I swear the title of this post rhymes - we'd been mispronouncing "Hue" for a while before someone kindly corrected us (sounds like "hway").
The 13-hour train ride from Hanoi was pretty bumpy and neither of us managed to get much sleep. The "beds" in the "soft berth" cabin we stayed in were so uncomfortable I shudder to imagine what the other cabins are like! Once we arrived, we went straight to our hotel where we were grateful to receive breakfast and fast WiFi in the lobby. After relaxing for a bit and booking a few more trip reservations we headed to our room to shower and rest.
Perfect surprise after a long, tiring journey! I've been noting in our online reservations that we are on our honeymoon because sometimes we end up with two twin beds, but I wasn't expecting this!
We were moving pretty slowly but since we only had 24 hours to see the city we motivated and headed out for lunch. We chose Golden Rice and experienced the traditional Vietnamese hot pot, which was awesome - piping hot soup with fresh veggies and beef you cook in the broth. Definitely a good thing to have when you are starting to come down with a cold (uh oh...).
After lunch we set off to explore the Imperial City. Similar to Chiang Mai, the old quarter of Hue is surrounded by walls and a moat. We enjoyed checking out the former palace and grounds but were somewhat surprised at the state of disrepair (the whole area was damaged by the Vietnam War but it doesn't seem like much effort has gone into its restoration since).
Crossing the bridge into the Imperial City.
Looking across the moat at another gate within the Imperial City.
We almost had the entire place to ourselves!
Sun peeking through the open-air hallways by The Mieu Temple.
Looking out over the entire grounds of The Citadel.
Basically a secret garden...with a moat!
Peeking back at the gate before dusk.
One of the most beautiful - and well maintained - spots within the gated area.
We liked that there weren't too many people around but it also didn't feel like there was a ton to see. Tomorrow we are visiting some of the sites outside of the city, en route to Hoi An, so perhaps we will find them more impressive.
After touring the old city we headed back to our hotel, did a little shopping and then picked a spot for dinner. We had Mexican at nearby Jalapeno's, which wasn't anything special but still a welcome change from the local cuisine.
We woke up this morning to pouring rain - not the best way to start a day of sightseeing - but hoped that the weather would clear as we got closer to Hoi An.
Sadly, the misty weather never cleared up. We thought it was pretty cool that the Reunification Express ran right along the coast (though we passed on the additional 20-hour trip from Hue to Ho Chi Min).
Due to the weather, we ended up passing on some of the scenic sights between Hue and Hoi An - much of them alongside the beach - but we were happy to arrive in Hoi An by early afternoon. We are going to rest for a bit (these colds are starting to wear on us) and hopefully explore the town more later today.