stalks of lemongrass, grilled pork mixed with vermicelli noodles accompanied with satay sauce and different styles of rice cakes. There were sticky rice cakes in banana leaves topped with shrimp paste or rice cake covered with shrimp and pork crackling drizzled with fish sauce. YUM!

While we were out walking looking for a place to have a drink we spied a handwritten sign advertising local beer for 10,000 dong. We peered down the alley and noticed a little cafe with tables out in the street so we decided to give it a go and up we went. The cafe is called “Corner” (21 Pham Ngu Lao Street, Hue) and once you walk in, you are welcomed by the friendly and bubbly Quynh Chi who runs the place. She immediately sat us down at a table and asked if we were hungry and wanted any food. Once we assured her we had already eaten we asked for some beer. Straight away two cold, delicious Hudas were delivered to our table. Throughout the night, Quynh Chi brought us plates of peanuts and toasted seeds which later turned out to be from a watermelon and continually asked if we needed anything. She even dragged the family fan out to our table in the alley! Towards the end of the night, we invited Quynh Chi to sit down with us so we could get to know her. By this stage, some of the neighbours in the alley had come out of their houses, to set up alters for Buddha that offered masses of food, drink and paper money to burn. As we watched the ceremony take place some of the ladies began offering us food from Buddha’s shrine. Immediately we said no as we didn’t think it was appropriate to eat Buddha’s food?! Surely that is a big no no. However they persisted and soon we were treated to baby corn rice soup, mangosteins and lychees.

In return for Quynh Chi’s hospitality and to add to her growing English vocabularly,we tried to teach some Aussie phrases, for example “Cheers”. Unfortunately we think the pronounciation was lost somewhere in translation as we tried to mime that “cheers” should sound like “ears”, (pointing to our ears) Quynh Chi now grabs her ears everytime she yells “cheese!”.

Quynh Chi and her husband run a great little cafe and if you are in Hue you should definitely stop by a cheap, cold beer and a great experience! We spent two enjoyable afternoons there and definitely feel better for it.

The next day we organised through the Jade Hotel for a motorbike tour to take us around to some of the local tourist sights that are a bit hard to get to on foot. We visited the Khai Dinh Tomb, Thien Mu Pagoda, the Temple of Heaven and the Tu Duc tomb which was probably our favourite. The day was fantastic and we were really thankful to the Jade staff for taking time off work to show us around! It made me realise how much I had missed being on the back of a motorbike, definitely the best way to see Vietnam!

Now, we are off to one of our final destinations in Vietnam; Hanoi. It’s hard to believe that we are almost finished with this leg of the trip. As we are a bit precious and we couldn’t get the sleepers that we wanted on the train, we have decided to fly for only $10 more and 11 hours faster!

Let the craziness of the capital begin!

Staying: Jade Hotel. Absolutely fantastic with some of the sweetest staff we have met. The rooms were fantastic and the price was right.

Getting there: Bus from Hoi An. The trip was around 4 hours including a 15 minute trip through a tunnel, unpleasant for myself due to a fear of tunnels directly caused by the movie Daylight (thank you Mum – an avid Stallone fan).

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Before Hue: Hoi An.