We moved south by plane on Thursday and began a tour of Hue & the city of Da Nang. We are stayed in Hoi An for 2 days, a resort city south of Da Nang.
Hue is a relatively small city on two rivers 300 km south of Hanoi. It is most known as the capital of the last king of Vietnam. The historical sites include his palace and related grounds that are being slowly restored after being destroyed during the Vietnam war. His grave is also grandiose and was mostly completed before he died.
It is interesting that we saw many more pictures of Uncle Ho on public buildings in Hue than in the north. Hue is in the former South Vietnam where Uncle Ho was not as well accepted. As we sat on the rooftop bar of our hotel, we were entertained by Vietnamese, US & French songs from a very loud sound system at Hue’s city hall. You could clearly hear the music a mile away.
The drive to Da Nang is beautiful as it goes over one of the highest Vietnamese mountain passes with views of both Hue in the north and the modern (and obviously re-built) city of Da Nang in the south.
The marble mountains south of Da Nang consist of 5 small mountains whose fruits caused farmers to turn to higher earning careers in sculpture. The number of carved Buddhas, animals and other figures (in all sizes) is amazing. A cave has been transformed with images of Hell.
