Next stop along the road was Hue. Only a three hour bus journey from Hoi An we were to have only a day and a half in the city as we needed to move on to Hanoi before our trip of a lifetime comes to an end.
Hue was the home to the Nguyen emperors who ruled over Vietnam on and over for a few hundred years. Needless to say as their capital Hue is the centre of Imperial Vietnam and all the glories that went with that. Today its is a Unesco World Heritage site and rightly so, even though many buildings we destroyed in the second world and Vietnam wars.
After our arrival we wasted no time heading out into the city. Our main aim was to visit the Citadel which sits along the Perfume river. Built between 1804 1833, the citadel is a mass structure split into several distinct sections that focused upon royal life.
As the first real monument we have visited in Vietnam we were immediately struck by the Chinese and Japanese influences on both the structure and aesthetic of the complex. As many of the buildings were destroyed in the war, work is still vigorously underway to try and restore the 100 buildings that once stood on this now broken ground.
The imperial enclosure and forbidden purple city is a city within the citadel which used to house the emperor's residence and main buildings of state. Although damaged by bombs, the original walls and restored buildings that are there really are beautiful and create a sense of the place that once was.
The Citadel is surrounded by 10km long walls with a gate on each side, moat and nine holy cannons - symbolic protectors of the palace and kingdom.
After our tour of the Citadel we headed across the river to the Golden Rice restaurant for dinner. A recommendation from our hotel, we weren't disappointed as the food was delicious. While we were there we got talking to our waiter who kindly offered to drive us to the Royal Tombs the next morning for free (to help him with his English).
We were picked up by Loang and Hong at 9am sharp and hopped on the back of their mopeds for a cultural tour of the tombs of the rulers of Nguyen dynasty. Spread out along the banks of the Perfume River there are six mains tombs and we visited two, Tomb of Tu Duc and Tomb of Khai Dinh.
Tu Duc's tomb was constructed in 1864 and designed for use during his lifetime as well as in his death. The enormous expense of his tomb along with the forced labour used for its construction spawned a coup plot which was discovered and suppressed in 1866.
Tu Duc lived a life of excess with 104 wives and countless concubines and his tomb reflect this. Although much has fallen into disarray, the vast scale of the tomb is still very evident.
The second tomb, of Khai Dinh that we visited is much more modest and by far our favourite.
On the way back from the tombs we stopped off at the local incense market where we were shown how to make the incense the locals use in their religious ceremonies.
Last stop was Thien Mu Pagoda which is built on a hill overlooking the Perfume River. The pagoda is an icon of Vietnam and as symbol of Hue and has many a time been a location of political demonstrations. Most notably monk Thich Quang Duc who burned himself to death in protest of the policies of the South Vietnamese President in 1963 was from here and the car he used to drive from Hue to Saigon is on display in the Pagoda gardens. With beautiful views over the river and across to the mountains this Pagoda is a very peaceful and inspiring place to visit and along with our guides we indulged in a quick prayer before leaving.
Unfortunately though our time was up. Our whirlwind 24 hours in Hue were fantastic and we really got an insight into Vietnam's imperial past. No time to hang about though. Next stop Hanoi, via a 15 hour train journey.
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