My second stop in Vietnam was Hue where I spent two nights. Hue is located in Central Vietnam and was the capital of the country from 1802 - 1945. Phu Bai International Airport (HUI) is the local airport. Since I started my trip in Ho Chi Minh City which is in the South of Vietnam I took a one hour flight over to Hue. The flight from Hanoi which is North Vietnam would also be about an hour and ten minutes. Hoi An and Da Nang are two other centrally located popular tourist cities near Hue. I hired a car from Hue to Hoi An for $55usd so I would assume it would be about the same coming the other way if you chose to start in one of those cities. It should be a little cheaper from Da Nang because Da Nang is between Hue and Hoi An. If you are a haggler and like taking a chance on locals you may get it cheaper. I was sticking with drivers arranged through the hotel, so I’m sure I paid a premium.
Day 2 I planned to visit Khai Dinh Tomb, Ming Mang Tomb, Thien Mu Pagoda and The Citadel. I scheduled a $17usd half day easy rider bike to take me to the first three because they were far out and would have been more expensive by taxi. So the front desk suggested the easy rider driver for those three and then suggested I do a taxi or walk to the Citadel in the evening on my own. The driver cost did not include the 3 tomb tickets package which I purchased at the first tomb for 280,000vnd ($13). The Thien Mu Pagoda is free so the total for the driver and all four stops was roughly $30.
The driver offered to take me to the “non-tourist” areas (for an additional fee of course 200,000vnd ($9usd)). One of the places he took me was along the perfume river where The Battle of Huế (Siege of Huế ) took place. This was one of the longest and deadliest battles of the Vietnam War that started when the Việt Cộng (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) mad a sneak attack in Hue. The battle lasted about twenty six days and The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) with help from the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps defeated Việt Cộng (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The other place he took me was the abandoned Dragon Water Park. As we pulled up some random guy came out and said we had to pay 20,000 vnd ($0.90) to enter, so I paid it. I got some cool pictures there so the entry fee that was under a dollar was worth it. Granted I think this was all game and I am pretty sure I way over paid for this service because $9usd is a lot of money in Vietnam. I also bought a coke from the lady in the water park for 15,000vnd ($0.68) even though coke was 8,000vnd at the store. #hustlenation #ineverhavetogoback
I only had one proper meal in Hue at Elegant Restaurant. It was a decent meal of spaghetti and the garlic bread was yummy! If I had it to do again I would have spent another night in Hue because my hotel Serene Palace Hue was located right near the walking street. I had a stroll down my second night when I decided to walk back to the hotel from the Citadel.
I stayed at the Serene Palace Hue. You can view the hotel information by clicking on each of the links below.
The songs in the video are available for purchase on Amazon.
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