Rain Free

  Hue, Vietnam
May 07, 2009

It has rained 16 days in a row, until today! Hurray!
 
We were awaken by music at 5:30 and then the construction started very early.
 
We had breakfast at our hotel, but it is not included. We had baguette, fried eggs, tea and juice. It was not a very good breakfast.
 
We borrowed the hotel bikes and started toward the ancient tombs.
 
Our first stop was at Duc Duc which was not very far from our hotel. It was small and not very decorative. It did have a few dragon, but that was about all.
 
We rode outside the city and tried to piece together our hotel map with the guide book. We rode past Dam Nam Gio and then turned onto Minh Mang Street. We should have gone one street further...
 
We were near something that looked like it could have been a tomb when a lady on a motorbike started riding next to me and talking to me. She was on her way home from working at the market. She is 46 years old and has been married for 25 years. She has 5 children from 9 - 25 years old. She ended up taking us to her village which is near some tombs and then to her house. She gave us some pineapple and tea and then wanted us to give her money for her children's' education. We gave her 40,000 dong and headed out of there asap. We do not have a very high opinion of Vietnamese people at this point...
 
At all of the royal tombs there are: a triple gate, an honour courtyard with dark-brown bat trang bricks (Mandarin warriors, horses and elephants), a stele house (contains a tablet with the story of the Emperor's life), temples (place to worship the Emperor), pavilions and a tomb or sepulcher (contains his remains).
 
We were not very far from the Tomb of Khai Dinh and Minh Mang. We went to Khai Dinh first. Entrance for this tomb, Minh Mang and Tu Duc were 55,000 per person. This is the newest tomb and was built from 1916 - 1925 for the Emperor. It is a blend of European and Vietnamese styles. There is a bust of the Emperor that was completed in 1922 in Marseilles.

At the entrance, after climbing up the stairs in the hillside there are some mandarin guards, mandarin commoners, horses and elephants. The most unique features of this tomb are the coloured glass and ceramic reliefs of plants, animals and birds, and the ceilings painted with dragons.

We rode back into town and had lunch at a restaurant along the Perfume River. We made friends with the owner, Binh (sounds like Bing). He has three grown daughters, two are married. He showed us the wedding albums, his daughters are very pretty.
 
Bill had three Huda Beer (Binh thought that was funny) and prawns with rice. I had pork with tomatoes and fried noodles. I had water. I am not going to get dehydrated like our last bike ride in Siem Reap.
 
Binh also served us some tea "on the house" and taught us that "Shing My" means cheers. He was also kind enough to draw a map for us to get to Minh Mang. This shortcut will take 3 kms off of our ride. That was great news since we have to go up and over a large bridge across the river.
 
It was a nice ride along the river to Minh Mang. This tomb is the furthest one that we rode to and it is 12 kms from town. Minh Mang died in 1841 and his tomb was built from 1841 - 3. His tomb is surrounded by gardens, trees and lakes.
 
There were three bridges, over the Lake of Impeccable Clarity, that were used to access the tomb. The center one was marble and could only be used by the Emperor (and Bill). There is another bridge over the Lake of the New Moon that leads to his tomb beyond a wall, that we could not access. The whole site was really beautiful and serene. Bill thinks he would enjoy a resting place like this.
 
We crossed back over the bridge and headed back toward Hue along the river, the way we arrived.
 
We returned to the spot where the begging motorbike lady showed up. This was the tomb of Thieu Tri. It was free to go to this tomb. There were 2 parts to this tomb. The East Bieu Duc temple is for worshiping the Emperor and the Queen and the West is for the courtyard, bridges and tomb. The tomb was not built until after his death. He died in 1847 and the tomb was constructed by his son in 1848.
 
There were some guys fishing off the 1 bridge. There are no walls and the wooden buildings are gone. Despite this, Bill gives is a solid rating.
 
We crossed the main road and took a small road that became a dirt road (looked like we are going the right way by the map). The dirt road became narrower and then we were not among any houses, just fields. The path had become 4 bike tire widths wide. We saw a place where two towers were all that remained of a tomb. We decided that we were not on the right road and turned around. On the way back we stopped at another destroyed tomb, there was only one building remaining.
 
We hopped back onto the main road and headed back toward the river. I had seen another small turn-off back there. As we got further along, the road became more and more rocky. There was a point when the road split into a Y and we stayed to the right. Again we came to another intersection and there were no signs. We stopped and asked a lady selling drinks and snacks which way to go. Bill bought a Coke from her and she pointed us to the far right. Thank goodness because the other road was steep.
 
We arrived at a tomb that is not in the guide books. It was very simple and plain and did not have the typical plan. There were no Mandarin warriors, it was just one building and two towers. It had some nice lotus flower carvings and we climbed up and walked around. Bill found a piece a carving that was a bird's head. We could not find where it would have come from.
 
Not too far away was Dong Khanh. It was built in 1889 and was for the nephew of the adopted son of Tu Duc, he was named Emperor by the French. It was renovated and rebuilt in 1917 for Dong Khanh's father and some additional buildings were renovated until 1923. It is currently being renovated again. We ducked into a side door and were looking around. Another Vietnamese couple were there and left shortly after we arrived. The temple has a lot of Chinese influence - red and gold. They must have alerted the guard because he showed up shortly thereafter and kicked us out of the temple area.

We walked back to the tomb area. It was in good shape. We could make out some of the reliefs.
 
We went from a small, rocky dirt road to a wide paved road that just ended without reason or explanation... Along this road people had rice spread out to dry. There was a harvesting machine that they were putting rice stalks into. Bill was videotaping and rode right underneath where the stalks were shooting out of the machine. I decided to go around.
 
Our last tomb of the day was one of the best, Tu Duc. It was built from 1864 - 1867. He reigned the longest, from 1848 - 1883. He lived the good life with 104 wives and countless concubines. His wives never bore any children, they suspect he was sterile due to a bout of small pox.
 
When you enter there is a large lake, Du Khiem (Khiem means modest). Tu Duc wrote his own biography for his 20 tonne tablet, in it, he admits that he made mistakes during his reign, therefore he has the reputation for being modest. There is an island on the lake where he used to hunt (not sure if I buy that, it is really small), there is also a boat landing and a pavilion. It is said that he hung out at the pavilion reading and writing poetry with his concubines.
 
Hoa Khiem temple had been the palace. There were tiny thrones on display there. Not sure if they were his or are a replica, but the guy was less than 5" tall. We walked along the lake to the burial area. The mandarin warriors are much smaller than at other tombs. They were constructed to be shorter than the Emperor.
 
We were not able to go to the tomb area, it is under renovation. It is said that he is not buried here, but in a secret location. The reason was to evade grave robbers.
 
Along the bat trang tiles I noticed several cat foot prints in the tiles. Very strange....
 
It was near closing time (5:30) when we left and I bought some crackers. We pissed off the lady that Bill had said "maybe later" to when we walked in.  
 
We peddled like crazy so that we could get back to town before dark. It was a lot of uphill riding and my legs were exhausted. We made it back to Dam Nam Gio on good time and now know where we are (on the edge of the city).
 
We made it back to the hotel and dropped our bikes off. We think we have put more than 30 kms on the bikes today. We walked to LaCarambole and had a Hue style shrimp appetizer. It was minced shrimp on top of mini steamed, thick rice paper like thing. I had lemon chicken and Bill had cintronella duck with rice and a Huda Beer. I had some more water.
 
On the way back on Chu Van As Street I finally found some soy milk and "no sugar" iced tea! Big score!
 
We found a place with ice cream on the way back to our hotel. The store was very busy and I didn't think they were going to serve us.
 
People were using the hotel computers, so we went to bed early.