Friday, December 5, 2014

Hue- Food, Accommodation, Shopping and Moving Around

We stayed in Hue for 3 days 2 nights, visiting several places of interest such as the tombs of Nguyen emperors and the Citadel of Hue. These UNESCO heritage sites were really must visit places in Hue. To get around Hue, let us start with accommodation.

Accommodation
Finding a place to stay is easy, from high class expensive resorts beside Huong River to the small family-run guest houses between the streets, the choice is yours. However, we would recommend to stay somewhere within the boundary of four roads- Le Loi, Nguyen Chong Tru, Le Quy Don, and Hung Vuong. That is the area where many tourists gathered. Night market along the esplanade, eateries, shops, Truong Tien Bridge, and even the Citadel of Hue are within walking distance from that area.

We stayed in Holiday Diamond Hotel, which ranked high in Tripadvisor with a reason- outstanding service with only USD24 per room per night. We arrived late at around 6:15 pm.We were immediately served with welcoming drinks and fruits. The hotel staff explained briefly on the attractions in Hue and approximate fees for the tours before leading us to our room. The room was readied with high speed wifi, flat screen TV with satellite programs, safe box, wardrobe with hangers, coffee making facility, mini bar, water heater for bathroom, hair drier, and even fruit served everyday. We were surprised by very nice buffet breakfast with more than 30 items on the menu. By the way, if you wonder where can you get the best "bun-bo", the beef noodle of Hue in the city, our answer is- Holiday Diamond Hotel. However, the dish was not listed in the menu, so you might need to ask the waiter to prepare one for you.

Holiday Diamond is small, and located some 30 meters from the main Nguyen Cong Tru Street, which is not accessible by car. The location might bring some difficulty in case of raining, but the location itself promises quiet environment and a good night sleep. The staff were helpful, with a few of them could speak very good English. The stay at Holiday Diamond Hotel was a very good experience and we really learnt a lesson on how to "win by service". We would like to express our special gratitude to all the staff, especially Anna. She had helped us a lot in finding good deals for the local tour and recommending good local food around Hue.

The outlook of the hotel (upper left), which the front door leads to the lobby (upper right). Holiday Diamond Hotel is connected to the main street through a lane (lower right), where a sign of the hotel can be seen from the main road. This little lane was shared by two other hotels.

The room is big for two with cozy design (upper left). Coffee, tea, fruits, and drinking water were complementary (upper right). Local fruits were served as welcoming refreshment (lower left) and during the buffet breakfast.

Food
Hue offers various types of local food. Although eateries can be found at every corner of the area, not many of them serve nice local food. We tried as many as possible during our stay- pork rib rice, chicken rice, beef noodle, spring rolls, grilled minced pork on lemongrass stick, rice paper roll with BBQ pork, and many more.

Located at 28 Vo Thi Sau Street, Thanh Na Restaurant is just 5 minutes by foot from our hotel (upper left). It was a place where local people gathered (upper right). During our visit, we found that none of the staff could speak English. Luckily, the menu was prepared with simple translation. So, we could get what we want by pointing at the dishes on the menu. The price of chicken leg served with rice and vegetable was VND 55,000 (lower left), while pork was served with much cheaper at VND 30,000. Fried noodle with beef was served at VND 50,000. The taste, really delicious, especially when we were hungry. We took two meals (one dinner and one supper) at this restaurant during our stay in Hue.

We had a supper at Golden Rice Restaurant at 40 Pham Ngu Lao Street (upper left) with good atmosphere (upper right). The price for three fresh spring rolls with beef was VND 59,000 (lower left), and the "bun-bo" or rice noodle soup with beef and pork was served with VND 55,000. The food was average and a bit expensive. But the service was good- staff were attentive and could speak in simple English. The second floor of the restaurant was air-conditioned.

The eateries beside the roadside might not be the cheaper choice (upper left), if it is close to the Citadel of Hue (upper right). We spent our lunch time at a small eatery beside the citadel. The price, VND 50,000 for 4 spring rolls (lower left), VND 50,000 for vegetable and pork rice paper roll (Nem Lui Heo), and VND 70,000 for fried pork without rice.

The Hanh was located at a corner of Pho Duc Chinh. By foot, it was around 15 minutes away from our hotel.The restaurant offered delicious traditional food with relatively cheap price- 6 nen-lui (pork with lemongrass stick) with VND 60,000 (upper left), fried and fresh spring rolls (upper and lower right) with VND 40,000 respectively, and ban cuon (rice paper roll it yourself with vegetable and pork) with VND 30,000 for a portion of 4 person! Cheap, delicious, and highly recommended, but we need to do a little bit of walking to get there.

The Hanh is located at a corner, the street was quiet.

Must try food in Hue- Rice paper roll. We can wrap it, roll it, fold it, or in anyway we like, with pork, beef, or simply vegetable. Next is bun bo, or the beef noodle. If you are a big fan of Hanoi's beef noodle, then you may want to try this- the taste, a bit more spicy and sour compared to the one that we tried in Hanoi. Nen-lui is special, but the taste was nothing extraordinary, while we prefer Hanoi's spring roll than the one in Hue. Overall, the food in Hue was good, but the price was not as cheap as we thought.
Shopping
What to buy in Hue? Many will tell that we can buy silk, bamboo works, and wooden items there. Incense made by natural woods can be purchased as well. If you like one of these thing- bamboo hat, bamboo fan, wooden carved items, or clothes made by silk, then Hue is a place for you. For us, we are not interested in any of them. But we did get some souvenirs with bargained price.

Night market beside Truong Tien Bridge was the only night market at Hue. Locals went there to get what they need, so the price of the items were expected to be cheap. Please do bargain "extensively", starting from 1/3 of the price, or even 1/5 of the original price. It would then end up with a deal somewhere around half of the original price. The clothes, food, fruits, and some other items were marked with very attractive prices, but most of them had no price tags on them. We learnt from others that we should insist to pay in Dong. Paying in USD gives a sign of "we are rich" and will close the door of bargaining.

Items available at the market. Some music instruments were sold too.

The incense and bamboo work factory was not attractive, at least for the one that we had visited on our way to Tu Duc's tomb. The items were much expensive than what we found in Dong Ba Market.

Dong Ba Market is located at Tran Hung Dao, some 3 minutes from Truong Tien Bridge. It is one of the oldest market in Hue (upper left). We could find local fruits (upper right), local bamboo work (lower left), groceries, and many others there. Again, when we asked for price, the offer would always be in USD. When we said that we would pay in Dong, the price immediately went down by 20%. When we asked for a discount, then the prices went down further by 70%. It was the offer we got for one of the silk product.

Food stalls at Dong Ba Market (upper left), groceries (upper right), gold products (lower right), and red prawns sold in Dong Ba.

Dong Ba is not a big market. It was not a pleasant place- poor ventilation, squeezy and humid. So, if you don't like to go to wet market, then Dong Ba may not be a place for you.

Truong Tien Plaza is just beside Dong Ba Market (upper left), fully air conditioned, with a supermarket (upper right) and a fast food outlet (lower left) at ground floor, and a food court and departmental store at the second floor.

Transportation
The best way to go to Hue from Da Nang International Airport is by taxi. The taxi ticket counter was located in the airport arrival hall, and the price was fixed at VND1.15 million per trip for 5 seaters sedan (approximately USD55). Of course, we have to pay more if we wish to use Hai Van Pass, as we shared in our previous post.

Many hotel and tour operators were waiting for their customers outside of the arrival hall (upper left), with the taxi station located at the same level (upper right). The check in counters (lower left) and the departure hall of the airport was clean with modern look.

The standard taxi fares from Danang International Airport to Ba Na, Hoi An, Lang Co Bay, My Son, and Hue were shown in the airport.

Bicycle and motorbike can be rented on daily basis in Hue, with quite a low price.  Riding on our own can be economical, but only if you can adapt to the Vietnam style of driving. You can visit Wikitravel for more information on the transportation in Hue. For us, we used rented car with driver for a one-day trip, from 9 am to 5 pm, with USD45 on our second day in Hue to visit the emperors' tombs and the citadel of Hue. The metered taxi could be a good option for short trips around the tourism area, with the fee calculated in Dong. 

Street
From our hotel at Nguyen Cong Tru Street we had walked around the main tourism streets- Le Loi, Vo Thi Sau, Ben Nghe and places in vicinity. The street was safe both during the day and night. However, we need to be careful about the traffic. Most of the people in Hue follow the traffic lights, but we still need to follow the "Vietnam rules" as in Hanoi and Danang. Electric powered bicycles could be the "deadliest", as these silent vehicles moved very fast without any noise.

Hue in day time (upper row). Some streets can be very quiet, while others can be very busy. The streets at tourism area are basically closed to the traffic (lower left). The night life area was concentrated around Le Loi Street, Doi Chun, Pham Ngu Lao Street, Vo Thi Sau Street and places in vicinity.

One thing that we need to keep in mind- watch out for the incoming traffic (upper left). Locals with their daily activities around the market area (upper right and lower right). The electric powered bicycle was very popular around hue.

Most of the people in Hue could not understand English. Their body language was not as good as what we could find in the night market of Bangkok, or the hawkers in Hanoi. A map is important, but not a must.

After staying in Hue for 3 days, we continued our trip to My Son, Hoi An, and Danang. Follow us now for more updates.

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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Imperial City of Hue and Museum of Royal Fine Arts

Imperial City of Hue was built in 1802 by Emperor Gia Long and completed by his son, Minh Mang in 1833. The city was the residence of the emperors till 1945. The Imperial City of Hue is 2.5 km long and 2.5 km wide with three circles of defensive walls. The outermost circle of wall is approximately 6 m high and 21 m thick with 10 entrances and 24 bastions. The second circle is the the Citadel of Hue (Kinh Thanh Hue), while at the center of the citadel houses the third circle- Forbidden Purple City.

Ngo Mon  (午门) which faces the south is the entrance for visitors. It is where the entrance ticket can be bought. The Hue Citadel with the a total area of 600 m x 600 m is a huge complex. A quick walk around the area might take about 1 - 2 hours. Entering Ngo Mon around 2:30 pm, we took more than 1 hour and 30 minutes to take just a glance inside the city. It was an exhausting trip since we had visited the emperors' tombs for the entire morning.

Ngo Mon leads to two lakes with a bridge in the middle, connecting Ngo Mon to Tai Ho Palace. The Forbidden Purple City was located behind the Tai Ho Palace. However, most of the Forbidden Purple City had been destroyed during the Battle of Hue in 1968. Surrounding the forbidden city are some of the remaining structures which have luckily spared by American bombers. Let us tour around with some of the photos in the city.

We entered the Imperial City of Hue through Ngan Gate. The bridge crossed over the moat allowed only one way traffic.

Flag tower opposite of Ngo Mon was built by Emperor Gia Long. The tower was fixed with eight cannons and two sentry boxes. The flag tower was not open to public during our visit. We saw a similar design at Thang Long Citadel in Hanoi too. Maybe building a flag tower opposite of citadel was favoured by Vietnamese emperors.

To our disappointment, Ngo Mon was under restoration during our visit.

The bridge that connects Ngo Mon to Tai Ho Palace (太和殿). Tai Ho Palace and Ngo Mon were the venues for official ceremonies.

These photos show the area behind Tai Ho Palace, which once the Forbidden Purple City.

Some of the corridors in the forbidden city have been rebuilt according to the original design of the palace (upper row). Private residence of the emperor's mother and grandmother are shown in lower row.

Beyond this gate lies Hung Mieu, The Mieu, and Hien Lam Pavilion. We had too little time and energy left to proceed beyond the gate. We stopped briefly at the Royal Theater, Trieu Mieu, and Thai Mieu on our way out through Hien Nhon Gate.

Royal Treasury is located opposite of Trieu Mieu and Thai Mieu. Both Trieu Mieu and Thai Mieu were under heavy restoration during our visit.

We officially left the citadel through Hien Nhon Gate at around 4 pm.

The moat and wall of citadel outside of Hien Nhon Gate.

This is the aerial map of Citadel of Hue. We entered through Ngo Mon, walked through Tai Ho Palace to the forbidden city, followed by the residence of the emperor's mother and grandmother. Then, we visited royal theatre before going out through Hien Nhon Gate on the right side of this map. A very detailed map is provided by justinbe.

The Citadel of Hue is huge. There were no food and drinks sold inside the citadel area during our visit, and most of the places were not covered. Bringing our own bottle of water and umbrella are important to keep us hydrated while keep us away from blazing sun or soaking rain. Comfortable footwear  is important to keep us going. Although the information provided on the site was simple, but it was enough for us to learn the background, some history, and the functions of the buildings. A very small map was provided on the backside of our entrance ticket. We found that the bigger map that provided by our hotel was a better one.

From Hien Nhon Gate, we took a five-minute walk to the Museum or Royal Fine Arts. It is a place where some of the items gathered from the citadel are displayed. The museum is not big, and the items were not very attractive as well. However, it does provide some picture about the life of the royal family.

The entrance fee of the museum was included in the ticket for the citadel. By the way, free shutter from the citadel to the museum was provided during our visit, while photo taking was not allowed in the museum. We have to leave our shoes outside, but we didn't lost any of ours.

The museum is just a small building. The ticket checking counter was empty during our visit, so literally anyone, with or without ticket could enter the museum.

Cannons displayed around the compound of the museum.

We spent around 30 minutes in the museum. We can't say the museum is a must visit place in Hue, but since we had paid for the entrance and it was located nearby the citadel, so spending half an hour in to visit the museum should not be a problem. Exhausted, we took a rest back in our hotel, before we went out to hunt for local delicacies for dinner. We will share more about our experience in Hue soon. Follow us now on Facebook for lastest update.

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Tombs of the Emperors and Thien Mu Pagoda in Hue

Second day in central Vietnam, we started to explore several emperors' tombs, Thien Mu Pagoda, and Imperial City of Hue (Hue Citadel). We started our tour at 8:30 am, visiting tombs of emperors- Tu Duc, Khai Dinh, and Minh Mang. Then, we visited Thien Mu Pagoda, followed by Imperial City of Hue (Hue Citadel) and the Royal Palace Museum.

We paid VND 40,000 per person for the entrance of the tombs, while VND105,000 per person for the Imperial City of Hue. The entrance of Tien Mu Pagoda was free.

The tour was arranged by our hotel at Hue. We paid USD50 a day for a brand new Mazda sedan and an English speaking driver. Our driver, Mr. Tien, was young, talkative and with "s" and "x" missing-in-action, for example "fast food" as "fat food", "excuse me" as "accuse me", and we took some times to get used to his English. However, he was informative.

Initially, we wish to add in more emperors' tombs into our itinerary, but Tien advised us not to do so. "Three tombs are more than enough," he said. He didn't mind to bring us to more places, only if there was time left. He was right. If you think of a tomb of two-times-eight square feet, then you will drop your jaw by seeing a tomb with an area larger than several football fields combined.

We took 30 minutes to arrive at Emperor Tu Duc's tomb (8 km from the City of Hue), with a 15 minutes stop at incense and hat making shops. We never had expected that we spent the next 120 minutes inside the tomb. Of course, the whole area is not just about a tomb, it served as a palace for the emperor as well. Emperor Tu Duc (嗣德), reigned an era with troubles (1847-1883), with his rebellious brother suicide in the prison (which people accused him as the murderer), the colonization of the country by French, and threats from dissatisfied mandarins had driven him to build a palace outside of the citadel, which later became his own tomb. The area consists of two major parts-  the ritual and the burial with up to 50 buildings.

The entrance of the tomb (or should consider as palace?).

Many shops selling food, beverages, and souvenirs were available opposite of the tomb (upper left), with the ticket counter located beside the entrance (upper right). A big lake is located in the middle of the area with all the buildings were built surrounding the lake (lower right). Brief information was available around the area, providing the key information to the visitors. 

The front part of the ritual area was in ruin (upper row). Only the temple dedicated to the concubines remained standing (lower row).

The second part of the ritual area was well-preserved with many buildings remained in good condition. Facing Minh-Khiem Hall (鸣谦堂), the building to the right is the Hoa Khiem Palace where the emperor met his officials, and to the left is the Luong-Khiem Palace (良谦殿) where the emperor lived. Minh-Khiem Hall served as a theater showing classical opera and performance for the emperor.

Inside of Luong-Khiem Palace (良谦殿).

The whole ritual area is decorated with extensive artworks. These works however are not exquisite.

The emperor's tomb is located next to the ritual area. Entering the tomb area, two rows of stone sculptures (upper left) can be seen lining up in front of the stele temple (upper right). The deepest part of the area is the location of the tomb (lower left). The stele was written completely with traditional Chinese characters.

The queen's tomb (the emperor's first wife) was located about a hundred meters away from the emperor's tomb. After her death in 1902, she was honoured together with the emperor in Hoa Khiem Palace (referred as Hoa Khiem Temple after the emperor's death).

The tomb area extended with the tomb of the emperor's adopted son- Emperor Kien Phuc. Emperor Kien Phuc became the emperor of Nguyen Dynastry after his brothers Duc-Duc and Hiep Hoa were deposed. All three Duc-Duc, Hiep Hua, and Kien Phuc ruled for a very short period of time. All of them were Emperor Tu Duc's adopted sons, as Tu Duc was unable to produce any child even had been granted with many wives.

Emperor Khai Dinh (啟定) ruled from 1916 - 1925 as the 12th and the last emperor of Nguyen Dynasty (some said Bao Dai was the last emperor). He died at at the age of 40 as an unpopular emperor, as he had raised the tax and worked closely with French. His relationship with French government can be seen from the collection of French-made items around his tomb. The tomb itself was an artwork combining the East and the West. Khai Dinh's tomb was close to Tu Duc's, located apart around 10 minutes by car. 

We thought that nothing would surprise us anymore after the visit to Tu Duc's tomb. We were wrong. The tomb is much smaller than Tu Duc's tomb, but it is really impressive in architecture wise. The sculptures and the decoration are fine, elaborate, and exquisite, especially in the temple that honouring the emperor. Through our reading, that lavish mausoleum was a monument that stood on the heavy tax on the people in the country.

Emperor Khai Dinh tomb is located on the outskirt of Hue, at the side of Chau Chu Mountain (upper left). Twelve sculptures (upper right) standing in front of the stele temple (lower right) at the second tier of the tomb area. The temple honouring the emperor is located on the top tier.

The temple of the emperor. It was lavishly decorated, from the floor to the ceiling.

The emperor lays below the sculpture of the emperor, which was constructed with the scale of 1 to 1. The walls are elaborately decorated with exquisite artworks.

The outside of the temple is finely decorated (upper left). Some of the gifts from French government (upper right) and photos (lower right) were displayed in the temple. There was a video corner showing the UNESCO World Heritage sites in Hue at a corner of the temple as well.

Emperor Minh Mang (明命) tomb is located 15 minutes away from Khai Dinh tomb, some 12 km away from Hue. Reigning from 1820 - 1841 as the second emperor of Nguyen Dynasty, Minh Mang imposed strict policy on European countries, but at the same time embraced Confucius ideology. He successfully secured the regions succeeded from his father by overpowering several groups of local rebellions.

Minh Mang Tomb is huge. Compares to the Tu Duc's, Minh Mang tomb was filled with natural beauty- lakes, trees, and flowers were blended well with the buildings. The tomb was quiet, and the swimming ducks and chirping birds caught our attentions once in a while. It is really a place where we should stay for a longer time, but we stayed for about 45 minutes only. Exhaustion and hunger had driven us to move faster to complete a round trip in the tomb area.

Two visitors were walking out of the tomb on our way in. We didn't meet another visitor for the next 30 minutes. The whole area was basically quiet, only filled with the sound of nature.

The stele temple (upper left) and the pavilion (upper right) of the tomb. The stone sculptures are located behind the stele temple. The temple honouring the emperor- Sung An Temple is located around 100 m away from the stele temple (lower right). Sung An Temple is flanked by four smaller structures. Then, we would have to go through a beautiful garden to reach Minh Lau Pavilion.

The interior of Sun An Temple.

The burial site of Minh Mang Emperor can be seen from Minh Lau Pavilion. The middle of the arch stated "正大光明" or "be above board".

This is a view from Minh Lau Pavilion towards Sung An Temple.

From our way back from Minh Mang Tomb to Hue, we stopped by Thien Mu Pagoda. We took around 15 minutes to travel from Minh Mang Tomb to the pagoda, which was located 4 km from Hue. Thien Mu (天姥) means celestial old woman in Chinese (some site wrongly translated it into celestial fairy lady). The pagoda had a humble start as a temple built by a Nguyen lord in early 1600, and was renovated and rebuilt from time to time.The seven storey pagoda was built by Emperor Thieu Tri in 1844. Standing 22 m tall, the pagoda was the highest religious building in Vietnam.  The pagoda is surrounded by a well-maintained garden with temple complex and monastery inside, which took us 45 minutes to walk around. The entrance to the pagoda was free during our visit.

The pillars of the front entrance of the pagoda. However, we were a bit disappointed that the pagoda was closed for visitor. It would definitely be great to see the scenery of Perfume River on the top level of the pagoda.

The temple complex beside the pagoda.

Perfume River doesn't look impressive from the ground level of pagoda .

The advices given by experienced travellers were right. We should not squeeze too many tombs in one single trip, unless we wished to rush through each of the tombs, paying VND40,000 entrance fee for each of the tombs, while just spending 30 minutes running around the compound. For us, we chose a few which were famous and representative- Minh Mang (the second emperor), Khai Dinh (the last emperor with his own lavish tomb), and Tu Duc (the emperor with many troubles that moved his palace away from the imperial city to his tomb), and took a close look at a more leisure pace.

There was no vendors selling food and beverages inside the compound of the tombs, except for Tu Duc Tomb. However, stalls selling drinks were available outside of the tombs. Souvenirs booths were available in all the tombs, with mostly books and coins on their selling racks. Most of the walking paths were covered with tiles as well. 

To visit the tombs, comfortable footwear, drinking water, and umbrella are necessary. Rain will drop anytime of the way. Tour guides are available with extra fee. For us, doing a little bit of reading is enough to learn about the background and the design of the tombs.

All the tombs consist a pavilion with sculptures, stele temple, a temple honouring the emperor, and the burial area. However, each tombs might have their unique characteristics- the temple honouring Tu Duc is converted from his old palace, which is a distance away from the burial area. These information can be easily obtained online.

The trip to 3 tombs and Thien Mu Pagoda took us nearly 5 hours. We took our lunch at Hue around 2 pm. We had our two more destinations to go- Imperial City of Hue (Hue Citadel) and the Royal Palace Museum. Follow us now.


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