12th Feb 2010: Wandering around Hue, Vietnam

Another day in Hue and this one was, surprise surprise, another boiling hot day! We decided to stretch our legs and walk across town to the Citadel, crossing the river to take in the views, battling with a bit of motorcycle-heavy traffic before reaching the gates of the Citadel.
En route Leon had to try on as many caps as possible, as he had managed to lose the last one that he had bought, again. Afterw3ards we toddled off to the Citadel’s main gates, amusingly declining the many tuk tuk drivers who offered to show us around for what seemed like quite a hefty price.
The grounds of the Citadel are absolutely massive, which neither of us had really expected. It was a mixture of well pruned gardens and lawns, long, unimposing halls that early emperors used to dwell in as well as larger, more decorative buildings used as theatres or residential dwellings for their mothers, families and so on.
It was a bit hauntingly quiet but very peaceful at the same time in the grounds and we spent most of the day just exploring these ancient buildings. Once lunch time descended we were more than ready to sample some of Hue’s finest food, and this time we took up the offer of a kind tuk tuk driver who, if I remember correctly, only asked for USD1 to take us to a famous seafood restaurant within the citadel walls that we had read about. You gotta love Asia and the cheap prices.
The seafood was divine and also very affordable – we had rice with prawns, a huge freshly cooked fish and vegetables as well, and probably some squid thrown in there for good luck! The waiter showed us how to roll up some Vietnamese spring rolls which consisted of the rice paper, thin slices of cucumber, some greens and fresh fish covered in spices. You roll it all up and dip it into a sweet and sour dipping sauce and the outcome is delicious! I eventually got impatient with the rice paper and just continued eating the fish and with a couple of local beers this was definitely a memorable lunch! What made it even better was the fact that the bill was so cheap, only about 6 quid per person, which is pretty much unheard of in the UK.
Finding our way back to the hotel was a bit of a mission and we did have to pop into a few shops along the way to try and get us out of the Citadel. Eventually we made it and along the way we took a detour into a huge supermarket, which is always an experience in itself in a foreign country. Sadly we couldn’t find any Milo for Leon (who had developed a love for this chocolate milk drink) but we did manage to buy a lot of groceries for half the normal price, simply because this is where the locals shopped, and not just the tourists.
For our last night in Hue we happily ate some cheap noodles down the road from the hotel and had went to the local pub for a few games of pool and some drinks. We met two really down to earth Aussie guys who were travelling on bikes with a local tour guide called Mr Pink (yes, like in Reservoir Dogs) who was taking them down the coast of Vietnam like us. What we found incredible was how much they were paying Mr Pink but I guess you need to make sure that you are in safe hands and that does come at a price in places. This was it for us and Hue and we were now ready for the trip down to Hoi An the next day.