Hue was the capital of Vietnam for a while...I forget the exact dates, but it was mainly during the 19th century. The city is basically split into two parts: the old part which mainly consists of the Citadel, and the modern part which is across the river. The citadel is an enormous area hemmed in by huge walls, with only a few entrance gates on each side. Tons of people live within the citadel, and once you're inside the walls you wouldn't know there was anything historic about the area (because almost all of it was bombed during the war). That is, until you come to the inner citadel which surrounded by a moat and another huge wall...you have to pay to get into that part, and of course foreigners are charged twice as much as locals.
The other main thing I did in Hue – well, near Hue to be exact – was go on a tour of the DMZ area, or demilitarized zone. That was the dividing line between North Vietnam and South Vietnam during the war, and the few kilometers that separated the area was no man's land. We left Hue at 6:00 AM (ugh) and got back around 6:30 PM. We basically spent a lot of time driving around with the guide pointing things out, but we also got out 4 times to see actual sights. But even when we were just in the bus, the scenery was quite beautiful, and there were lots of cows, water buffalo, and chickens all over the place so that was cool. At one point we passed a long stretch of the road where there were rusting U.S. tanks and abandoned military outposts (some were bombed, others were intact)...when the Americans left no one ever moved or cleaned up that stretch of road so it's all just sitting there today. The coolest part of the tour was going into the Vinh Moc tunnels. These tunnels aren't as famous or as touristy as the Cu Chi tunnels near HCMC, but I actually prefer it that way. The tunnels were dug by hand(!) over a two year period, and then over 200 people lived in the tunnels from 1966 – 1972. I have no idea how those people were able to live in the tunnels for six years...after ten minutes I was dying to get out. But, I guess people will do whatever's necessary to survive. Overall, I really enjoyed the tour and thought it was very informative.
DMZ tour...beginning of the Ho Chi Minh trail, Northern Vietnamese smuggled supplies south to infiltrate U.S./Southern Vietnamese areas
former location of Khe Sanh command center and battle field, now a museum
remains of a crashed helicopter
entrance to Vinh Moc tunnels
Oh, and I also attended a Vietnamese wedding for a bit...this was actually the second time I've been at a Vietnamese wedding totally impromtu. They seem to love inviting foreigners to celebrate with them! The place we ate lunch was also a wedding hall, and when we were getting back on the bus, the groom (who was totally wasted) invited us to celebrate and he wouldn't take no for an answer. So, we went up on stage and sang and danced for a while, and beers were forced into all of our hands....as in, they were literally pushing beers at us the entire time and if we didn't take them they seemed to get a little upset so we all took the beers. It was so random but fun!
Vietnamese wedding...
the groom waving goodbye...he didn't want us to leave!
The next day, Sarah and I met up with Lynn at the train station to catch our overnight train back to Hanoi. We got back to Hanoi around 7:00 AM and I totally crashed. It's sort of nice to be back in Hanoi, but our dorm and the location is so terrible that it's hard to actually be excited to be living here again. The hotels were so much nicer than Peace House, and we were only paying $5 per night!!
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