Hoi An to Hue

Never having been known for a great love of heights, this morning I choose Option B. While some of the group decide to climb the 400 steps up the Marble Mountains - five sacred  hills containing dozens of Buddhist shrines - then descend another 400 (Option A), I choose to go with the remainder of the group to where the marble ends up.

The marble workshop and showrooms have plenty to keep us occupied, although most of the more attractive items are just a tad heavy to consider bringing home. Although in this country having something - anything - shipped is always possible. Regardless I wander through the stony crowds of statues, entranced by how delicately this very hard stone can be shaped, but ultimately fall for a sandstone elephant - possibly a god - with smooth lines that are very lovely.

The group reassembles and we board the bus. This day will be largely taken up with coach travel as we have to reach Hue (pron. Hway) by afternoon. The sweetener is that if the weather is good (it's not at the point when we leave) we can go OVER the mountain, the Hai Van Pass, the divide between North and South Vietnam and enjoying breathtaking views. 

The booby prize will be if the weather is bad. Then we must use the tunnel through the mountain because the road over the top with its multi hairpins and steepness would be too unsafe.

But before we leave the area, we take a very brief stop at Red Beach, site of the first US landing in 1963, and a popular R&R beach for soldiers during the 'American War'. For many soldiers there would be happy and sad memories associated here, but all we saw was a long beach, golden sand, and greenish water under an overcast sky. Oh, and the prospect of sharks further out. Maybe.

In Danang again, we visit the Cham Museum representing the Champa region of central Vietnam. The relatively small building is filled with weathered artefacts, statues, and gods - some of them huge and weighing tonnes - which had been excavated in the jungles in 1902 by a French archaeological team of Henri Parmentier and Charles Carpeaux. The haul has been likened to the treasures of Angkor Wat. Some pieces are intricately carved and most are remarkably well-preserved.

We see a little more of Danang today and revise upwards our previous assessment of the city. The architecture has a very obvious French influence and there is a lively waterfront esplanade beside the Han River. There are still some old-style shops and topiary trees add a jaunty air. 

But now we head north, and the weather has not cooperated. Our trip will be quicker as the tunnel is only six kilometres long whereas the twisting mountain road is 22 kilometres. Motor bikes are not allowed to use the tunnel. To pass through they must be loaded on a truck.

I had hoped the weather might have cleared on the other side of the mountain, but it has not. We pass fishing villages and resorts right on a beautiful curving bay and a lagoon with fishing boats, looking possibly as it has for centuries. Tuan, our guide, points out stalls selling small yellow bottles. "They are eucalyptus oil," he says. The sticks we see in the water indicate shrimp farms, he tells us too. 

Hue was once the capital of Vietnam and is still regarded as the intellectual capital with 12 schools of higher learning. It's a wet area, and rains 300 days a year. We can believe that as it hasn't stopped all morning.

Finally, a late lunch at La Thong Restaurant with a large hall and Japanese-style garden. The menu says the chef is proud to present regional local produce, so it's possible the fish cooked in the claypot and the prawns and squid came from bays nearby. 

With the weather misbehaving, out boat trip has been deferred until tomorrow and instead visit the tomb of Khai Dinh the last of the Nguyen dynasty. There is flight after flight of steep grey stairs and we feel we'll never reach the top. They are slippery too, and we see a couple of other tourists take a skid. Inside the tomb itself, the effect is amazing. At first glance every surface appears to be made from elaborately painted and glazed sculpture, but on closer inspection it is composed of pieces of broken glass and pottery assembled to give that impression. Regardless of this, the effect is opulent without being kitsch.

After carefully negotiating those stairs we are back on terra firma - well terra 'wetter' and are taken to the Mercure Hue Gerbera, our hotel right near the river.

The restaurant is located in the old town again, and for dinner serves 'royal cuisine' which seems to mean that every dish is more decorated. The spring rolls come as part of a peacock with a carrot head, carrot feathers and the tail is pineapple leaves. We have the happy crepes which are a feature of Hue - basically a crispy crepe with vegetables cooked inside, so that makes me happy, as I had wanted to try these.

Some of the dishes are a little special too, such as the fig salad (made using tiny local figs) with pork and shrimp served with rice cakes, and steamed lotus rice. The meal ends with not only fresh fruit but green bean cakes formed to resemble fruit, reminiscent of the Sicilian marzipan fruit.

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Next morning we visit The Citadel in Hue, a huge block like fortress opposite the gate of the Imperial City. It is heartbreaking to discover that ninety percent of the city was destroyed by bombing during the war, and much is still in ruins, although the brave and resourceful Vietnamese have plans to ultimately rebuild it. "The bombing took two weeks," we are told. "It will take 20 years to rebuild."

Inside the city walls there are a couple of elephants available to take people for rides and to be photographed with. Our guide tells us there were once thousands of elephants in Vietnam - now there are only 80.

There are few tourists, so we wander around absorbing the old city. There are some bizarre things, too, that look like fat red telephone boxes with a carved statue inside. Their resemblance (apart from the colour) to a Tardis is uncanny.

Later, at the Thien Mu Pagoda, we see the sad remains of the car which belonged to Thich Quang Duc the Buddhist monk who self-immolated in protest in 1963.

We carefully return back down the steep stairs and onto a boat for a relaxing ride on the Perfume River. We have the wide boat to ourselves and also a private salesperson, a pretty young woman, who begins to sell us clothing and souvenirs as soon as we leave the shore. It's all a lot of fun and of course we can't resist this novel opportunity to shop.

Lunch is at The Ancient Hue Royal Cuisine & Gallery. With more time we might have explored the five authentic Hue houses on the site, but we have a plane to catch for Hanoi shortly after lunch. The meal is gracious and elegant, most memorable for the dessert which is coconut ice cream in soft meringue (a little like a Vietnamese take on bombe alaska) but with the added finesse of a pastry palm tree planted on one side of it.