Typhoons in Hue, but better than being in Hanoi (30th September - 5th October 2006)

We arrived at Hué in the middle of a big storm so it was never going to be enjoyable haggling over the price of a taxi. Despite 2 drivers telling us that they had a meter in their taxi, both of them refused to use it when we actually got in, so each time we had to take our bags out and move on to the next cab. It seemed as if they were operating some kind of cartel and nobody would use the meter and nobody would drop the crazy price that they first offered - the place that we wanted to stay in was only 2km away. Eventually we decided to just sit out the storm and then walk when it was dry, but then a couple of cyclo drivers agreed to drive us for a more reasonable price. We had waterproof covers though so we stayed nice and dry.

Checked into the hotel and went for a walk to try to get a feel for the place before we explored properly the next day. Hué is supposed to be the most beautiful city in the country and used to be the capital between 1802 and 1945, so there is a lot of history here that we were hoping to see. The constant hassles were continuing in Hué with one cyclo driver following us around the exhibits outside the military museum for about 15 minutes. In the end we had to hide from him to escape. When we got to the Citadel we were told that it was shut because Typhoon Xangsane was likely to hit that evening. This is the same typhoon that hit the Philipines earlier in the month killing about 60 people and it's next stop was either Hué or150 kms south in Hoi An and it was expected to be category 4 - so big!!! Decided to throw caution to the wind though and walk around the outer walls of the citadel as it had stopped raining and we had at least 6 hours before it would hit. During the walk around we saw a snake slithering off into the grass (the same grass that I'd just walked through!!) away from a wounded frog. I think that we'd disturbed his lunch. No idea what sort of snake it was, but after seeing it we stuck to the path. By the time we got back to the hotel, after stocking up with lots of water and snacks (just in case the typhoon left us without food and water), it had started to rain again and we were soaked. And it carried on raining all night. Luckily there was a restaurant/bar across the alley that our hotel was on, "Café on Thu Wheels", so we could get dinner there without getting too wet. Then we packed our bags so that we could leave quickly, just in case and made sure that everything was off of the floor in case we ended up getting flooded. We were on the first floor, so the chances of flooding were pretty slim, but just in case......

The typhoon hit in the early hours of the morning although I slept through it, but the wind did keep Kamay awake and at 7 am I got up to check on the state of things. It was still raining hard but we had electricity, it didn't look like any windows had been smashed in the hotel, so all in it didn't look too bad. The only problem was a lack of internet, so no way to check on the situation elsewhere. I found out later though that by the time the typhoon hit land it had been downgraded to a category 1 and the eye had passed over Danang (130 kms south of Hué). There was a lot of damage in Danang and Hoi An with some deaths, a lot of people losing their homes and none of the trains, busses or planes were running. The day before we'd heard that there were some evacuations of coastal areas in town but we didn't really see much in the way of people preparing for the storm. We didn't see anyone boarding up shop windows or people putting out sandbags - nothing like we'd expect to see in Bermuda. In fact most people didn't even look as though they knew that a storm was coming. The rain carried on all day so we just spread our time between our room and the "Cafe on Thu Wheels" (really good coffee and food especially the tofu burger). By about noon the alley outside of the hotel was about 5 cms deep in water and it kept rising. When we went for dinner in the evening it was about 35 cms deep and had started to flood the ground floor of the hotel. Out on the main road it was even deeper and it was still raining!!! Also during the day we lost electricity. Luckily our hotel had a generator that kept most things running but there were a lot of hotels on the same street that weren't so lucky. While we were walking around the citadel the day before we met an English couple who had just arrived. The day before they had left Hanoi by bus and were supposed to be going to Ninh Binh which was about 2 hours south. But when they got there the driver refused to stop and drove them a further 13 hours to Hue. So they were stuck here the same as us and weren't even supposed to be there!! Thinking about how bad they must have felt made us feel a bit happier.

We were expecting to spend the whole of the next day doing the same thing as Sunday but miraculously by 8 am most of the flooding near us had gone away. The main road was still a bit waterlogged but nothing too bad. We even heard that the planes, trains and busses were running again. So we decided to take Thu (one of the sisters that runs Cafe on Thu Wheels) up on her offer of a motorcycle tour of Hué. And it was great. We both got helmets and the guys that drove us around didn't drive too fast and took lots of care at junctions. The amount of traffic on the roads around Hué was nowhere near as bad as Hanoi, but I still shut my eyes at every junction. It was good to get out and see some of the after effects of Xangsane. There were a lot of branches and trees on the roads, a few signs that had fallen down and a couple of the little roadside shanty type shops had been destroyed. But nowhere near as bad as we'd expected. And by now there was no water on the road and most people were out clearing up in some way.

A major attraction for Hué are the Tombs of old Kings but to be honest I wasn't that bothered about these because I thought that it would just be a mound of earth or something pretty lame. But they were ace. Turns out when these guys died, or were planning for their deaths they built huge complexes. After a drive out into the countryside the first one that we saw was the Tomb of Khai Dinh. Our guide told us that there wasn't much that we were allowed to see of this one so it was better to admire it from afar and save our money so that we could spend it on Tiger beer instead. Next was the Tomb of Minh Mang. This guy ruled from 1820 to 1840 and the tomb was built in the 3 years following his death. It was more like a palace than a burial ground, there were ponds, temples, pavillions and bridges all with some kind of symbolism. Then it was a short ride to bunker hill where there was a lot of fighting during the Franco-Viet Minh war, a chance to see the Perfume River and a chance for the guide to try to talk us into taking an extra tour of the Demilitarised Zone that was a couple of hours north of Hué. The Perfume River is the, now very high, river that runs through Hue. They call it this because of the flowers that grow along the river bank later in the year. At the moment though it's just a big brown river that smells like all of the rest. Then it was another tomb, this time the one belonging to Tu Duc. And this one was even better than Minh Mang's. This one was actually lived in by Tu Duc before he died and houses the remains of him, his wife the empress and his adopted son (apparently he couldn't have any of his own despite having 104 wives and concubines galore). Each one of them got a building that is just a tiny bit smaller than Minh Mangs, so it takes a long time to get around it. Again, there are lots of lakes, pavillions, frangipani trees - it's stunning. It's supposed to have taken thousands of forced labourers 3 years to build. After the tomb we rode back to town, across the Perfume River which was still trying to be navigated by a couple of small boats despite the ridiculous speed that it was flowing at and to the Thien Mu Pagoda. This 21 metre high octagonal pagoda is supposed to be one of the most famous structures in Vietnam. Behind the pagoda is a working temple, filled with monks. The most famous monk from here was Thic Quang Duc. No, I hadn't heard of him either, but I did have the Rage Against the Machine album that had his photo on the front cover. He was the first monk who set light to himself to protest against the way that the then president was opressing the Buddhist religion. They've saved the car that he took with him to Saigon and have photos in the monastery of him and his heart (supposedly the only bit of him that didn't burn). Final stop (after lunch) was the citadel, which was now open. Most of the courtyard was still flooded but we got see everything, making sure still to avoid anywhere that snakes may live. The Emperor used to live here and carry out all of his official functions so it was filled with ornate carvings, beautiful buildings, all of the things that you'd expect that an Emperor needed in the 19th century. A lot of the buildings have probably been recently renovated because when we were in Saigon we saw photos of American troops camped out inside the citadel during the Vietnam war (they call it the American war here), but they don't tell you anything about that as you walk around.

After all of the destruction from the Typhoon we'd decided to cut out some of the places we wanted to visit in Vietnam, namely Danang and Hoi An. At the time we didn't know how much damage had been done and what the roads were like. So we decided to fly straight to Saigon and avoid any potential delays that may have occured if we'd driven. The morning flight was full, but we could get on the afternoon one, so we just spent the morning eating and on the internet checking out what happened with the typhoon. When we got to the airport you could see the effects of the typhoon straight away as it was missing part of it's sign on the roof. And then when we took off you could see how much of the land was still underwater. There was very little green anywhere and you couldn't make out which body of water was river, which bits were sea and which bits were paddy fields.

We landed at Saigon (officially now known as Ho Chi Minh City, but everyone still calls it Saigon, and besides it's quicker to type Saigon) and there was the normal taxi crush but we found one that was willing to use a meter and went off in search of a guest house. Straight away we could see a difference between here and Hanoi. Firstly, there were more bikes on the road here (about 4 milion I think somebody said), but the roads are a lot wider and the pavements are free of parked vehicles so you can actually get around hassle free. Despite what everyone told us Saigon actually felt a lot easier to navigate and the traffic wasn't anywhere near as stressful as Hanoi. Don't get me wrong, the driving was still completely nuts and you still had the taxi drivers asking you if you needed a ride every 5 seconds, but it didn't seem to get you down as much as it did in Hanoi. Even the hotel touts were better, almost apathetic when compared to the persistent touts in Hanoi. They'd ask you if you needed somewhere to stay and if you said no, they'd actually leave you alone!! The only downside of walking around the area of town that all of the guesthouses are in was that you were constantly being asked if you wanted to buy drugs. Oh and there's a huge market in photocopied books. Children spend the day walking up and down the street selling these copied books. And the books aren't bad copies - they have an almost identical cover (except that there are often spelling mistakes on the back cover) but the paper is as thin as the paper in a Gideons bible and some pages haven't actually been cut or it isn't straight. No idea how they can be allowed to sell things like this out in the open. Anyway, we found a nice guest house (and a couple of books) and went out to find some food.

In the morning we were going to do a bit of sightseeing around town, first stop on the list was the Reunification Palace. This building used to be the symbol of Southern government and was the home for the President until the Communist tanks crashed through the gates on 30 April 1975, putting an end to the Republic of Vietnam. And this morning it was shut to visitors!! We didn't have any tanks so we'd have to come back in the afternoon. So we went to the War Crimes Museum instead, aparantly the name used to be Museum of American War Crimes. Despite the name change it was still as one sided as the original name would suggest. There were lots of pictures and stories from the US journalists that were in Vietnam and also a lot on the use of Agent Orange and the long term effects that it's had. All very hard hitting stuff. Luckily the tour of the Reunification Palace was a bit lighter. The building is amazing, it's been left almost exactly as it was 30 years ago. In the basement you can tour the bunker type rooms that the government were ready to run the war from and above ground you got to see all of the official rooms and were told what happened in them all. After this there was just enough time to wander the streets aimlessly and check out the different tours that we could take for tomorrow.

Near Saigon is a place called Cu Chi where they had dug a network of tunnels starting in the late 1940's which covered about 250 kms and housed about 80,000 people during the ''American War'' and there is now a museum here and you get to see the tunnels and it's one of the things that we wanted to see. The other big thing to see near Saigon is the Caodai Temple and we could tie these two things into a day trip with one of the travel agents in town. Not only did our $5 get us the transport to these places it also got us a ''guide''. This guy was a right pain. He was just so condescending, he treated us all as if he was the teacher on a school trip with a bunch of 6 year olds. We hated him the whole day!!

First of all was the Caodai temple, but on the way we got to stop off at a factory making laquer products, all made by disabled people. Well, officially we were there because they had toilets, but unofficially we were there because the tour company got a big commission for bringing us there in the hope that we'd actually buy something. We got to the temple though just in time for the noon service. Caodism is a fusion of East and West religions; Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, native Vietnamese spiritism, Christianity and Islam and not surprisingly has a very small following. The temple is a ''rocco extravaganza combining the architectural idiosyncrasies of a French church, a Chinese pagoda, the Tiger Balm Gardens and Madame Tussaud's". Basically the thing looks bizarre! Unfortunately by the time we got there we were too late to explore it properly as the noon service was about to start. So we all got taken inside and up to the viewing platform that overlooked all of the action in the centre of the temple. There were loads of us up there, which made it more like some kind of zoo than a religous building. No idea what was going on below us, and our guide wasn't much help either. But basically there were hundreds of men and women in different coloured uniforms who all filed into the large hall and sat down on the floor in tightly controlled rows. There didn't seem to be anyone that was leading a service but every now and then they'd all bow their heads to the ground. All a bit on the odd side.

Then it was back onto the bus on our way to Cu Chi. Stopping off for lunch at another kick back cafe. The only complaint about this was that we ended up sitting next to a really annoying girl that wanted to spend the whole time telling us how wonderful she was. First thing at the tunnels, well after being told all of the ''rules'' by our school teacher was a video. This thing made the War Crimes Museum seem politically neutral. It was all black and white propoganda footage from the 70's with lots of people earning medals for ''murdering Americans'' and comments about how the Americans ''fought like the devil''. It actually made it all quite funny in a sad kind of way. It was amazing though that so many people survived underground for so long. Then we all headed outside for a tour of the area which included displays of the different types of traps that were used, the methods of making weapons, making shoes (?), an old US tank and there is even a chance to shoot real guns!!! This last one was a bit sick, these were guns that probably killed people. Why the hell would anyone want to shoot one. Although by now we had a pretty decent idea who in our group would pay for the chance to tell their friends that they shot a real M16 or whatever it was and we were pretty much right. I think first up was the Aussie, but I don't think that we'd have found anyone willing to bet against this. Probably the best bit was actually getting underground into one of the tunnels. The tourist tunnel is actually in a lot better condition than any of the original ones, it's concrete lined. is a bit bigger to accomodate us wide westerners and is regularly sprayed to protect against snakes (or so they told us). Despite all of these home comforts it was still claustrophobic and just walking 100 metres in this space about 1 metre high and 50 cms wide left you dripping with sweat. I have no idea how somebody could cover kms down here like they used to. Prior to this one of the park guides climed into one of the original tunnels so that we could get a real idea of how small they were. He picked up the cover to the hole and climbed in, the hole was barely wide enough to fit his shoulders!!! We had it so easy. To be honest, the tunnels weren't exactly what I was expecting. I knew that it would be more of a propoganda theme park, but I underestimated how much. Despite this it was still amazing to hear the history of the area and to get an idea of what people did.

It was a real relief to get off of the bus and get away from that guide, even better to find an awesome restaurant that served great food and even better fruit and vegetable juices just down the road from the tour company. And then after dinner it got better by finding an internet cafe that burnt two memory cards onto a CD and gave us 2 hours each on the internet for less than a pound. We leave for Cambodia tomorrow so dead chuffed that we stuck with Vietnam as it got so much better after leaving Hanoi. It was still frustrating with people trying to screw you most of the time, but even this was a pleasant change from where they used to try to screw you all of the time. Also we got to meet a lot of friendly people, which is something that we never thought we'd do when we were in Hanoi.