Ordained by Unesco as a World Heritage site in 1993, Hue was the capital of the Nguyen emperors. This morning we’re off to visit the Citadel and the Imperial Enclosure. The weather in Hue is apparently notoriously bad, but although it is grey out, there’s no rain J Even though the buildings are no older than 150 years, many of them have been destroyed by war and neglect, due to communist disapproval of imperial emblems, so of many buildings are no longer. However we watch a very interesting animated reconstruction of what the Imperial Enclosure once was, which helps to visualize what it must have been like.
At the end of the day, we make a little detour in the Citadel to visit Mr Kinh Van Le at Duc Thanh. His father was a third-generation embroidery artisan who worked for Emperors Khai Dinh and Bao Dai. Today he teaches a team of deaf and dumb students and also offers classes tin advanced embroidery techniques. He greets us with great enthusiasm. When I ask if I can take his picture, he whips out his camera to take pictures of us first! He then shows us his book of visitors, all of whom have written a message next to which their picture has be affixed. He offers to write “Happiness” for us in Vietnamese calligraphy and explains how the symbol came about – clothing, person, mouth, and rice paddy = happiness!
It’s getting dark now, so we head to the Imperial hotel’s Panorama Bar across the bridge for exactly that – a panoramic view of the city. Although there’s a lovely view, there’s not much ambience, so we leave to track down Nina’s Café, which I’ve read good things about. The numerous side streets mean that addresses aren’t always that straightforward to find… but we finally locate the place and have a delicious dinner for a lot less than the cost of our earlier drinks!
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