DaNang and Hue

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DaNang was the arrival port and Hue and the Imperial City were to be a 2 hour bus ride away. Both cities were critically important to U.S. efforts in the Vietnam War and those of us of a certain age knew these names, if not anything about them.

DaNang is an important port city and lies on the South China Sea at the midpoint of Vietnam. It was where Marines first landed at the start of U.S. involvement in the war and there was/is a huge military complex there; both an air base and naval base. The air base was the world's busiest airport during the Vietnam War! It is a city with a large port and a long stretch of beach that attracts many Russian tourists.

I have no photos of DaNang other than what I could take from our bus window. Here's a sampling:

Rice paddies...

...and mountains.

We'd pass this kind of "official" building every 10 minutes of so.
I'm not sure what they were. Schools, maybe?

The Imperial City at Hue was very interesting. The Imperial City is a huge, walled city; once the capitol of Vietnam. It's quite a fascinating place with important historical significance for the Vietnamese. It was heavily damaged during the Tet offensive in 1968 and is still undergoing refurbishment, heavily financed by the Japanese. The Imperial City is a UNESCO World Heritage Sight. Here a few photos of the Imperial City:

Hue is where we learned to cross the road. Traffic lights really don't exist and traffic is never ending. Pedestrians simply look at the traffic, and walk into the road. It's quite intimidating, but expected. Cars slow down and scooters go around. Everyone just deals with it. I felt like George Costanza playing Frogger in the Seinfeld episode...

Following our visit to the Imperial City, we had lunch at the beautiful Hotel Saigon, a beautiful hotel built during the French colonial days. There was a "band" playing traditional music during lunch and they were mesmerizing. One string instrument seemed to have one string that the musician played with her right hand while manipulating the pitch with her left; like she was playing musical saw. She was outstanding and the sound was haunting. Their only faux pas was when they played the Godfather Theme. They played great, but that sounded a bit strange.

Hotel Saigon

The band!

After lunch, it was off to the Tomb of Tu Duc. Tu Duc is considered Vietnam's last emperor as the country was conquered by the French during his reign. His is an fascinating story, involving dozens of wives and a horrible slaughter following his death. Here's more information.

The Tomb (hint: he ain't there)

Diane says: "see you next stop!"

More photos here