Hue Imperial Palace, 2

Continuing our brief tour of the Imperial Palace in Hue...

Smaug

Wider views

So was he doing the rice menu or the menu Francaise?

Third Empire?

Remnant of 1968?

Another for my collection

Wall and ceiling in one of the throne rooms

Dress-up apparently is really big in Vietnam; rental costumes; here, the grand-
parents pose with the grand-children; with permission, I am snapping away,
along with the professional photog, and the parents, all laughing away....

Road not taken, maybe to the ponds, maybe to the gardens

Street lanterns; we were tired, suffering from the heat, ready to go home and
watch the riot police practice

Cyclos massing for attack: pedaled conveniences, lining up for a tour bus of
customers

One cyclo driver had been stalking us, haggling over the price; finally we
succumbed for a duo ride back to the south bank and the Little Italy resto of
our choice; it was certainly one of the more memorable rides of the last 11 years

Passing by the military history park (no thanks)

Across the historic bridge

And on, at length, to our destination; by pedal 

Hue Imperial Palace, 1

The Imperial Palace, of the Nguyen Dynasty, dates from the early 19th century until the mid-20th, contemporaneous with the French "protectorate" of Vietnam. French/Vietnamese colonial history. Certainly worth a look if you're in Hue.

Huge moat around the Citadel and the Imperial Palace

Entrance building; well, one of them

Imperial koi

Feed me, feed me, over here on the left...

Many stages of entrances

Not going to picture all the halls and buildings

Helpful map of the environs

Less helpful model of the palace grounds, perhaps as they were, pre-1968

Moving right along

Imperial hot tub; seats 6

Imperial stamps; interesting how many of the artifacts survived...

Roof decor

The place is studded with interesting photographs from the 19th century, some
from French archives

One of many beautiful hall ways and arcades

More Hue Scenes

BTW, it is pronounced "whey," as in what Little Miss Muffet was eating while sitting on her tuffet. Along with her curds. Just FYI.

Along the side street markets...motorscooter shopping...
seriously...they ride by, examining the wares, point, and
the merchant serves it up; and on to the next shop, never
getting off the bike

Our explorations took us along or across the Perfume River on a few occasions;
here is the line-up of boats waiting to take you five miles up the river to see the
Pagoda; and back; we met our pagoda quota in China years ago

The south side of the river was lined with a variety of attractive parks, including
a sculpture park

Spicy shrimp district in the huge, covered Dong Ba market

The market is definitely on everyone's tourist itinerary for Hue; I would caution
that this is no tourist market, as many others we've seen; very close quarters,
many touts and everyone anxious for your business; intense; an hour was plenty
for us

Hardware store

Hue traffic

Sic transit sick motorscooter, on a cyclo 

What the well-dressed motor-cyclista wears in Hue

Perfume River from the main bridge to the Citadel

The DMZ bar and restaurant; Vietnamese owned and operated; we had lunch
here one day, more out of curiosity than anything else

The decor (here, the ceiling) is entirely of the war, but pitched to attract
foreigners, especially Americans, of whom there were not a few

AK-47 and M-16 door handles

The food was tasty even if the decor was not 

Still on the south side of the river, residential construction

In the neighborhood where young people and tourists congregate

Another tree that has probably seen too much; a beautiful
old bouganvillea rising up past the third floor