Huế was the imperial city of the Nguyen dynasty up until 1945. It’s a much smaller city than Hanoi, with not a whole lot going on in it outside of the historical monuments in and outside of the city limits. We crossed the Perfume River, walked to the Citadel, meandered through The Imperial City, and photographed a lively market before spending our first night in a 14 person hostel room.
The Citadel is the structure that surrounds The Imperial City. It’s basically a wall. Andrew was frustrated we couldn’t get closer – in other words, that he couldn’t climb on and or into it. I wasn’t as enthusiastic.
It was also a little bit hard for me to get excited about The Imperial City as well. (Sorry, Nguyen dynasty) I’m sure a lot of it has to do with how much damage was caused when the North seized the city during the war. It did seem as though more of The Imperial City was open to the public compared to my past visit. Right now, there is a large restoration project going on that was apparent as we walked through hallways filled with freshly painted red panels, and construction hummed in the background. It also seemed as though Korea is helping with this restoration project, evident by the large SAMSUNG sign over the large SAMSUNG tv with a brief explanation of the grounds brought to you by… SAMSUNG!
We walked through the city towards the market area, passing by lots of dragons and food stalls that made for a colorful and entertaining walk. I loved the colors, especially when compared to the dull grey that dominated most of the cityscape of Hue. Vietnam tends to be bright and vibrant in the countryside, but rather dull (and dirty) in the cities. Obviously, this is true of any city/country comparison – the dragons and food stalls tended to brighten things up a bit.
The market was busy. Busier it seemed than the markets of Korea, and of our favorite market experience in Burma. Vendors were one after the other, often several selling the same varieties of vegetables right next to each other. Motorbikes zipped through walkways and roadways alike, and it was as if every stall, or every vendor, or every different kind of good to be sold bled into the next item. Sometimes literally, as meat was chopped up and blood dripped down past baskets of fruit. It was chaotic. and it was unnerving to photograph. Usually, I feel right at home photographing a market (there are quite a lot in Seoul, and I visited many while working on Seoul Suburban), but here I was a little more timid than usual, and soaked up the chaos more than weaving in and out of vendors for photographs.
My favorite part of the market were the hair salons that lined the one end. That is something that was not seen in Korea and I loved the juxtaposition of the fruit, vegetable, meat vendors on the sidewalk while women sat in a salon getting their hair permed, colored, or cut within.
