To Hué and then Away

Can Tho, Thursday, January 16, 2025--We hadn't had good weather till now, mostly cloudy, but we left on Tuesday morning for Hué, the old imperial capital, and the weather decided to turn quite nasty.  It got colder and began to mist and then on Wednesday the heavens decided to open.  Ben had come down with a norovirus that kept him slow and inactive--John caught it yesterday and is over it too.  But though it was raining most of the time, the visit to Hué was fascinating.

The town of about 1,000,000 was the capital from about 1800 to 1945 during the Nguyen (pron:  Win) dynasty.  The last emperor to live there in his French chateau style palace was Bao Dai.  He abdicated in 1955, after the capital had moved to Hanoi.  The city is a bastian of forts and palaces with extensive walls.  Hué also has French style grand boulevards and has a more sophisticated air than Hanoi or Danang.

We walked extensively through the old Imperial citadel, palaces and walls, moats and dragons.  By then it was misting.  We both had our own rickshaws back to the hotel.

Wednesday, the heavens opened and it poured during the time we had to visit a huge pagoda and then the tomb of Minh Mang.  This is a magnificent set of structures, with his mausoleum.  No one has found his body, though; much like a pharaoh it is hidden.

John took a boat ride down the Perfume River before heading back into the city.  He passed on visits to other tombs.  Part of the evening was a music concert with traditional instruments which the small chamber group used to play Happy Birthday!

This morning we got up very early (5 AM) to catch a plane to Saigon and then a three hour bus ride to Can Tho, in the Mekong delta.  It's an old French hotel from colonial days, very pretty.