🇻🇳 Hue

After 12 hours on the train from Ninh Binh, we finally arrived in Hue in the evening. It was a long day.. luckily we had a 4-bed sleeping compartment to ourselves. The beds were not as comfortable as it might sound. Communication on the train was also quite difficult! The vendors offering food can't speak English. Often the door to our compartment would just be opened and someone would shout in, 😄🙈 'Rice, Rice!' for example, and if you ask how much it costs, they would just hold the corresponding bill in front of your face 😂 Courtesy? Not found! There are toilets on the train, with toilet paper and the opportunity to wash your hands in the sink. The nature we pass through is sometimes beautiful. We can watch the people working in the rice fields and how they plow their fields with an ox, completely without mechanical help. 🌾

When we arrive at the train station in Hue in the evening, the taxi drivers are already waiting for us outside. Each one wants to take us to the hotel and they ask kindly where we want to go. We try to explain that we've just spent 12 hours on the train and that we want to walk now. Some look puzzled, ask again, but when they realize that we don't want to, they leave us alone.

After 25-30 minutes we arrive at the hotel. Here, too, they are always eager to ask what we want to do and where we want to go next. The Vietnamese are always keen to sell us tours or rides, as is often the case elsewhere. We politely thank them for the offer, but we would like to check into our room and go eat first. 😁

The next day, we want to visit the 'Imperial City' in Hue, a good 20 minutes' walk away from us.

The former imperial city charges admission and you can also get an audio guide (in our case, however, they are all sold out).

The Citadel of Hue was the former residence of the emperors of the Vietnamese Nguyên Dynasty in the former capital. The citadel contains an emperor's palace modeled after the Forbidden City in Beijing and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Source: Wikipedia). The historic imperial palace is in the center of the extensive walled complex of the Forbidden City. There is a lot to see, the complex is really large, beautiful, and we spend several hours there. The weather is once again gray and cloudy and relatively cool. We can still enjoy the down jackets from Ninh Binh here 😊

Not much else happens in Hue. We booked the next bus to Hoi An through 12GoAsia. It will be our first bus ride with reclining seats :) ⤵️