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Hoi An , Vietnam Unfortunately the North Vietnamese Troops occupied the Citadel in 1968 for 30 days and there was heavy bombing by the US - so a lot of the buildings were destroyed. The Citadel was only built in 1804 although it looks hundreds of years older than that. It is surrounded by 10 km of walls which are 6 metres high and 20 metres thick - with all this it was still attacked twice! Then we got on the bus at 5 pm (rush hour) back to the hotel and had dinner in the Garden Courtyard and listened to a Vietnamese 8 piece orchestra playing traditional music.
On Saturday 2 April, after the best breakfast we have had on this trip, we boarded the bus at 8.30 for the dragon boat trip to the Thien Mu Pagoda. This area wasdeveloped in 1601 and is called the Heavenly Lady Pagoda according to old folk lore, some old lady said that a good man would build a pagoda here and he would become king. So a man heard about this and built the pagoda and guess what - he became king - as you do.... This Pagoda is in a beautiful setting on the river and it is also where a monk drove his car from in 1962 to Saigon and immolated himself in the street to highlight the treatment of Buddhists at that time, as the leader was a catholic. His car is now preserved behind the Pagoda. Then off again on the dragon boat to Minh Mang's tomb, the second emperor of the Nguyen (Nwen) dynasty. He had 1200 wives, minor wives and concubines and 112 children. He had a special wine made to give him 'strength'!!! Locals call it 'rocket fuel'. Minh Mang is buried under a hill surrounded by 2 lotus ponds on either side and all the buildings are in a straight line and the whole complex covers 20 hectares. He ruled from 1820-1840 and his tomb was completed in 1843 and he is considered the greatest of the emperors. We noticed on this dragon boat that the family actually live on it - it is just a flat bottomed boat like a houseboat with 2 small rooms out the back. We then came back to town for lunch before going out to the tombs of Khai Dinh and Tu Duc. Emperor Khai Dinh ruled from 1916-1925 and his tomb was built between 1920 and 1931 and the French influence is very much evident in his tomb.
The approach again is up several flights of steps, whichhave fierce looking dragons on either side. Then onto courtyards with statues of the mandarin generals, horses and elephants. The interior of the mausoleum is very different from all the rest as it is covered completely in porcelain and glass mosaic and the tomb itself is topped bya gilt statue of Khai Dinh. It is absolutely twinkling with the mosaic tiles in the designs of flowers and birds. It is not liked by the Vietnamese people because it is too 'European' and I doubt if many Europeans would go for it either. We then went onto the tomb of Tu Duc who ruled from 1848-1883 – the longest reign. It was built long before he died as he wanted to get away from the Court and write poetry and he lived there most of the time. There are 50 structures inside the walls with the usual lotus ponds and lakes. We saw a man in the lake collecting snails from the muddy bottom. We went down to the pavilion built over the water on stilts where the Emperor used to write poetry. It overlooks an island where squirrels anddeer were hunted by him in his boat with a bow and arrow.
He used to have his concubines collect dew from the lotus flower leaves in the early morning to make his tea.We then continued through to the burial site but his remains are not there. During the French occupations some soldiers raided the site looking for jewels, not only did they not find any jewels, but no body either. To this day no one knows where his remains were buried. He was not a popular ruler and probably thought his enemies would dig him up. Even though Tu Duc had 500 wives and concubines he had no children, Minh said probably due to smallpox as a child, but Ross seems to think he wasn't interested in women.... Hue probably because it was the former capital has more French style buildings and the fascinating Citadel, lavish Imperial Tombs and Pagodas which all make for a quite different city to the others seen on our trip. The people seem the same though to me - very hard working and lots of hawkers in the streets. On the dragon boat we went past a fishing fleet of hundreds of boats where the whole family live on the boat. Some have a floating 'extension' with the bikes and dog on it. They also dredge the river for gravel which they sell to the local cement company. This is all done by hard physical work - no machinery.
Hue has experienced many occupations - Chinese, Japanese, French and Americans. Outside the city the countryside is lush and green with lots of rice, corn and vegetables growing. Tonight we met at 7pm for our dinner experience. Ross didn't say much and we walked about 300 metres where we boarded a dragon boat. They then produced all these most elaborate costumes for us to wear and we sat down to an Imperial style dinner of 7 courses (which we all couldn't eat) and went on a cruise on the Perfume River. It was a fabulous night and we all enjoyed it - lots of photos taken. We were entertained by a 6 piece group playing traditional music and singing. We bought the CD just to help themout. Tomorrow afternoon we depart Hue to fly to Hanoi and more great experiences. Better go now as it is 11pm and I need my beauty sleep..... |
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