We were met by a wonderful Vietnamese guide called Binh. Throughout our journey to the hotel she never stopped smiling or chatting. She was a font of local knowledge a real Vietnamese gem. We were easily persuaded to have her as a guide around the sights of Hue.
We started our sightseeing with a boat trip on the Perfume river down to the Thien Mu Pagoda. The family who ran the boat charged us $4 for the trip. Then twice on the relatively short river journey the 15 year old boat boy had to stop by an 'unofficial' police check to handover some cash. Pure corruption. The money was secretly placed in a log book and handed over for checking, while the police officer hid from site inside the cabin of his boat. We decided it was not too wise to take a photo at this stage!
Thien Mu Pagoda was built in 1601 and had a beautiful 7 tiered tower in the front area. Each of these tiers, according to Budhism, being dedicated to one of the human forms taken by Budha.
This is also a working monastery and we met His Most Reverend the senior monk. Monks start as young as 8 so he was delighted to meet Murray and hijacked him into his gang at one stage. Murray really did not want to stay with him any longer than necessary and quickly made his way over to be very close to his parents for the rest of the day!
We then headed into the Citadel and Imperial City. This was the area reserved only for the king until very recently in only 1970? It comprises of a square 2km long, 7m high wall built by the emperor in 1804. It comprises of 3 walled enclosures where he carried out his business meetings and the inner area where he lived with his 120 concubines and family. It is really like Beijing's Forbidden City.
This was a real cultural day as our smiley friend Binh then led us to two Emperors tombs in the area. The 1st was Khai Dinh's tomb. Followed by Tu Duc's who died in 1883. Perhaps he was still a little upset as when we arrived at this tomb area the heavens opened and the rain poured down. We enjoyed this visit in bare feet and rolled up trousers!
The rain did not stop the family ending the day in the pool at the hotel!
Shona
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
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