We have now arrived at Da Nang, Vietnam’s 4th largest city. It is Vietnam’s commercial hub with about 1 Million people and 4 Million motorbikes. It was the site of the landing of the 1st Marine Battalion in 1965 and a major airbase was here. China Beach was just down the road , where the American troops had their RNR.
20 degrees today, we are heading towards the tropics. No pollution which is a great change, and the mist on the hills is indeed mist. We berth next to the Azamara Quest which towers overs us. Needless to say we are getting quite used to our intimate luxury. We are bussing today. Our destination, the Ancient city of Hue, another 3 hour journey. The traffic is definitely more sedate but the law of the jungle still reigns. I would never want to drive in Vietnam. It is pretty unpredictable and you need nerves of steel. Our Tour Guide is called Hoy from Hue ( pronounced hway) and the bus driver was Hai. How’s that for a play on words? The weather is very wet, very much like Fiordland which makes it perfect for Rice. There are rice paddys from one end of the province to the other separated by a range which we drove over(considered the scenic route). We returned to the ship via a 6.5 K tunnel which cuts out about an hour. Hue the National capital until 1945 is where the worst of the fighting was during the Vietnam War called the Tet offensive. As a result a lot of the ancient buildings were destroyed.The great thing is many countries are partnering with the Vietnamese people to rebuild them.
Our first visit was to the Forbidden City. It is a massive walled compound built on a similar scale to the Forbidden City in Beijing and was inside an equally ginormous Citadel that all the people lived within. Outsiders were forbidden under the sentence of death. This particular emperor had 133 children. He was later deposed and ended up living in France. The King also had a 150 concubines as well as the Queen. Over 1000 staff served in the forbidden city. This was a 45 minute walking tour and fantastic. Back to the bus. Then there were the hawkers…..
The latest scam as if there could be no other to dream up is ‘the offer to give change for your American Dollars trick’. Of course the change is counterfeit. None of our tour fell for that one. Another great source of amusement was with the rain and drizzle many of us were prepared for the conditions wearing Parkas and carrying umbrellas. I was one of them. They insisted I should buy more. Yeah right!
Our next visit was ”The Fairy Lady from Heaven” Pagoda which was really lovely. Built in 1601 and the site of hunger strikes and the self-Immolation of one Monk in 1963 ( yes, he set himself on fire) The Hawkers were out in force trying to sell us “Good Morning Vietnam” Tee-shirts and other useless trinkets, none of them successful. One of the women spotted Woody who she called our “baby”. She then wanted to buy him. We did consider it seriously but then Woody doesn’t belong to us, and we are responsible for him and child trafficking is illegal in Vietnam.
Following this we had a traditional lunch with entertainment, then it was to our last port of call which was to King Tu Duk’s tomb. Many of these are very elaborate and are built while the King is still alive. This is 1 of 8 royal tombs and each tomb reflects the personality and whim of the emperor. The last emperor got the mumps as a teenager making him sterile which was unfortunate as he was incapable of producing an heir. He did adopt his brother’s child. There is much restoration happening and the actual tomb is being restored with a joint partnership with Germany and Vietnam. What a fabulous difference as the ruins you can see pre restoration are very black, and see with the photos what the restoration process achieves. The tomb is possibly not the real resting place of the Emperor because of the risk of grave robbers, and usually the remains are in a top secret location where the architects, builders and people who carried the emperor’s coffin were put to death soon after. The crazy thing was they usually volunteered for the job and the royal family supported the victim’s families after their demise. This particular Emperor was a very fussy eater and demanded that he be fed 50 dishes prepared by 50 cooks, and served by 50 servants. His tea was prepared with the dew that settled on the leaves overnight. His theme for his tomb, as a writer and a poet, was a fairyland with poetical features and while he was alive it was the family ‘ holiday home’
Back to the ship, the weather has certainly packed up. We now have another sea day as we head south to Saigon.
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