[RD] Backpacking Việt Nam (2019)

[warpus]

Yeah, I think the variety of avocado played a role in the much different taste.. but also the freshness! At the time I assumed it was mostly because in Peru I was eating super fresh avocados, but in Canada you can only buy avocados that have spent some period of time on a boat and/or truck.

 

[Samson]

Yeah, I think the variety of avocado played a role in the much different taste.. but also the freshness! At the time I assumed it was mostly because in Peru I was eating super fresh avocados, but in Canada you can only buy avocados that have spent some period of time on a boat and/or truck.

I know little about avocados, but much mediterranean fruit you get here in the UK is harvested before it is ripe, so it survives the journey. When you buy them close to the mediterranean they have actually been allowed to ripen, so unsurprisingly taste loads better.

 

[warpus]

Trường Tiền Bridge

This bridge was designed by Gustave Eiffel and was completed in 1899, connecting the historic northern bank of the Perfume river with the French colonial quarter on the other side. It's one of the oldest such bridges in Vietnam and at the time of construction was a symbol of the country's modernization. To this day it remains the most important and iconic bridge in Huế and one of the symbols of the city.



Walking across the 400 metre long bridge it might not necessarily strike you as especially significant, but it is an important part of history nevertheless. It lights up at night, although I am not sure if I ended up getting any shots of that.

Not really related to the bridge, but still worth a mention is that Charlie Chaplin honeymooned near here in the 1930s. The hotel he stayed at with his third wife is a very short walk from the bridge on the southern bank (behind me in the photo)

 

[warpus]

Ngọ Môn
The Meridian Gate

This large gate was built in 1833 under the rule of emperor Minh Mạng of the Nguyễn dynasty as an observation point for ceremonies and troop movements. It is the southern and main entrance to the Imperial City of Huế.



The gate is modelled after the Meridian gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.



After a half an hour walk from my homestay this was to be the starting point for my exploration of the Imperial City of Huế.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I admit at the time I wasn't yet sure what it is We have them here too, but I've never had one.

The one in your photo looks nothing like those available at my grocery store.

From my experience eating a tropical fruit close to where its grown can also be a very different experience from buying the same fruit in a far away place like Canada. I experienced this first-hand when I devoured mountains of avocados in Peru and excitedly bought some as soon as I returned home... but they tasted nothing alike and it was a big disappointment. Avocados are expensive here, so I have pretty much not bought one since.

I've never had avocado.

About the only food experience I've had when comparing fresh-from-when-it-was-alive to my plate to coming-by-truck-and-frozen was on Vancouver Island, when we had lunch at a restaurant up the coast when we went to China Beach. Freshly-caught Pacific salmon is light-years ahead of the stuff in the grocery store here.

 

[Samson]

The one in your photo looks nothing like those available at my grocery store.


I've never had avocado.

About the only food experience I've had when comparing fresh-from-when-it-was-alive to my plate to coming-by-truck-and-frozen was on Vancouver Island, when we had lunch at a restaurant up the coast when we went to China Beach. Freshly-caught Pacific salmon is light-years ahead of the stuff in the grocery store here.

Yeah, fish is the thing that being fresh makes the biggest difference.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yeah, fish is the thing that being fresh makes the biggest difference.

I've had other fresh-fish experiences, but those didn't involve any kind of fish that we ever bought in grocery stores. We'd sometimes have freshly-caught kokanee from Okanagan Lake, the summers when we had the cabin there. Either my grandfather and/or dad would go out in the boat and catch a few, or my grandmother would fish from the pier.

I caught my own fish one time, in the North Saskatchewan River. I remember being shocked at catching anything, and when I yanked my line out of the water, the fish smacked my grandmother right in the face (mom's mother, so I feel no guilt about that). She wasn't happy, since she'd wanted a picture of me catching my own fish (I was about 5 or 6 at the time, and we were on a Labor Day weekend camping trip). I caught two that weekend. They weren't large, but they tasted pretty good.

Some friends of my grandparents used to go fishing on Pigeon Lake, and they'd bring us a whitefish or two sometimes. My grandmother had a wonderful way with fish, when it came to preparing them. I remember her getting upset with me when I didn't want to put lemon juice on mine. She wouldn't believe me when I told her that it was so good that it didn't need anything else on it.

 

[Samson]

I've had other fresh-fish experiences, but those didn't involve any kind of fish that we ever bought in grocery stores. We'd sometimes have freshly-caught kokanee from Okanagan Lake, the summers when we had the cabin there. Either my grandfather and/or dad would go out in the boat and catch a few, or my grandmother would fish from the pier.

I caught my own fish one time, in the North Saskatchewan River. I remember being shocked at catching anything, and when I yanked my line out of the water, the fish smacked my grandmother right in the face (mom's mother, so I feel no guilt about that). She wasn't happy, since she'd wanted a picture of me catching my own fish (I was about 5 or 6 at the time, and we were on a Labor Day weekend camping trip). I caught two that weekend. They weren't large, but they tasted pretty good.

Some friends of my grandparents used to go fishing on Pigeon Lake, and they'd bring us a whitefish or two sometimes. My grandmother had a wonderful way with fish, when it came to preparing them. I remember her getting upset with me when I didn't want to put lemon juice on mine. She wouldn't believe me when I told her that it was so good that it didn't need anything else on it.

Fresh fish has been my most expensive luxury over the last year. I pay <£1/Kg for fruit, <£1.5/Kg for vegetables and <£3/Kg for meat but £9/Kg for sardines and when in season occasionally £22/Kg for plaice. They are delivered really fresh by a local fishmongers.

 

[warpus]

The Imperial City of Huế

The Imperial City is a square walled enclosure within the larger citadel grounds. These days it is mainly the imperial city that's worth exploring, as most of the rest of the citadel has been filled in with residential and commercial infrastructure. You can still clearly see the outline of the larger citadel when looking at a map of the city (see this post)

As you make your way through the Meridian Gate (at the bottom in the following image), you are presented with a vast area to explore. Unfortunately not a lot has survived since the days of the last Vietnamese dynasty, so a lot of the imperial city grounds are green fields with occasional run down structures of note. Nevertheless, you do get a sense of what the imperial city must have looked like back in the days of the Nguyễn dynasty.



Both these images are from an informative sign right by the Meridian Gate. I spent some time here while I figured out how to begin my exploration of the imperial city grounds. There is enough interesting information here that's worth including as is, instead of rewriting everything into my own words.

 

[Birdjaguar]

With the new infusion of manufacturing in the country, maybe Vietnam can raise the capital it needs to speed up the restoration.

 

[warpus]

With the new infusion of manufacturing in the country, maybe Vietnam can raise the capital it needs to speed up the restoration.

During my travels through South-East Asia (i.e. Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) I noticed that it was common for western organizations and governments to fund such restoration efforts. This is just anecdotal but they usually seemed to be European and occasionally Japanese. I noticed this in Nepal as well.

The Vietnamese economy is indeed booming right now, or at least was when I was there. Hopefully this does free up some funds to help restore some of these structures!

 

[warpus]

Thái Hòa Palace

The first structure you see when pass through the Meridian gate is the Thái Hòa Palace, which is where the coronation of Nguyễn emperors took place. This is also where the emperor, his royal family, and court mandarins attended important ceremonies and state meetings.

This Palace is also known as the Throne Palace and the Palace of Supreme Harmony. It is one of the major buildings at the imperial city that managed to survive destruction during the American (Vietnam) war.

 

[Birdjaguar]

A very downsized Forbidden City. Very cool throne though!

 

[warpus]

A very downsized Forbidden City. Very cool throne though!

Yeah, it seems that there was a decent amount of inspiration from the Forbidden City in Beijing and the imperial courts there. The rank of mandarin and the imperial examination system were copied as well.

It does make a lot of sense, as the Nguyễn dynasty was actually founded as a tributary state of the (Chinese) Qing empire. The first Nguyễn emperor received an imperial pardon from the Qing and was recognized as the ruler of Vietnam in exchange of his acceptance of this arrangement. (known as suzerainty - you can read more about it here)

I suspect that these inspirations were also a reflection of the fact that Qing China had been around since the 1600s and must have been viewed as a stable and successful force with a lot of history behind it. I could be wrong, but it just makes sense to me that you'd want to model your new empire and capital after something iconic and successful. It seems similar to the way that some western government structures resemble old Greek and Roman designs.

edit: it seems that the first Nguyễn emperor also embraced confucianism. This might have played a role in this as well.

 

[The_J]

Very cool throne though!

Well... it looks a bit small, doesn't it?
Your average Civ2 throne would be bigger ^^.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Well... it looks a bit small, doesn't it?
Your average Civ2 throne would be bigger ^^.

Am I allowed to say that the Vietnamese are a petite people?

 

[FriendlyFire]

Am I allowed to say that the Vietnamese are a petite people?

Thats RACIST !
Clearly they are mini-me-chinese (puts twinky to mouth)

 

[warpus]

Unfortunately a lot of the rest of the imperial city was destroyed during American bombing raids. It's also a large area to cover and it can be tough to keep track of what exactly I was photographing as I made my way around the grounds. All of this sort of added to the mystique and ambiance of the place.. You could sort of look around and try to imagine what all this might have looked like 200 years ago. There weren't many tourists around either, which was a big plus as far as I was concerned.

The Forbidden Citadel part of the complex has an interesting set of walkways known as Trường Làng. There used to be 23 such hallways, but from what I could see there were only a couple sections left. These days they contain historical images as well as poetry written by Emperor Minh Mạng, who was the 2nd Nguyễn emperor. I wish I had gotten better photographs of it, but I was too busy taking in the details with my eyes. The ceilings here were especially interesting.



A bit further north is the Cần Thanh Hall, which is a green space that sits adjacent to the emperor's private residence.



At this point I was walking north and was hoping to circle around later and cover the other parts of the imperial city grounds. As such I walked right past the emperor's private residence and am not even sure if I ended up making my way back to it later.

Like I said a lot of the buildings here have been destroyed and many structures are just not maintained very well. As you make your way around the grounds you walk by many grassy fields with occasional structures, gates, and walls drawing your attention here and there.



That circular design you see right above this gate is a symbol that's associated with the Queen. It's tough to say, but this gate could have been an entrypoint to the Queen's residence, or something related to that.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The Summer Palace in Beijing has such walkways that have wonderfully decorated ceiling that were painted in bright colors.

 

[warpus]

It was almost a bit eerie walking through some of these bare central parts of the complex