Morning at the Imperial Citadel

Leaving our hotel in Hue, Dominik and I called a car to take us across the river to the Hue Morning Market. Our original plan was to find some good local breakfast, but the market turned out more of a local produce market, not one where you could easily find street food.

Instead, we crossed the street to Highlands Coffee, which is kind of like Vietnamese Starbucks. The coffee and pate-filled baguettes are always good, and you can always count on good old Highlands Coffee to be a clean, quiet, calm oasis in the midst of the chaos that is any Vietnamese city.

After breakfast we set out on foot to the Imperial Citadel itself, a fortified walled city surrounded by a great moat. The only ways in or out of the Citadel are through great stone gates accessible by bridge.

Today, the land within the Citadel is full of quiet cafes, tree-lined boulevards, and guesthouses, and right in the center, surrounded by yet another wall, is the Imperial City, which contains the Forbidden Purple City, the innermost royal enclosure of the Nguyen Dynasty, the last Imperial House of Vietnam.

Construction on the Citadel began in 1804 under Emperor Gia Long, and the complex was expanded and reshaped by his successors, eventually becoming the ceremonial and political heart of the dynasty. It was occupied by the Imperial Family until the ultimate abdication of Emperor Bảo Đại in 1945.

At the center is the Điện Thái Hòa, or Palace of Supreme Harmony, where the emperor held court and important ceremonies such as coronations were held. Beyond it was the Forbidden Purple City, the most private part of the complex and the area where the emperor himself lived.

Today, it's a beautifully preserved relic of Vietnam's imperial past. Although the Nguyen emperors ruled during a period when Vietnam had fallen increasingly under French control, the court continued to function in Hue, and several of the emperors attempted to resist or limit French influence.

The Imperial City would suffer even more in the decades that followed. Hue was the scene of heavy fighting during both the First Indochina War and, even more famously, the 1968 Battle of Hue, one of the fiercest battles of the Second Indochina War (the Vietnam War), when much of the Imperial City was destroyed.

It is remarkable to walk through the complex today and see how much has been preserved and restored. Vietnam has always placed great emphasis on its historical heritage, and enormous efforts have gone into saving the remaining palaces and temples. In 1993 the Complex of Hue Monuments was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

One of my favorite buildings was the emperor's residence, which fittingly looked like a fusion of Versailles and Asian architecture. It's been mostly restored to the way it looked more than half a century ago.

Another really interesting building in the compound was the theater, where the emperor, his court, and his family could watch traditional dances and musical performances.

We left the palace and walked on through the quiet streets of the citadel's old town to the Museum of Imperial Antiquities. The museum is one of the best that I've visited in Vietnam and contains an enormous collection of relics and artifacts of the Nguyen Dynasty preserved in a beautiful traditional wooden building.

The museum itself is housed inside the historic Long An Palace, built in 1845 during the reign of Emperor Thiệu Trị. Originally part of a larger royal residence, the palace was later dismantled and carefully reconstructed at its present location, where it eventually became one of Vietnam's earliest museums. Today, it contains an incredible collection, including the Golden Throne of the Nguyen Emperors.

Our breakfast of coffee and a breadstick smeared with pate had been light, so we were feeling pretty hungry by late morning when, hot, sweaty, and thirsty, we left the palace and set out to find an early lunch.

We came to an incredibly local restaurant where we were the only foreigners. They didn't even have an English menu, but we knew exactly what we wanted and were able to order by using the old "hold up one finger to indicate one portion" method, and it worked.

A bunch of older men were sitting around chatting, gossiping, and playing Xiangqi, or Chinese Chess, a game that is extremely popular on the streets of Vietnam. Pinky and I bought a set and used to play the game a ton when we spent some time in Vietnam several years back.

We had come here to order bún bò Huế, the spicy beef noodle soup that Hue is famous for. Unlike the clear, delicate broth of pho, bun bo Hue has a deeper, richer flavor, with a spicy broth made with beef bones, lemongrass, shrimp paste, and chili. The thick, rice noodles are topped with slices of beef, a chunk of crab paste, and herbs, and a serving usually comes with an entire plate of beansprouts on the side.

What gives the dish its iconic reddish color is the chili paste, which is usually made in-house, making each bowl of bun bo Hue just a little bit different. The chili paste adds a rich, spicy flavor to the broth, and you can add as much or as little as you like.