Hue, the imperial capital of Vietnam under the Nyguan emperors

The weather is a bit nicer here in Hue. It's warm/a bit cool and humid and cloudy. We took a day tour, for 130,000 VND about $6.50. In the morning we took a boat ride down the Perfume River to see the Vietnamese lifestyle along the river in a traditional home, then saw one an important old pagoda, Thien Mu Pagoda, and a small temple on the riverside. They gave us a basic lunch on the boat and in the afternoon we took a bus around to the Emperor's tombs and visited a home where they make the incense for the temples by hand.

Our tour guide was pretty interesting and told us a lot about traditional Vietnamese lifestyle.

Our first stop along the river was a traditional Vietnamese home. They're are always built facing south, because the Vietnamese are agriculturalist and they believe south is superior since it's warmer and it's easier to grow rice there. Also, the homes always have a screen in front to keep out the bad spirits. Behind the screen if the family has enough money they have a pool that also keeps out the bad spirits because they believe that the spirits will look in the pool and won't be able to see their reflection, because they aren't human so they don't have a reflection, and won't enter the house because they know they don't belong there. Many houses have a small mirror, instead of a reflecting pool, next to their front door for the same purpose.



The guide told us that Viet Nam means, Viet - the people and Nam - south, the people of the south. South is also the color red because of the heat, and yellow is the king's color because each direction has it's own color and the center color is yellow. So the 2 important colors of Vietnam are red and yellow. They are also the colors of the flag, but he said they gave a different meaning for red-yellow on the flag; red is the blood the people lost in fighting for their country and yellow is the color of the Vietnamese skin.

Our next stop was a Buddhist pagoda. I think it was really interesting because it was the same style as in China and everything was written in Chinese. Vietnam has a long history of influence from the Chinese. Our guide told us a few basic things about Buddhist philosophy. They believe that there are 3 relms, the human being the lowest reincarnates into an animal that then reincarnates into a Buddha. And it's a circle so the Buddha reincarnates back into a human. And the reason monks study and meditate is because they want to skip the animal stage and go straight to being a Buddha.

Along the river we passed some people digging up gravel from the bottom of the perfume river.






After lunch on the boat we went to 3 emperors' tombs. Micah and I only paid to go into the first one because we thought we didn't need to see 3 tombs. The one we went into was Tu Duc's tomb and I don't even remember anything the guide said about this emperor except that he holds the record for the most children, 105, and that he had 365 wives and concubines, one for each day of the year.



The second tomb that they stopped at that we didn't go into looked really nice from the outside. It was built on the side of the mountain, so you can see layers of the buildings going up the mountain. So we went around the side and walked up the hill next to it and peaked in. Good thing no one saw us up there, lol.

Hue is also known for is gastronomy so we splurged a little at this Vietnamese restaurant. (although it was still only $20 for dinner for 2). Spring rolls and beef soup to start. Then a fish and pineapple dish, mixed sweet and sour vegetables with mushrooms, and morning glory with garlic. Then for desert we had mixed fruit with flan. And everything was really good!



Some other yummy things we found is this steamed sticky rice pancakes and sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves with seafood...yes, I ate the seafood.