An Afternoon in Hue

The former capital city of Vietnam was directly on our path to Laos! We enjoyed our short stay by visiting the elaborate mausoleums of two former Emperors and eating vegetarian food with the locals.

To our great surprise, when we arrived at the vegetarian restaurant we had chosen for lunch, it was 200% packed with locals. We learned that our visit coincided with the full moon, and locals were following the tradition of eating vegetarian (“chay”) during the new and full moons. While this is a Buddhist custom, it seems that locals follow the tradition whether or not they are Buddhists. Everything was in Vietnamese, so I asked an old man next to me what he was eating. He pointed to “rice” on the menu, so we ordered “rice” for 10k dong (about $.45) each, and some “corn milk,” which the family sitting across from us was drinking. The “rice” was actually a simple but delicious meal with soup and a plate of rice topped with tasty veggies and a tofu cutlet. It was fun being part of the local mealtime.

Hue was the seat of the Nguyen dynasty, and was the capital of a reunified Vietnam from the early 1800s through the French colonial era until the throne was abdicated to South Vietnam is 1945. During the battle of Hue, in the Vietnam/Second Indochina/American war (name depends on who you ask) the city and its once majestic imperial citadel were mostly destroyed. With our tight schedule we decided to visit the more intact tombs of two Emperors, Khai Dinh’s finished in 1931 and Minh Mang’s finished in 1840. Both sites are impressive, as elaborate as any major temple, and architecturally very different from one another. The emperors would be pleased if they were alive to see such an extravagant dedication to their life as leaders.

For dinner, we ate chay again with the locals, and prepared ourselves for the bus ride to Laos.