Route: Hue, Thua Thien-Hue Province
--Breakfast @ Orchid Hotel--
My breakfast for my 4 days stay in Orchid, Vietnamese beef noodles. There is a choice of beef or pork, and I can tell you it's not worth it to have pork noodles. Why? If you order beef noodles, there wld be beef plus meat balls made of pork. However, if you just order pork noodles, then there's only meat balls! No extra pork hor.I thought they had put in the effort to cook my noodles with slight variations, though I did not have any special requests. My first day noodles on top was normal version; 2nd day noodle was spicy, but w/o chili; 3rd day noodle was spicy and with chili. On the 4th day, my noodles was back to normal. Anyway, I was quite pleased with that :D
--1st Stop: Tu Duc Mausoleum--
We arranged 3 private tours with Mr Trung of You & Me Travel. The first tour is Hue City Tour. However, the guy who picked us up for the tour was Mr Thanh instead. (Mr Trung got some personal matters to settle) Mr Thanh was quite a funny guy and his favourite phrase that day was "OK lah~". I can only say that Sgporeans are good in spreading Singlish. Haha!
Tu Duc's tomb is located in a narrow valley in the village of Thuong Ba, 8km from Hue. The tomb was built between 1864 and 1867 and consists of a large surrounding wall filled with nearly 50 constructions of varying size. Entering through Vu Khiem entrance, you first come to Luu Khiem lake on which sits Xung Khiem Pavilion, where the Emperor used to come to admire flowers, compose poems, and read books. (Credits: guidetovietnam.com)
Luu Khiem lake was man-made. The soil was piled up behind the pavilion and became a man made hill.There are two areas, temple & tomb. Our guide decided to visit the tomb area first.
Statues of mandarins (court officials) at Bi Dinh (Stele Pavilion)
An autobiography of the emperor inscribed onto the Stele. The emperor wrote about his life, imperial causes, misadventures and illness himself. The autobiography was written in Chinese, but one might not be able to fully understand as the usage of words were not modern. 
The gate to Tu Duc's tomb.Tu Duc was the 4th Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam and reigned from 1847–1883. He was well known for shutting Vietnam from the outside world, oppressing foreigners and later signed away South of Vietnam to the French.
The stone house, where the emperor was buried.
A view of Khien Cung Gate from Luu Khien Gate.
Xung Khiem Pavilion.
We went to the temple section. This is the gate of Hoa Khiem Palace.
Hoa Khiem Palace used to be the emperor's working place, and it's now an altar devoted to the Emperor and the Queen.--2nd Stop: Making of Incense sticks & Conical Hats--
We made a stop at the shops nearby and checked out the making of incense sticks & conical hats.
Vietnamese incense sticks looked slightly different from our Chinese style.
and you got lots of colours to choose from.
Vietnamese ladies' must have...Conical hat. Oh, and you better wear an Ao Dai to match it.--3rd Stop: Khai Dinh Mausoleum--
Emperor Khai Dinh (12th Emperor of Nguyen Dynasty) came to the throne in 1916 and he chose the slope of Chau Chu mountain as the location to build his tomb. The construction of the tomb was started on September 4th 1920 and lasted for 11 years.
In comparison with those of the preceding emperors, Khai Dinh’s tomb is much smaller in surface but it is very elaborate. It is the result of the interminglement of many architectural trends: European and Asian, as well as ancient and modern. (Credits: vietnamtourism.com)
The overall construction of the tomb is an emerging rectangular structure with 127 steps, leaning against the mountain.- Entering the tomb area, one should climb a 37 steps gate with the biggest dragons in the country forming the side walls. (Credits: vietnamtourism.com)
Climbing 29 further steps, one is reaching the imperial audience court, in the centre of which stands the octagonal stele monument also made of reinforced concrete. (Credits: vietnamtourism.com)
On both sides of the courtyard, two rows of statues are facing towards the court center. In addition to these statues, similar to those of the other tombs, there are six more couples representing bodyguard soldiers. These statues are made of stone, a material very rare in Khai Dinh's tomb. The courtyard is flanked on both sides by two high and imposing pillars. (Credits: vietnamtourism.com)
Dragons with glass eyes...
Pillar at the courtyard.
You have to go up three more levels in order to reach the altar monument. The Khai Thanh Palace is the main room of the Thien Dinh palace, which contains many connecting rooms. (Credits: vietnamtourism.com)
It's pity that the building is turning black.
The walls are densely decorated and inlaid with elaborate glass and porcelain designs. Mr Thanh said they actually broke the porcelains to create the decorations on the walls.
The ceiling is painted with nine dragons, appearing in fine fleeting clouds.
The emperor's altar.
Khai Dinh's tomb with a good use of ceramic mosaics.
View from the palace.
A statue of Khai Dinh in Western style dressing. He's deeply influenced by the French.--4th Stop: The Citadel--
Hue has chosen to be the capital city of the Southern Kingdom by all Nguyen Lords and officially became the capital under Tay Son reign.
Situated on the northern bank of the Perfume River, with an area of 500 ha and a system of three circles of ramparts, namely from outside to inside: Kinh Thanh (Capital Citadel), Hoang Thanh (Royal Citadel) and Tu Cam Thanh (Forbidden Citadel). (Credits: vietnamtourism.com)
Located in front of the Throne Palace and facing the Flag Tower, Noon Gate is the main entrance to the Imperial City.Noon Gate is a huge construction, U-shaped and consisting of two parts: below is a foundation made of brick, Thanh and Quang stone, above is a pavilion made of wood and roofed with tiles. (credits: vietnamtourism.com)
The Flag Tower.
Bullet holes (scars) left over by the Vietnam War.
Walking towards the Throne Palace & Great Rites Court.
Koi fishes fighting for food.
The Great Rites Court (or Esplanade of Great Salutation) is paved with Thanh stones and consists of two terraces: the upper was reserved for high-ranking civil and military mandarins. On both sides of the court are two rows of small steles called Pham Son showing the positions mandarins should take according to their ranks. (Credits: vietnamtourism.com) Btw, this is a common feature in Chinese and Korean royal palaces too. See China's influences in these countries?We cld not take pictures of the Throne Palace, but there's nothing much inside, other than the Emperor's throne (seat). The palace area was totally wet and there was leaking from the rooftop. I thought the authorities should have done more to protect and conserve the palace. I've never seen a main palace with a wet floor and without any lighting.
A big gift set from the Korean Conservation team. We did not manage to see any 3D presentation leh!
Nam Giao Esplanade.
A gigantic imperial seal.
Personally, I don't think this seal is part of the citadel. There is a festival held in the citadel every year or so, and the light beams around the seal are there for the festival. I saw that the light beams were in bad shape, but they still left it there without repairing. Not a nice scene in the citadel.
Bronze vessel.
There's a museum inside the citadel, and there were a good display of artifacts found in the palace. Above is a set of 10 Judicious kings of Hell.There are also many photographs of the royal family and incidents which took place in the citadel. I did not snap pics of those...
Rubbish found in the citadel. Don't be surprised...that pair of dragons are not attached to the wall behind them...ha! I believed they were discarded after the festival...They shld have cleared them instead of letting them lying in the vicinity. This goes to show how much the authorities value the historical monuments.
We're going to the Royal Theatre.
Looks ordinary on the outside, but the theatre was looking new & posh inside. I think the place was given a makeover. There are performances held in the theatre, but you gotta pay.
Thai Binh Reading Pavilion. We cld not enter the building as renovation wld take place there soon.
New paint on these beams and roofs...
I wonder why the wooden beam architecture differs...even though it's on the same stretch of the walkway.
The Noon Gate.We did not tour the entire place, but I guessed it's alright as the Citadel is nothing near the Forbidden City in Beijing.
--5th Stop: Thien Mu Pagoda--
Last stop of the tour is Thien Mu Pagoda, which lies along the Perfume river.
Phuoc Duyen Tower.
View of Perfume River (Huong River in Vietnamese).
A big bell.
A stone turtle with a stele on its back.
The main temple area is closed...not sure what's the reason. But I did managed to see Buddha statues through the doors..haha!
There's a sad story about this car. To summarise, a Buddhist monk drove this car from Hue to HCMC and burnt himself to death as a protest against the South Viet government for discriminating Buddhists & violating religious freedom.--6th Stop: You & Me restaurant--
Our guide dropped us at this local restaurant for lunch. Well, it's like our kopitiam standards, but they have menus for all their dishes. Haha!
Fried rice with squid.
Stirred fried chicken w/ vegetables.
Vietnamese curry. I don't think curry is their common food. Did not have any curry taste at all.--7th Stop: Orchid Hotel--
View from hotel room. We returned to our hotel and rested for awhile. We wanted to wait for the rain to stop, but it's just impossible. Lolz~ So during our free time, while the gals were nua-ing, I also tried to think of what cld we have for dinner. We need to find something special!!--8th Stop: TA-KE Japanese Restaurant--
I told some of my friends and colleagues that my best meal in Vietnam is...not any Vietnamese food, but Japanese food! (and they all gave me that "what the heck" look). I've mentioned that the Viet cuisine we tried were not very authentic, plus their Western food was average. So, it's not very surprising that Japanese food out beat them. Haha! What's more? It's authentic Japanese food! The restaurant owner is Japanese, but staffs are locals. Bumped into some Japanese who dined there.
Very very oishii Okonomiyaki!!!
HM's Ebi curry rice.
My super yummy Tempura don. Looked at the portion!!!Well, I think KH ordered the same thing as me, but the staff forgot her order. Err...though that's not a very good experience...we returned for dinner the next day! (check out my day 4 report)
--9th Stop: Orchid Hotel--
Home sweet home~ We definitely did not expect anything more from Orchid, but they just kept giving us little surprises. Haha!Besides giving us free & fresh fruits every evening, they also gave us chocolates at night! It's these little gestures which made our stay a very pleasant & memorable one. We started to think what other surprises they might give us for the next few days. Lolz~
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