Hue's Imperial City-damp, but imposing

 I am sitting here at the airport, it is not raining and is quite warm about 27 C about to get on a plane to Siem Reap Cambodia, to spend a quick 2 days at Angkor Wat. So the photo was only 3 days ago, I have since been to Hoi An (adventure reports to follow soon) but wanted to send a little more about Hue. The palace is terrific (damp or not) and though tired from an overnight train ride, it was very worthwhile. It was a great warm up for the tombs (Minh Mang, Tu Duc and Khai Dinh (considered puppet of the French and crazy too-much-ain't-enough taste. OK, gotta skate to Siem Rea, more from the road later.

Rainy Day at Minh Mang's Tomb

Little did we know that November and December are the rainiest months in the rainiest part of Vietnam which is Hue. Once you go over the mountains, the ones that divide north from south the weather changes or you go north about an hour, it just doesn't rain as much. Well, it rained all day and we walked around in it all day, but the last tomb of Minh Mang was worth it. So was the pagoda closer to town, but more of that later. It was built in the 1840s by his succesor, but it was planned during his life time. It is close to the Perfume river and about 12km from Hue.

This place is a gem. The harmony of scale and blending with the natural surroundings, the landscaping, is soooo lovely.There seems to be a tradition of bonsai trees because we saw lots of them here and the Imperial Palace, the Pagoda, all around town.  The ones in the large ceramic pots in the inner courtyards are amazing. Also the formal aesthetics to illustrate the esoteric ideas,  for example; three terraces representing 'the three powers', heaven, earth and water, and so on. It is a delight to turn your head and gaze from one vista to another, not even knowing any of this. I had no idea how much I liked architecture. But after looking at this, which to me rivals Palladio's villas (and I've seen them and loved them too), I'm hooked. Good architecture is inspiring, as in any art form.

My daypack needed a hair dryer to even get to 'slightly damp',  we were tired, but well worth the water to see a bit of heaven on earth.

Culinary Delights in Hue

They do eat everything here, it's true (even *gasp* dog, though I see an awful lot of pet pooches around, so I don't know, nor want to conisder). But I wanted to graphically show you some of what I've seen. Don't worry I'll show some beautiful, unquestionable meals in a bit.

The best meal we had in Hue was at Ong Tao, the entrance is a garage and the upstairs looks like a communist dining hall that hasn't seen much cleaning lately. We could tell the height of the last person who attempted to clean the walls because there was an uneven line of light grey and darker more sootier grey at about 6 feet,  two thirds up the wall. The third world florescent lighting showed it all clearly. Still the waiters smiled a lot and coaxed us in and said, yes yes they are open and yes they are Ong Tao despite the two other names with arrows pointing towards the room and the next floor. Well, we thought, we would either run after the first dish or just chuckle how odd it is.They told us to sit anywhere, and since there was one banquet table in the main room filled with middle aged male locals (a rotary meeting?) we had the rest of the place to decide, aside from the back corner with a TV and a lone teenager watching a soccer match. Sitting by the window looked like a good idea, until we noticed the inch of dust, so we sat in the smaller dining room in the middle of it.
The menu was in five languages (Vietnamese, English, French, Chinese, Japanese) and the dishes were interesting: Beef wrapped in mint leaves, Hue style spring rolls, fish in clay pot with special mushrooms. What came from the kitchen did make us chuckle......and swoon. It was so delicious! Beautifully prepared, refined, delicate. Me and my companion, Lieve (a wonderful Belgian woman that I met on the overnight train from Hanoi to Hue) kept smiling and shaking our heads. I suggested we were like the dour Danes in 'Babette's Feast' doubting the 'crazy Frenchwoman' cooking her heart out in the kitchen. We did go visit the kitchen, which was immaculate (if you didn't look at the walls or in dark corners) and there were 4 woman all busy working away. They appreciated the visit and thanks. We appreciated the meal. Vietnamese food rocks!