Hille and Lii's Travel Page: Hue

For some time now in Vietnam we've been tourists as opposed to travellers. Not by choice, but its extremely difficult in a country where in a lot of places tourism is the sole business for locals and where everything that can be organized for tourists is organized. Group travel in buses, travelling with a crowd, usually in a hurry, stopping here and there for a picture- oh well... Huge differences between prices for locals and foreigners, and a lot of desperate people on the tourist spots trying to sell you everything they can. Life is hard here, and we feel very sorry for that, yet we also feel sorry for the neglect of all other traditional business in favour of the lucrative business of tourism, which everybody, especially the younger folk here want to do. Hopefully things will balance themselves out in the future. Hopefully the Vietnamese are not abandoning the very thing, their wonderful and rich culture, that the visitors come here to see.

So we have been touring the city of Hue for a few days, the city where the emperors used to live, rule from and be buried. The buildings are a mix of Chinese and French influence, we saw the most famous Buddhist pagoda in Vietnam, which we enjoyed, and we spent half an hour on the boat cruising the Perfume river, sadly polluted at the moment from the recent typhoon. The main thing we will remember of Hue- the overwhelming and beautiful silence of the deserted old citadel, the residence of many emperors of the past.

Lii lisab:
Hue linnas kaisime 'Old Citadel'-is, kus elasid kunagi Vietnami keisrid ning sealhulgas kulastasime kuulsat 'Forbidden Purple City-t', millest tanaseks on jargi ainult rohumaa.
Bussireis sisaldas endas ka mitme keisri -Minh Mang ja Khai Dinh- hauakambri kulastust. Molemad hauakambrid olid vaga suursugused, kuigi ulesehituselt erinevad.
Kaisime ka budistide Thien Mu Pagodas.