18th and 19th July
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| Ride a White Swan! |
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| Ghostly figure seen at Thien Mu Pagoda |
We had a three day gap between Son Doong Tours and as we are nearing the end of our time here in Vietnam (and have only been to Hoi An, Ha Noi and Ha Long) we felt we ought to try to squeeze in a quick trip to Hue. It's only three hours on the train.
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| An old battlefield, a scrapyard or an army museum |
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| The walls of the imperial city |
Our plan was to catch the early 07:40 train (which departed nearly an hour late) which would give us the best part of the day in the city, two nights here (one more full day) and then the stupidly early 05:39 train back to Dong Hoi and so back to Phong Nha in time for our next Son Doong briefing.
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| Turtle Topiary |
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| That ghostly figure again, is it following us? |
As mentioned above, the train was late so we arrived at Hue station just before midday, and after facing the usual assault from the taxi drivers we walked into town along the banks of the Perfume River to find our hotel. Close to the hotel we found a curry shop so we stopped off for a bit of lunch. A bit turned into the usual curryfest and we left rather full.
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| Golden Dragon |
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| Tea anyone? |
After an afternoon snooze we wandered around the city, ending up at the citadel which was built during the early 19th C by the Emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty, all very impressive and if they ever finish rebuilding/restoration (it was badly beaten up during the American War) it will be awesome. On the way back we stopped off at the Lac Thanh for Banh Khoai, cheap and just the right portion size for not-so hungry people.
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| Dragon boat |
A lazy start the next day saw us having a 10 am breakfast at the Mandarin Cafe, for me it was the Bun Bo Hue (beef noodle soup, Hue style) and for Ruth it was the vegetarian equivalent. We used their booking service to book a boat trip up the Perfume River to visit the Thien Mu Pagoda, overall a pleasant little trip which filled nearly two hours.
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| Thien Mu Pagoda |
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| Does Death wear purple? |
The boat dropped us off near the citadel so we could visit the Hue Royal Antiquities Museum, a stunning building which houses some royal antiquities.
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| (Dragon) Boat Person |
Apart from the tombs, which would require a bit more time and planning to get to, that is Hue 'ticked' so we retired to our hotel for more R & R.
