After a few days spent in the countryside in Hoi An, we get back on the road to the city of Hué. Hué is known for its citadel, inspired by the famous Forbidden City in Beijing.
75 miles separate Hoi An and Hué. To get there we decided to book a private car to be able to stop on the way at different sites.
Marble mountains
We start with the marble mountains. Theses mountains are a group of 5 clay hills overlooking the plain.
The Vietnamese extracted beautiful marble from these hills, some of it was used to built the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum in Hanoi.
The mountains are famous for their incredible network of temples, sanctuaries and caves carved inside the mountain.
The 5 hills each represent one of the five fundamental elements. The only one we can visit today is the one representing Water. On this hill there are several caves and pagodas, some dating all the way back from the 17th century.
We start our visit with the Am Phu cave, one of the biggest and most picturesque of the marble mountains.
It is located at the foot of the Water hill and goes deep underground. At the most it is 990 feet high, with very impressive stalactites and stalagmites.
The cave is beautiful and spectacular. Probably the most surreal cave we have ever seen.
Indeed the cave is a Buddhist representation of hell and purgatory. So the cave has two staircases, one up towards the sky, the second down to hell. The bottom part has plenty of statues depicting scenes of hell.
From the top we have a nice view around Da Nang, with the mountains and the ocean.
We stayed a while in this cave, because the air was fresh, there was almost no one and it was simply huge.
We then make our way up to the top of the Water hill, walking past a few temples, pagodas and Buddha.
We will even see a small iguana.
The hill is beautiful.
We stop in another small cave before continuing to the Huyen Khong cave.
This last cave is pretty large but also the most famous one on the hill.
There is a particular atmosphere here, with holes at the top of the cave that let in a few sun rays.
Inside there are several altars and a little temple. We can also see a huge Buddha sculpted directly in the wall. Magnificent.
This cave also served as a hospital for the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. Here died one of their heroes who had shot down 19 US Army airplanes.
Lady Buddha
After an hour and a half drive we stop again. This time to visit Lady Buddha, the highest statue in Vietnam, she is the protector of the sailors.
235 feet high, it overlooks the bay of Da Nang, and often reminds people of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
From here we have a beautiful view on the bay of Da Nang.
There are also several temples at the foot of the statue.
And we even see a few monkeys running around.
Cloud pass
To reach Hue we then take the winding steep road over the mountain that offers spectacular views on the bay. That is also one reason we chose to book a private car instead of taking the public bus, because the bus drives through the tunnel.
But by taking the mountain road we are able to stop at the famous Cloud Pass, 15 miles North of Da Nang. This natural site marks a climate border between the North and the South of the country. Here we are 1,640 feet above sea level.
We stop at several viewpoints on the way. At first we see the bay of Da Nang.
Then from the pass we can see the road winding down. The way is really beautiful.
Arrival in Hué
When we reach the bottom we only have 35 miles left to Hué.
We arrive early afternoon in this city located in Central Vietnam. We will spend 2 nights here. The highlight here is the famous citadel, inspired by the Forbidden City in Beijing.
We go grab lunch in a very nice small restaurant where we will taste or first specialties from Hué. First the Hué spring rolls (pork grilled on lemongrass sticks, that you roll inside rice paper with different veggies the way you would do with regular spring rolls) and then the the famous Bun Bo Hué (white rice noodles in beef stock with roasted beef, lemongrass, peppermint and salad). Both are excellent.
After booking our bus ticket to Phong Nha for in two days, we go back to the hotel to rest.
This evening Matt found a great restaurant where we continue to taste specialties from Hué. Vietnam really has very good and diversified food. And to be honest it feels great after having eaten nothing but rice in Laos and Cambodia.
Hué citadel
The next day we go visit the famous imperial citadel.
This is the only imperial city still left in Vietnam today. Built between 1804 and 1833 by Gia Long, the first emperor of the Nguyen dynasty, it is inspired by the imperial palaces from China. It took 80,000 workers from the region to build this place. The citadel is made of a group of 3 wall enclosed areas, the citadel, the Imperial city and finally the Purple Forbidden city.
We start our visit with the imperial city through the South gate, which is the main gate of the city. Once past the gate there are two large pools separated by the main alley, leading up to the room of the Throne.
Seeing the huge number of groups here, we decide to quickly leave to go visit the West part of the imperial city, hoping it will be less crowded. We arrive at the first temple, built in the honor of the Nguyen emperors.
First we face a beautiful red colored building that was very nicely restored. This is the highest building of the entire city at 42 feet high.
Between this building and the actual temple lays a large esplanade with 9 huge dynastic urns, each dedicated to an emperor. These each weight 2 tons!
Then we walk around the temple (sorry we couldn’t take pictures inside the temple), in the beautiful gardens. The gates in the citadel are really magnificent.
On our way North to the Queen Mother palace we walk past another beautiful gate.
This palace initially housed 10 different buildings, but today only a few are left and have been restored. We must say, the entire citadel really suffered from American bombings during the Vietnam War.
The palace of Long Life, a little bit more North, is surrounded by water streams, so we have to cross cute little bridges to get to it.
With its yellow walls, green tiles and red blinds, this palace is also very pretty.
We now make our way to the Purple Forbidden City. Here the bombings did a lot of damage and almost nothing is left. Galleries have been rebuilt for people to walk around.
Northeast, lies one of the only building that wasn’t completely destroyed inside the Forbidden City : the reading palace. Just in front of it a nice pond and garden.
From there we arrive near the royal theater in one of our favorite parts of the citadel. The gardens are amazing with all these bonsai trees.
Then we arrive in the park where the princes used to play. Here again a very nice collection of bonsai trees and different flowers and trees.
We spent 3 hours visiting the citadel and really loved it. Between the different palaces beautifully restored, the ruins being worked on, and the amazing gardens, this place is totally worth it.
Having spent more time than expected visiting the citadel, we forget about trying to go visit the pagodas and imperial tombstones that are a few miles outside the city.
Instead we decide to go spend the afternoon in the pool of a hotel that Maider found online. Another day around 100 degrees, so it feels great to be able to refresh by the pool, especially since we have the place to ourselves.
Last evening in Hué in a tiny restaurant we noticed while walking around yesterday. The decor is nice and the food delicious.
The next morning we take a bus to go to Phong Nha, where we will spend two days visiting huge caves. See you there !