Hue Tombs: Tu Duc tomb

Six royal tombs are scattered across land to the south east of the citadel on the other side of the Perfume River and one on the same side. They are monuments to nine of the thirteen rulers of the Nguyen Dynasty, mostly built during the Emperor’s lifetime. Although designed individually, sometimes by the intended occupant himself, they share certain design conventions.

All were built according to strict rules of geomancy, which often involved making substantial modifications to the landscape to ensure that the sight lines and orientation of the constituent elements complied with celestial and supernatural forces. These were:

• a courtyard with stone effigies of elephants, horses and mandarins
• a pavilion containing a massive stele with eulogies to the departed incumbent
• a temple containing an altar for worshipping the Emperor’s soul
• a pleasure pavilion, and
• the tomb itself

Each Royal Tomb reflects the personality of the ruler.

We were lucky to be shown around by a local from Hue, Lan. I found Lan on couchsurfing and am so glad that I did. Besides being a terrific person and great tour leader, she also shares my love of food and took me to some real local spots for delicious Hue specialties.

Tu Duc:

The tomb of Tu Duc, the ‘poet Emperor’, is set in an elegant garden with a magnificent lake and pavilion complex. The centrepiece of the tomb is simplicity itself despite the lavish opulence of his reign (it’s really just a monument – he was buried elsewhere to thwart grave robbers).

Despite his cultural pursuits and desire to achieve a humble lifestyle, it was under Tu Duc that the Nguyen court reached its zenith of lavish opulence. Tu Duc withdrew into court life, seemingly indifferent to the people he ruled, and the brutal treatment of the three thousand artisans and workers pressed into service to build his tomb.

Hue Tombs : Minh Mang Tomb

Six royal tombs are scattered across land to the south east of the citadel on the other side of the Perfume River and one on the same side. They are monuments to nine of the thirteen rulers of the Nguyen Dynasty, mostly built during the Emperor’s lifetime. Although designed individually, sometimes by the intended occupant himself, they share certain design conventions.

All were built according to strict rules of geomancy, which often involved making substantial modifications to the landscape to ensure that the sight lines and orientation of the constituent elements complied with celestial and supernatural forces. These were:

• a courtyard with stone effigies of elephants, horses and mandarins
• a pavilion containing a massive stele with eulogies to the departed incumbent
• a temple containing an altar for worshipping the Emperor’s soul
• a pleasure pavilion, and
• the tomb itself

Each Royal Tomb reflects the personality of the ruler.

We were lucky to be shown around by a local from Hue, Lan. I found Lan on couchsurfing and am so glad that I did. Besides being a terrific person and great tour leader, she also shares my love of food and took me to some real local spots for delicious Hue specialties.

Minh Mang:

The most majestic is that of Emperor Minh Mang, a staunch follower of Confucianism with many wives, concubines and a small army of children. Planned by the Emperor and built shortly after his death, it is opulent and exotic, and laid out in formal Chinese style.

With the possible exception of Khai Dinh’s monument, no other tomb approaches the level of unity of the elements of Minh Mang's tomb. Its layout and symmetry draws the eye naturally towards the main features, and the architectural balance blends the elements into a pleasing whole.

Hue Foods

Hue is known for it's food, and for me this is probably one of the best reasons to come here. Long ago (well not too long, around 150 years ago) in Hue, emperors felt that the more dishes created during their reign, the more power and sophistication they would appear to have. Emperors hand-picked Vietnam's finest chefs and transferred them to Hue. Ordering these "new" locals to whip up hundreds of new creations, chefs introduced new regional flavors and texture to traditional Hue dishes. During this time, commoners were forbidden from eating these dishes reserved for Vietnamese royalty. Now-a-days we can all relish in their good efforts.

Banh Nam, flat rectangular packets of banana leaf. Inside is a base of steamed rice flour, ground pork, shrimp.

Banh Beo, Silver-dollar disks of rice flour. Topped with mung bean powder, ground shrimp, and oil-moistened green onions. Served with nuoc cham.

Banh It, sticky rice flour balls. Filling of ground or cubed pork. Garnished with oil moistened green onions and sometimes fried shallots.

Bun Bo, Hue's spicier answer to Hanoi's Pho.

Banh Khoai, local specialty of a "pancake" filled with bean sprouts, shrimp and pork. if not too fried and oily, it's very delicious.

We ate at this vegetarian restaurant quite frequently. This was the 8 treasures dish and I found it and all it's fake meat soy products to be quite delicious.

A somewhat secret and local place to get banh mi. She only opens at night and is located besides a bridge. Some of the best banh mi I've had on this trip.

One of the secret to this lady's Banh Mi are that she adds a local specialty of banh loc into the sandwich. Banh Loc are translucent, almost gelatinous tubes of sticky tapioca flour. Filling consists of whole shrimps and sliced boiled fatty pork.

Che is Vietnamese sweet dessert soup, usually served in a glass over ice and eaten with a spoon.

Around Hue City

Hue is a lovely smaller sized vietnamese city in about the center of the countries coast. We ended up staying here for 10days as not only did we really love the city but it was also during Tet (vietnamese new year) and on top of that we had bike issues. I fell in love with Hue, and plan to go back there at some point.

I'll post a few separate posts about different sites and activities from our stay in Hue.

Thiên Mụ Pagoda, the largest pagoda in Vietnam and the official symbol of the city.

The sun setting over the perfume river, outside of the Thiên Mụ Pagoda.

A bamboo swingset made for the Tet Holiday.

On Tet eve many families made little fires in the street and burned paper symbols representing well wishes and hopes for the new year.

sitting in a cafe on the perfume river. relaxing and beautiful.

hello broken float, you caused me so much time and stress.

cleaning the carb.

we stayed at this lovely hotel, Phuoc An Hotel (DMZ Guest House) and really enjoyed our time there. Here is a picture of the mother owner and the very helpful front desk lady.

The Flag Tower in front of the Citadel, also called the King’s Knight, is the focal point of Hue city. It is commonly known as a flagpole, but viewed from the Imperial City, it is really a huge structure of three flat-top pyramids, one lying on top of another.

The Citadel complex.

Western gate to the Citadel.

Eastern gate to the citadel.

Bang Bang: Phong Nha-Ke Bang

Phong Nha - Ke Bang is a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, so it seemed like an obvious stop for us along the way.

A little history about the park: Phong Nha-Ke Bang area is noted for its cave and grotto systems as it is composed of 300 caves and grottos with a total length of about 70 km, of which only 20 have been surveyed by Vietnamese and British scientists; 17 of these are in located in the Phong Nha area and three in the Ke Bang area. After April 2009, total length of caves and grottoes are 126 km. Before discovery of Son Doong Cave, Phong Nha held several world cave records, as it has the longest underground river, as well as the largest caverns and passageways.

We actually didn't go into the caves as with the time of day and weather it didn't really make sense for us. Instead we went to walk along the park's ecotrail, which was beautiful. We ended up leaving as the sun was going down and getting caught in a misting from the oncoming fog. Picture driving down unfamiliar broken paved or dirt roads as the sky turns from grey to black. Around you is mostly untouched flora and fuana (some flying around you as you drive) and there is a wetness in the air. It was something almost out of a lost world. It was also pretty scary as we had no idea really were we were going, and driving at night in Vietnam is far from recommended (people walk on the roads with no lights, bikes drive sometimes with no lights, water buffaloes or other animals will just walk or sit in the roads… etc..etc). We made it home (me with a near empty tank of gas) and headed out the next day to hopefully make it to Hue. Alas, I had bike issues and we got stuck in Dong Ha. Dong Ha is great to stop in for war and DMZ stuff, but we just wanted to get to Hue so didn't stay too long.

Pictures courtesy of Adam and Kaja as I had been in an anti picture taking mode.

typical traffic in vietnam

Kaja and me on the side of the road.

adam and kaja

notice how we all are wearing the same outfit, it's our raingear. seems like it always rains when we move to a new city.

never one to follow rules.


Adam has a ton of pictures of my chubby hairy tummy :)