Imperial Huế

Transport in Vietnam is not a problem. There is the very convenient system of open tour buses, where you can buy a ticket for a special route with certain stops on it for virtually nothing. To get from Saigon to Hanoi can be as cheap as $ 45, but you are stuck to the route that you chose. Good thing is, you can stay for as long as you like at every destination along the way.

We went from Hoi An to Huế by open tour bus and payed US$ 4 each for the three hour bus ride. I have never seen a bus like this one, it was a sleeping bus with bunk beds (sort of, built for Asian size people though). Three rows with about 14 seats in a row. Quite a comfy way to travel I must say.

Open bus

We arrived in Huế around noon and were welcomed by a steady drizzle and grey skies. Huế is supposed to be a nice city, but every city loses a bit of its magic when it is raining. (Everyone who's ever been to Salzburg will know that...)
Except for the citadel and the former Imperial City, the central parts of Hué don't have that much to offer, especially not in winter when it is cold and rainy. The Citadel and the Imperial City are quite something though. Sadly, large parts of it was destroyed in 1968 during the Tet Offensive but many of the buildings have been restored and you get a general idea about how beautiful the Imperial City once was.



Imperial City, Huế

We rented bikes from our hotel to explore the Citadel in the morning and headed out to the old Elephant Arena in the afternoon. It was the fighting arena where tigers had to fight elephants, a kind of Vietnamese Colosseum. The elephants represented the monarchy and they always won since the tigers (representing rebellion) had their fangs and claws removed before the fight. Not exactly fair now is it?
This is a quite forgotten site and not many tourists come here even though it is just 4 km outside of town. Maybe because it is not that spectacular anymore and the arena itself was closed for conservation. But it was still a nice place and the old Elephant Temple nearby was very peaceful even though it looked like it had been neglected for the last century.

Elephant Temple

Tiger and Elephant Fighting Arena