On Our Hue

(It's pronounced H-Way) 

After meeting a slightly high maintenance French guy at breakfast we went to explore the ancient Imperial City which is more or less the towns only major feature. Hue was once the imperial capital of Vietnam but when the capital moved to Hanoi and the dynasty ended the city was left to crumble. Until the 90's when it was declared a World Heritage Site.  

The Imperial City is roughly the same size as the palace of Versailles in France (however my internet is down at time of writing so I can't verify that statement) so it takes a while to walk around.  Our guide book said to dedicate about half a day to it which was really accurate. It took us twenty ish minutes to walk from the hotel, roughly three hours to walk and see everything then another hour-ish to find our way back to our side of town.  It was interesting and I'm glad we saw it but from not knowing much about it going there it's somewhat dull. You do see the emperors thrown, clothes and gardens but I guess I left without really appreciating the importance of their monarchy... If that makes sense?

Like going to see the Crown Jewels in England or seeing the Palace of Versailles, you leave feeling a sense of grandeur and awe behind the monarchies.

I guess, however impressive this palace was it didn't strike me in the same way as the aforementioned ones did. 

Regardless, I would recommend the Imperial City just to see the architecture and the gardens, which were in full bloom when we were there.    

In the evening we wanted a bit of a change of pace from our usual local Vietnamese dinners so we took a gamble and went to this Indian restaurant nearby. I can honestly say, having eaten some pretty amazing Indian food that this place has some of the most authentic tasting Indian food I've ever had. The place is called Ganesh Indian Restaurant and looking at the business card there's several locations scattered around Vietnam. So, if your traveling and after reasonable Indian food that's the place to go. I guess I splurged today so my dinner was 8$ and not 4$ but ah well, treat yo self.

After dinner Jack and I walked along the river front and bumped into some local university students who wanted to practice their English with us. Asking us everything from where we were from to how we found Vietnam and where we were traveling to next.  They kept us talking for over an hour so by the time we got back to our hotel room both of us were wiped.  

Tomorrow we're off to HCMC or Saigon as the locals still call it.  

Wooh another travel day.... 

Sleep now

G-