The Back Streets of Hue

It's time to leave Hue. That means that it's also time for a photo dump where I upload some photos from my two weeks in the city that didn't really fit in with any other post.

We spent some time across the Perfume River in the town, where we visited several small museums. One interesting museum was free! It was all about traditional silk embroidery.

It's amazing what people can embroider! There were even several photo-realistic portraits.

We even got to see how the craftsmen created their art.

We spent most of our time on the other side of the Perfume River, though, in the Imperial City. This was cool, because we were so close to the historical sites!

Standing guard outside of the Imperial City are the Nine Holy Cannons (which remind me of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch from Monty Python). The cannons flank the citadel.

One day we wandered through a local market, where we bartered for a coffee phin (traditional Vietnamese drip filter).

We saw a lot of temples, including some local ones that don't show up on the tourist itineraries.

We visited the Hue Museum of Antiquities in the Imperial City. It was located inside an ancient palace, and the collection was really great.

Besides imperial antiques, the museum also had a great selection of war-era tanks and planes (most American).

The museum contained a great selection of artifacts from the emperors themselves, as well as an interesting exhibit about the Cham Kingdom, part of the Khmer Empire that had colonized southern Vietnam thousands of years ago. The art and sculptures there are very much like at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

And now, it's time to say "goodbye" to  Hue. We have really loved it here! It's so quiet, peaceful, and green - completely different from Hanoi. Next, we will head three hours south to Da Nang, Vietnam's fourth-largest city and major coastal town.