Hue

After an overnight train from Hanoi, we stumbled to a guesthouse in Hue, grabbed breakfast and were on our way to explore the town. Hue houses an old citadel, which was the fortress for the last dynasty in Vietnam (Nguyen), modeled after the Forbidden City in Beijing. It is huge, but only a few buildings remain and have been restored while the rest of the area is crumbling after bombs, and is being overtaken by grass and shrubs. The dichotomy between old and new is striking and made me wonder what would happen to our buildings only after 100 years, if they are not maintained.

We rode bicycles around the city and out along the river to a pagoda, where a monastery was also located. The town is much quieter than Hanoi and we were happy to comfortably bike around.

Brennan found his two favorite items of the trip in Hue: a conical hat and a fanta rootbeer float. Everyone laughed at him with his hat, but he didn't care because his head was getting burnt. We are glad we visited Hue - lots of history and culture and a nice little stop on the way to Hoi An.