Hue used to be the capital city under the Nguyen dynasty which started in 1802. This citadel was used for imperial purposes until 1945 when the last emperor had to step down. Here he would hold meetings, religious ceremonies and also enjoy some down time in the hall of extreme peace, or some name translated to something like that.
one gate of the Imperial city
With a scooter we drove outside the city about 20 minutes to go check out where some old guys had massive tombs built for themselves. They were each emperors of the Nguyen dynasty. One guys tomb took longer to build than the time he actually reigned. All in all, they seem to have alot of money.
little mandarins guarding the tomb for eternity 
statue of Emperor Khai Dinh
On the way, we stopped at this cute little Japanese covered bridge and snapped some quick pics before scooting on.
Back in the day, the king would have a tiger and an elephant battle to the death inside a round stone arena. The king’s symbol was the elephant so to encourage it’s victory, they had the claws and teeth removed from the tiger before releasing it. Cruel entertainment, but I think we all have to admit it would be interesting to see how that pans out. Anyway, we drove out to this and got some cool pictures.
On the way home after a long day of visiting burial grounds, we stopped at a monastery in the woods where they were laying out incense sticks to dry.
And here are a final few pics of a view we happened upon on our way driving somewhere… It was 2 weeks ago, I can’t remember everything.
that’s it for Hue… 🙂
Stories of Exploration and Travel 
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