Hue

Sometimes a place surprises you. None of us were particulary excited about visiting Hue in central Vietnam, but it was a necessary stop in order to get south. When Rob and I planned this trip, we anticipated staying in Vietnam for five weeks and slowly making our way south. A few roadblocks prevented this. We were unable to extend our visas, and distances in Vietnam were significantly farther than we anticipated. So it was with some trepidation that we found ourselves on an overnight sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue. This bus also had terrible brakes that screeched all night. 

Hue, located in Central Vietnam is home to the Perfume River and the Imperial Citadel of the last Vietnamese dynasty. I imagined them both to be crowded and polluted. While the river wasn't terribly scenic, the Imperial Citadel was truly lovely. There were a million tour buses outside, but the complex was so large, it didn't matter.  

Built in the beginning of the 19th century when the Emperor Gia Long founded the Nguyen dynasty and moved the capital from Hanoi to Hue, the citadel has thick walls, long moats and orginially housed 148 temples, palaces, and an area called The Forbidden Purple City. Most of it was destroyed during the French and American wars, but we all enjoyed exploring the ruins, as well as the preserved parts. The complex has fairly poor signs and most of the tour groups didn't seem to make it past the first few buildings, so we were able to wander the gardens, ponds, moats in a haphazard way, as if we were discovering them. This, despite being a little rocked from our bus ride, made for an amazing morning. We stopped for photos at a series of beautifully painted red doors, checked out altars to the leaders of the Nguyen dynasty swathed in incense and surrounded by offerings of fruit, drinks and more gold items, posed with a golden dragon, fed koi fish in a pond, listened to birds singing from a small island covered by trees in the moat, and had drinks in a small courtyard overlooking another lotus pond.

Hoi had another amazing surprise for us: the food. I had heard that the food in Central Vietnam was good, but I had no idea how extraordinary it would be. Our hotel had recommended a restaurant, a large, un-fancy place (think garage) filled with both locals and foreigners. The main decoration in this restaurant was a series of glass cabinets filled with intricately made action figures made out of clay by the restaurant owner's ten-year-old son. 

Unlike the pho and bun of the north that we had been enjoying, here we were introduced to Hue cuisine, including the cutest food, Bahn Beo. This is a kind of very small rice pancake or crepe served with little shrimp on adorable saucers. You add some sweet/spicy sauce and scoop them up with little

We are now people who take food pics.

spoons. We also tried (and loved!) Bahn Khoai which is a savoury fried pancake stuffed with pork, shrimp, and green onions, and Bahn Cuon, which had pork and cilantro in rice paper and was served with a sweet and sour fish sauce. One of these dishes also came with a plate of lettuce and fresh herbs and a delicious peanut sauce. And of course, there was fish sauce too. Many foreigners aren't fond of fish sauce, but I happen to love it. I had a huge bottle of it at home that lasted me forever and was much giggled about since my friend Erin pointed out that it was labelled 'cock sauce.' 

It was at this point in the trip when I asked Makaio what he wanted to do that his answer was always the same. He replied, "I want to eat."