November 10,

We got up and about. I felt way better – no sore throat! Yeah!!! So we had our Javas. It was the first time I had my newest coffee. It was excellent! We then went to breakfast. I had the mushroom omelet (there has not been cheese); Jeff had the tomato/onion omelet. I tried the Jasmine tea – did not care for it – Jeff had the ginger tea. We were given a bowl of white dragon fruit, banana, and passion fruit. I also had an orange juice — Vitamin C, right on!!!

Jeff talked with the ladies and rented a scooter for the day. We readied and headed out by 1000 on a Honda Vision Scooter. We have a list of stuff to see! Since I had been sick, we are going to try to get as much in as we can today, because tomorrow we leave Hue. Top of the list is the Citadel or the old Imperial Palace. We parked where we thought our hostess had told us and walked quite a ways to get to the the entrance – obviously not the right place. But we were able to see more of the moat and ramparts this way. Anyway, as per placards and Wikipedia…

Hue was the seat and capital of the Nguyen Dynasty – the newer, but former Vietnam. This was from 1802-1945. The Citadel with its moat, fortifications, gates, and ramparts surround the Imperial City. Then another moat rings around more walls and this becomes the Imperial City making it a walled enclosure of 36.3 hectares. The Purple Fobidden City, which is the identical term to the Forbidden City in Beijing, is the innermost of the Imperial City and about nine hectares. It has another moat seperating it and was restricted to the imperial family only. The whole complex was heavily bombed in 1947 by France, and in 1968 by America, then it fell into neglect then through the 1980's. Then in 1993, the complex became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Construction is still on-going to restore it's former glory.

We bought combination tickets that includes entrances to other places we would like to go to today. Grand total was 1,060,000 Dong ($41.88) for us both. We entered crossing the moat and in through the one of four gates – It is a grand gate. Here was the Drum and Bell displayed. Also inside this gate was a replica of the throne. Then we next came to Thai Hao Palace in the Purple Forbidden City. This is where 13 Nguyen Dynasty Kings were coronated. The actual building is undergoing major repairs and blocked off for visitation (hence the throne replica in the gate room). The roof line is great and newly restored but the walls are draped in a striped construction sheeting. Moving on, we could see so much of the destruction that tore this complex apart, as well as small bits of the old and the restored things. So many buildings are skeletons – awaiting their reawakening. The next is Kien Trung Palace, which is totally reconstructed, being just completed in 2023. The outside is over the top with heavily embellished walls and dragons as stair banisters. Inside here were several display rooms with over the top wall paper: one was a sitting room with period furniture of mid 1900's; one had of the Emperor's and the Queen Mother's Palanquins; other rooms just had pictures, different pieces of china/vases, and one room even had a cannon. It was pretty basic… I don't know how much of the furniture was true to the Emperor's time. Then we exited this palace and walked along a very small part of the personal gardens of the royal family, by a former theater, and a couple of small temple buildings. We exited through the eastern gate and left the complex of the Purple Forbidden City. We did buy a cut up mango, what a refresher!

We went back to our scooter and on to our next sites, three of which were tombs included on our combo tickets. But the next stop was Thien Mu Pagoda. It was free and kind of on the way. It's was a seven level structure. We could have paid more to go up into the temple area, but we were good. It was not as tall as we thought, but it was substantial as far as stoutness. It had a stele that had a turtle foundation and a bell that weighed 1900 kg (4,188lbs). Both listed as National Treasures.

Next was Minh Mang's Tomb. Minh Mang was the second monarch, according to the placard, and reigned 21 yrs. We enter from a side entrance and were directed to the main gate and walkway that is lined with twelve concrete warriors (reminded me af Terra Cotta Soliders), two horses and two elephants The tomb area is set on nearly 15 hectares, surrounded by a wall, and a small lake. It makes for a peaceful setting with a few buildings set inside the walls as well. These other Vietnamese style architecture buildings were different ritual areas for the emperor to read, enjoy fresh air, to be worshipped along with his queen. There is even a building for emperor and his royal concubines to rest. The main tomb is totally sealed and only opened once a year on the emperor's death anniversary.

We load up and on to the second tomb – Khai Dinh's Tomb.( First we stopped at a little food stall right at the site and had a bag of chips and a water and 7Up.) This emperor was the twelveth, and reigned nine yrs and this site is all about his tomb. It is only on 0.57 hectares and designed like a European Castle from the Middle Ages. You ascend 127 steps through five levels of terracing with separate buildings on the lowest two levels. The tomb is the top terrace of course. It is hard to get a overall picture of the place due to this terracing. Once you get inside the tomb's antechamber you forget it is a tomb, as you are overwhelmed by the interior highly decorated walls, ceilings and floors! But wait, then you step inside the tomb and are just taken over by the lavishness of the actual tomb itself. I literally had to take a minute and just figure out what I was seeing!!

We moved on to our last tomb, Tu Duc's Tomb. This emperor was number four, but he reigned the longest of all 13 emperors – 36 yrs. His tomb encompasses 12 hectares and includes two other tombs: for his adopted son that reigned after him less than a year; and his queen, Le Thien Anh, his first-ranked wife. The area has a lot of meandering around a river and a lake, which is filled with goldfish, catfish and maybe Koi (that are all huge). Again it is like a peaceful stroll in a park with little bridges crossing here and there. There were also separate buildings here including a theater and temples – one which was for his minor concubines. The actual tombs were walled but with open staggering entryways. Again the architecture is back to Vietnamese style, decorated with some flourish and lots of dragons.

Whew, we did it! I'm glad we did but we are on information overload. We load back up on the scooter and head back to our place, around 1530. Back at our homestay we turned in the keys for the scooter and freshened up a bit.

1600 back out for food – we went to Imperial Craft Beer. We split Onion Rings; Smoked Pork Jerky; and a Homemade Sausage Platter: Italian sausage with fennel, smoked paprika, Italian herbs & red wine; American sausage with sage, black pepper & rosemary; and pickled veggies with a house dipping sauce. The platter of sausages and dipping sauce was amazing. We actually ordered a Honey Ginger Chicken Salad also. I had a rum and a Coke. Jeff had three different craft beers- a Belgian Pale Ale, Mexican Aztec Lager, and Mango Pale Ale. We were able to talk with the Californian owner some (that we had met at the coffee shop two days ago). We paid up our tab 770,000 Dong ($30.40). As we were leaving we saw the Vietnamese lady/wife/co-owner and talked only briefly.

Back at our place, I was able to video WhatsApp my mom and then to bed. What a day!!!