I don't know what kind of travelers are in Vietnam, but after some of the transportation that Pallavi and I have taken, I'd say they are transportation pansies! We have had it with travelling through mountains. If we even hear 'mountain road,' we are looking for an alternative. That's why we didn't go and see the hill tribes in Vietnam. No more mountain roads! Well, that and overnight buses. I don't know why we are doing it to ourselves. Neither of us ever sleeps very well. We arrive at odd times in the morning. We end up spending the whole next day sleeping at wherever we are. Oh, and we are super crabby. You can only imagine the pleasantries or cold shouldered silence that occur after repetitive crabby, can't find the accommodation, why is it so far of a walk, where the hell is my coffee, god that bus was awful experiences.
You can then understand our hesitation when, after lots of research and deciding to book our 15 hour bus to Hue, we saw all of the reviews about transportation by road, and specifically, transportation by the bus we had booked. If they were newspaper headlines, they'd read like this: "Danger ahead!" "Bus overcrowds and overbooks." "Don't say I didn't tell you so." "Never travel by road in Vietnam." And so on.
I'd like to say that these people have no idea what they are talking about! We slept on the bus. Slept! For more than an hour. The bus had two drivers, so they weren't driving all night. The road was flat as a pancake and with minimum curves or traffic. The bus was a bit overcrowded, but nothing like we've seen. These people are backpacking pansies!
We arrived in Hue (pronounced ha-weigh), dare I say, bright eyed and bushy tailed! We made it to our accommodation, run by this incredibly lovely limited-English speaking Vietnamese woman. We had made it south of the DMZ and we could tell! Finally, a friendly Vietnam. Everybody here was so incredibly helpful. Bicycle rickshaw drivers all helped us find our accommodation. They smile even when you say 'no thank you.' It almost makes you want to just buy from them anyway!
Hue is a lovely town. It is a historic city with a 200 year old fortress square in the middle of it. 200 years ago, the Nguyen emperors decided they were going to make this their seat of power and build a kick ass fort. So they did. They build moat after moat after moat. Lake after lake after man-made lake. Then they build a palace with lots of layers and, to make it even better, called it 'The Forbidden Purple City.' If I was going to declare myself empress of Sarahtavia, I think I shall copy their style. I obviously have to also have a forbidden area. I guess 'No non-Empress Sarahs allowed' isn't cool enough. Only I've gotta top it off with some sort of nasty creature with a gentle soul in the moat.
Unfortunately, in the American-Vietnam conflict, this place gotta pretty badly destroyed. Only 10 of the 60 original buildings have been restored. If the restoration is any indication, you can only imagine how amazing this place actually was. Pallavi couldn't stop taking pictures. To give you a feel for the scale, the place is 2 square kilometers big. It looks like nothing we've ever seen.
To top it off, the people then use the palace grounds as their own personal park. Kites and roller blade rentals, hacky-sack players, and badminton and cricket matches replace tourists and photographers. Every water body has some sort of fisherman on it. Then you pass over the Perfume River, with its gorgeous mountain backdrop, and you just want to sit and lose yourself in the view for just a moment.
This city is more our speed. We found the local coffee place where they serve the coffee to you in a cup over a tealight so you can heat it to your preference. We tried all sorts of new and interesting versions of rice noodles (did you know you could fry them like a pancake or turn them into a dumpling)? Well, you can! It was an absolutely lovely, easy, captivating, and amazing city.
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