I did a day tour of Hue, about 100km north of Hoi An. Hue was the capital of Vietnam and the home of the emperors until the country was taken over by the French, and it known for the buildings from that time.
The tour was in a van that held about a dozen people. I met a nice older couple from Malaysia. There was also a Vietnamese family and a couple of girls from China. Most of them were staying in Danang, so I was the first to get picked up in Hoi An, and it took over an hour and a half before we were really on our way. I had views of the big port city of Danang.
After leaving Danang we took the winding road up the neighbouring mountain. (On the way back we took the long tunnel that goes right through the whole mountain.) This gave us great views. At the top of the pass we stopped at the Hai Van gate, which was built by the Americans during the war to separate North from South.
A couple of more hours of driving and we reached Hue. After lunch we visited our first site. This was the tomb of the last emperor of Vietnam. It is amazingly elaborate, both iside and out.
At the first level outside, there are rows of statues of soldiers and scholars, as symbols of following the emperor into the beyond.
Afterwards we went back to the van, tired from the walking and the heat. Long drive back to Hoi An.
The tour was in a van that held about a dozen people. I met a nice older couple from Malaysia. There was also a Vietnamese family and a couple of girls from China. Most of them were staying in Danang, so I was the first to get picked up in Hoi An, and it took over an hour and a half before we were really on our way. I had views of the big port city of Danang.
After leaving Danang we took the winding road up the neighbouring mountain. (On the way back we took the long tunnel that goes right through the whole mountain.) This gave us great views. At the top of the pass we stopped at the Hai Van gate, which was built by the Americans during the war to separate North from South.
A couple of more hours of driving and we reached Hue. After lunch we visited our first site. This was the tomb of the last emperor of Vietnam. It is amazingly elaborate, both iside and out.
At the first level outside, there are rows of statues of soldiers and scholars, as symbols of following the emperor into the beyond.
The next stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda, which was an important religious site at the time of the emperors. There is a beautiful garden behind the pagoda, and an active temple with many people worshiping.
Our last stop was the biggest one: the imperial palace of the emperor. The grounds are huge and it is still being restored. The design is very elaborate in the classical Chinese way.
We learned some things like: buildings with yellow-tiled rooms were for the emperor, while buildings with green-tiled rooms were for the queen and concubines, etc.
The emperor had his own study room:
Afterwards we went back to the van, tired from the walking and the heat. Long drive back to Hoi An.
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