Huế, Viet Nam.

21st – 23rd August, 2012.

 

Between 1802 and 1945, Huế was the imperial capital of the Nguyen dynasty. In 1945, Emperor Bao Dai abdicated and a communist government was established in Hà Nội.

Huế is just south of the border between North and South Viet Nam.  In the Tết Offensive of 1968, during the Battle of Huế, the city suffered considerable damage, with an estimated death toll of between 2,800 to 6,000 civilians.  World heritage sites are now slowly being restored.

 

The Perfume River winds through the city of Huế.  In the autumn, flowers from orchards upriver from Huế fall into the water, giving the river a perfume-like aroma, hence its name.

 

As we weren’t there in the autumn, I can’t say I really noticed any perfume.

 

Tourist boats on the Perfume River.

 

Woodley, Dorothy, Pat and I chartered a tourist boat, for the princely sum of $10 for the four of us, for an hour’s cruise up and down the Perfume River.

It was very peaceful:

We sailed back past our hotel.

 

Walking back to our hotel, we passed this poster advertising the Festival of Vietnamese Moral Standards.  What would you get to do at such a festival?

 

Our hotel featured a mural of the city, including such landmarks as the Perfume River, the Thien Mu Pagoda and the Citadel (with the red flag.)

 

Meanwhile, the entrance to our hotel had been decorated for a wedding reception.

 

Here are the bride (red hat) and groom (gold hat) greeting their guests.

The groom, so we were told, was French, and the bride Vietnamese.  They must have also had a wedding in Paris, as there was an enormous poster of them in the dining room in western wedding dress, in front of the Eiffel Tower.

 

Meanwhile, we had our own fashion show as Dorothy modelled for us her new silk suit, made to measure for her in Hoi An.