Imperial Tombs, Hue, Vietnam

Last night I went to the roof top of the Imperial Hotel, where a small bottle of beer costs three whole dollars!!! But they give it to you with a frozen glass. A whole group of us watched the sunset over the old city of Hue from the rooftop. Then I tried to find a bar where Philipinos were playing, but failed, so returned to the Backpacker's Hostel, werhe Happy Hour was in full swing. They were serving a drink called Passion Fruit leg opener!!! two for one for a mere seventy pence. It was the most delicious drink I have ever tasted. Only the end of happy hour put a stop to my drinking this lovely drink.

I went on a tour of the tombs of the Emperors of Vietnam - one of those tours where every hotel books people onto the tour of their choice, then buses of various sizes go round picking up the people for each particular tour from all the hotels. Except that my bus was also picking up people to take them to the bus station to catch a bus to Hoi An. But the Vietnamese can multi-task, organise, co-operate and coordinate. It took half an hour to pick up, drop, pick up some more and eventually leave Hue. Then, in what seemed like seconds, we were in depest countryside, green and dense all around us.

The tombs were hidden underground. They took great care to hide their dead emperors, even digging long tunnels, creating whole underground rooms, transporting the body secretly through the tunnels, then filling them in so that no-one would be able to find them and their accompanying treasures.

So what we went to see were the buildings the Emperors built in the countryside before they died, set in the middle of parkland, complete with artifical lakes, idyllic places for the Emperors to rest, relax meditate and write poetry.

One Emperor wanted to be very avant guarde, so he imported cement (unknown in Vietnam in that era) to build with. The cement is scultpted into dragons, flowers, climbing plants and all manner of mythical beasts.
Inside one of the buildings he ordered craftsmen to cover the walls with mosaics, but rather than use coloured glass, as is traditional, he had them make mosaics out of pieces of fine porcelain.