Arriving in Hue arround 10 am by train. In the train someone came to us with a proposal for a new hotel, and we arranged for a pickup from the station. It was the Thai Bihn Hotel. Quite luxureus, 12 dollar per room, two rooms. But we took it because it was very nice: HBO movie channel, internet, elevator, nice view from 5th floor, and we had a shared balcony. We had lunch on the river side of Hue, in The Tropical Garden Restaurant, and went for a round thru town, and had dinner in the Stop & Go cafe. A nice restaurant/cafe, run by an old man, that arranges tours aswel.
Hue is an old historical important town, one of Vietnams main cultural, religious and educational centre’s. For a long time the Nguyen dynasty ruled rom the Emperial enclosure in the old cittadel. Hue was also the site of the bloodiest battle of the 1968 Tet offensive during the American/Vietnam war. In 3 1/2 weeks 3000 civilians (monks, merchants, priests and intellectuals) were killed by the north vietnamese army. After that there was a 10 day bitter combat, during wich whole neighbourhoods were levelled by VC Rockets and US bombs. Therefore, there is not much left within the emperial enclosure.
The second day we went on a tour to the old DMZ (Demilitarised Zone), a zone 5 km asouth and north of the Ben Hai river, that served as e demarcation between north and south vietnam during the American war. There has been severe fighting there, as the VC was trying to get weapons to the south citys for the Tet offensife by using the Ho Chi Minh trail, that was therefore heavilly bombed by Americans using Agent Orange, a deforrestation bomb. We visited Khe Sanh base, where a famous and most controversial siege took place. The Americans where decived by the VC because they tought the VC was planning to take Khe Sanh base, while they were using it as a diversion for the Tet offensive, wich began a week after the Khe Sanh siege.
We also visited the Vinh Moc tunnels, a 2,8 km long complex, reaching up to 26m below ground. After 18 months of work, whole families lived here for three years, and 17 babies were born in the underground delivery room. After visiting some more sites (not much left of it, on one only one tank, and ‘Rockpile Mountain was no more..) we went back to Hue.
We had dinner again in The Tropical Garden Restaurant.
The next day, 7th of november, we rented a moto, and drove off to visit some of the surrounding Royal Tombs of the Nguyen Dynasty Rulers. We visited Thien Mu pagoda. It was from here that the monk Tich Quang Duc travelled to Saigon for his self-immolation and burned himself to death to protest to the policies of president Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. A famous photograph was on the front page of news papers arround the world.
After visiting a few other tombs and pagodas we passed a incense making stall, and tried to make some ourself, to some succes. At sunset, 6 o’clock, we drove back to Hue (had i mentioned that driving a moto is like buying a lot in the lottery, they drive like crazy! But if you get the pace, it goes all very well). We had dinner in a fine restaurant, Mandarin Cafe, with personal service. The owner showed us some nice photographs he had shot himself, and we bought some postcards from him. After dinner we had a drink in a belgian run bar, and had a talk about Vietnam rules for bar owners, and some strange things in Vietnam. At midnight we went back to the hotel, the next morning our bus would leave at 14.00 to Hoi An!
The last day in Hue we went to the postoffice to look at some news on the internet, had lunch a then our bus left to take us to Hoi An.