Huế (pron. hway) is situated in central Vietnam on the banks of the perfume river and is steeped in historical interest. The city was the nations capital from 1802-1945 when it was the seat of Nguyen Dynasty. A major attraction is the old Citadel and its thick stone walls which is surrounded by a lily pad filled moat. Attractions inside include the Imperial City with it’s palaces and shrines, the Forbidden Purple City which was once the home of the Royal family and was situated in the inner sanctum of the citadel, and the replica of the Royal Theatre. There are also myriad emperors tombs to visit in and around the city.

During the American war the U.S. Army and their South Vietnamese allies held Huế and would launch strikes against the North Vietnamese Army from the airbase. The citadel largely got destroyed during this war.

Our Visit

After a very relaxing night in the Alba Spa Hotel we were fully chilled out from the prior days riding. We had a very lazy morning and caught up on world news before packing up and checking out at midday. We then headed on to our new accomodation for the next five nights, Hong Thien 1 Hotel. It was very short ride to the new hotel but it took us a bit of time to find it as it’s hidden down a side alley so there was a lot of riding up and down the same stretch of road.

We had two rooms booked; one for us and the second for our friends Andy and Janice who flew over from Edinburgh for a holiday – woohoo! We settled into our room and had a chilled afternoon by the outdoor pool. That evening Andy and Janice’s taxi arrived from the airport and after settling in, we all headed straight out for dinner and drinks and a catch up – the rest of our first night was spent chatting away, eating delicious food and drinking the great local draft beer.

Citadel

The next day after pool time and a lovely Mexican lunch, we decided to brave the heat and take a short 30 minute walk over to the Citadel – it wasn’t long before the strong sun was making us weary and so before entering we had a rest and cool drink underneath the shade of the large trees lining the outside of the Citadel.

After our rest we proceeded into the grounds (tickets VN $150,000) and saw the large gated stone entrance and some large ponds filled with lily pads with colourful carp swimming around. We walked towards the largest building in the Citadel which had a display set up of how the room would have looked in the 1800’s, in the next room there was a video set up where we could sit and learn about the history of the site. We walked around the grounds and into another longer building which had displays of traditional wooden carved manuscripts and various exhibits. While a very hot day, we braved the sun some more and walked around the gardens beautiful flower beds and pagodas.

As we walked around the Citadel we could see lots of restoration work and new replica structures being built as sadly the Citadel didn’t escape the artillery of the war and it was under heavy fire around the time of the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive. Currently large parts of the citadel are missing or simply rubble, of the 160+ buildings that once stood in the grounds less than a handful have survived to this day.

It’s still possible to get a sense of what the citadel once was by looking at the old maps and model displays but you are essentially staring at a few beautiful buildings and a lot of rubble.

DMZ Guided Tour

We all decided we’d like to learn a little more about the area and so we booked a guided tour with Stop & Go Travel, which would take us by private car from Hue up to the demilitarised zone; DMZ. Our tour guide was a man named Vinh who served for the South Vietnamese Army and also the U.S. Army during the U.S. War – a fact he was very proud of, he even brought out his army medal and certificate to prove it! On the tour we visited the following locations, in no particular order:

1. Highway of Horror: May 1972 saw thousands of innocent southern vietnamese killed on the number 1 highway by artillery and infantry weapons over several hours of shooting, there is now a small shrine in memory to these lost lives on the side of the highway. We walked around graves, some still unmarked to this day, others were family graves – we saw one where nine members of the same family all passed away during the shooting. If the guide didn’t take us to this spot you would miss it, it’s a very understated patch of land, there is no grand land mark in commemoration to this horror.
2. Long Hung Church: The Catholic church was caught in the 1972 battle between the north and south which lasted for 81 days and nights – it was destroyed and remains untouched since the battle, to remind the town of the atrocities of war.
3. Ben Hai River / Hien Luong Bridge of DMZ: This is the area around the former border between North and South Vietnam. The U.N. also had their office located on the southern side of the bridge. The bridge is still painted in blue on the north Vietnamese side, and yellow on the south side, marking the divide.
4. Vinh Moc Tunnels: These tunnels were built to shelter people from the intense bombing of Quang Tri Province in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. We walked through the three layers of tunnels going 15 metres underground in parts, we could see where the families lived; 17 babies were born in the tunnels during their use.
5. Graveyard: Our last stop was a graveyard where we stopped and reflected at the sea of unknown soldier burials and the very young ages of the soldiers in the marked graves.

Graveyard

Catholic Church

The tour lasted all day and left for a very memorable experience, it comes highly recommended.

Crazy supermarket times!

We all know there is an element of the crazy when riding a motorbike around Vietnam, Andy and Janice got to witness firsthand the mayhem that a simple trip to a supermarket can entail. After returning from the DMZ tour we decided to take a quick ride to the local supermarket and pick up some essentials. Riding at night was a little busy but upon approaching the supermarket we were directed to an underground car park which was a sea of bikes, we were essentially caught up in a fast moving biking riptide and got spat out into a parking spot – nerves a little frayed! We hopped off the bikes to find the owners of the sea of bikes were all inside the supermarket, all a little hyped up and pushing past one another, oh my! Nevertheless we gave as good as we got, eventually managing to purchase a swag of goodies, exit the supermarket and surf out of the carpark (stress!). Mission accomplished, let’s go for a drink!!

Abandoned Safari Park

We decided we’d spend a bit of time touring around the area on our bikes – Eddie and Janice on one bike, Tracey and Andy on the other. We had a pleasant day visiting/passing by memorials and tombs.

We then decided to go off road a little and made our way to what we thought was national park – it turned out to be an abandoned safari park! We rode around through the paths that were in disrepair and stopped for a snack, there was a real Dungeons & Dragons (cartoon) vibe to it!

In the centre of the park was a huge lake that had dried up, in the centre of the lake was a giant dragon island with a bridge so we walked over to it – there were stairs inside so we walked up and after a few flights we found ourself in the dragons mouth looking out at the park, how bizarre!

In the dragons mouth!

It took a bit of hunting around but eventually Eddie found an article about the park – it turns out it was built in 2003 and shut down shortly afterwards due to lack of profitability. They emptied the park except for the crocodile enclosure – the crocs were abandoned and remained there until 2015 when they were properly homed… During the abandoned years, kind locals would come and feed them – again, how bizarre!

Awesome Mechanic

Kim Thien mechanics deserves a shout out as being the kindest, jolliest mechanic around! Before our ride around the city we got our bikes serviced and the oil changed – the owner, Kim, did a very thorough job, the price was lower than expected and he also loved to chat to make friends. We were sat in his garage for at least an hour while he was working on the bikes, during which time we met a lot of his family, the time flew by. What a nice man.

Final thoughts

Aside from the historic layer that Huế offered us, we also found that the food was to a very high standard and bars were a lot of fun. Our hotel had a small but fun outdoor pool, so between pool time, history lessons and some really delicious meals (and some serious drinking time!) we had a blast! Of course, it was also probably (definitely) the amazing company we had too…

Cook your own BBQ, delicious!