So slathering on the sunscreen, we were off to the citadel in Hué, with JP prepared to be my guide for the day. The emperor's home, the citadel is only about 200 years old so I was very surprised, as the style of architecture and everything he described about the making of it suggested it was really a lot older. Vietnamese emperors were not really very modern for their times, and there wasn't much industrialisation, so the buildings are a bit of a timewarp. Having said that, there isn't much left thanks to the 1968 offensive during "the American war" as it is termed here. The "forbidden purple city" doesn't really exist any more, but the walled area it consisted of is still visible and you get a sense of the emperor and his entourage living a charmed existence, cut off from the rest of the population. I love the name though - I'd quite like to live in a forbidden purple city.
After the citadel in all its ruined splendour, we headed to the Hué provincial museum. There were only two rooms open of the three available, and the one which was most interesting was the one about the American war. Everything in it had an english translation, but whether they were accurate or not is open to question. There was one underneath a photo of Lyndon Johnson which said he "had a headache" when told about the American casualties from 1968. The descriptions and photo's were really though-provoking, especially after seeing some vets from the US on our boat-trip yesterday. There was lots of mentions of the "puppet soldiers" and the "imperialist" Americans.
Next it was back to real life and the delights of the market; we wandered through Dong Ba, the largest marketplace in Hué and easily the most intense market experience I have ever had. What a crazy place. Half the time it feels like you're in someone's warehouse or stockroom, as all the stalls are so close together that there is almost no room to walk between them down the aisle, or else they are piled high with goods so that it is towering above you and it's unclear exactly what all of it is. The types of stall are segregated into sections, so you can wander between stalls of the same type. It works quite well for competition, if you can get past one stall and onto the next - we were too overwhelmed by all the noise /smells /visual overload to be able to try to purchase anything. I am tempted by the face masks lots of the girls wear. In a country which has almost as many scooters/mopeds as it does people (or so it seems when I cross the roads) it makes sense that everywhere would sell face masks, helmets and rain poncho's, but the variety available is impressive. The helmets and masks are fashion accessories, so there are lots of designer variations that I'm pretty certain Burberry in particular is not making!
One lady seemed to be tracking us through the market and it seems as though she targeted westerners in particular, as her english was excellent (a rarer commodity than you might think) and she had a chat with us about our ages and relationship/family. We are evidently far too old to be gallivanting about without children by Vietnamese standards, as confirmed by a random conversation later with two young girls who wanted to practise their language skills. As JP said, large families are highly prized here, where it is still common for all the generations to live together.
After all the walking in the heat, we're both tired. Hopefully we're getting more used to it, as otherwise we'll have melted within the next few days. We're either going to need very frequent laundry trips or a lot of new t-shirts soon if this heat continues, and as we head further south, it is likely to be hotter. Hanoi was much cooler by contrast, and the rain there did keep the temperature down.
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