After nearly 14 hours on the train (we had some delays) we finally arrived in Hue, in the middle of a tropical storm.! The heavens literally opened up as the train was pulling into the station. And yet it was not cold, just wet. In the 30 seconds it took us to get off the train, under shelter and then from the station to the hotel van, we all got quite soaked.
However, once we got to the hotel, the rain had stopped and the streets were drying up quickly. We dropped off our bags and headed into Hue to explore and find some lunch.
Our walk took us along the river and then into the old Imperial city. Hue was the former imperial capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen Dynasty, the last dynasty in Vietnam from 1802 to 1945 with 13 Emperors. The first one, Emperor Gia Long, who recaptured the Hue Imperial Capital and unified the Vietnamese monarchy, to the last one, King Bai Dai, who abdicated with the Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. When Emperor Gia Long recaptured Hue, he ordered the construction of the Palace, and as he admired the Chinese's statecraft, he based the Palace complex to be based on Beijing's Forbidden City to become the Purple Forbidden City.
Unfortunately a lot of the Palace was damaged during the Vietnam war with only 10 major buildings remaining out of 160 from the war. However it is great to see that the existing building are starting to be restored, as much of it is in disrepair. What was really interesting was looking at the old pictures they had on display as they showed the opulence of a by-gone era.
As a treat we took a couple of cyclo's (tricycle taxis) back to the hotel, after some serious negotiation! It turned out to be less of a treat but more of a series of heart attacks, as the drivers seem to be of the opinion that traffic lights are optional... This made for some "close your eyes shut tight and hope to get through the 4 lane intersection alive" moments.
At the hotel we checked in, and of course the girls went off to test out the swimming pool. After a long swimming session, the girls finished off their schooling for the day and we headed out to dinner. Its going to be an early night tonight as nobody had a particularly good night's sleep (the beds were harder than the Japanese futons) and tomorrow is a long day on a cycling tour!
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