05/27/14

I realize that I have not posted anything for quite some time now, in fact it has been over a month since my last entry. Unfortunately, over the last month I have had to deal with a few personal issues and so writing has not been much of a priority. First, I have had a bit of writer's block. When I started this journey, I never thought of how much work writing a travel journal would be. I had hoped to keep up with the journal entries as I went, however, I always got sidetracked by other events or activities. Almost everyday, something new occurred and since I haven't had the dedication to write everyday, days and activities accumulated, so I have fallen quite behind. As it is, the last journal entry was set in Vietnam and happened way back in January!

However, the most important issue is a medical problem that was discovered nearly a month ago in China. While undergoing tests for a completely unrelated illness, it was discovered that I have a tumor in my right kidney. Obviously, this news came as a bit of a shock. Fortunately, the tumor was caught early and I should be fine following treatment. Unfortunately, the treatment is surgery to remove the portion of my kidney that contains the tumor. Due to this, I had decided to cut my trip short and return to the U.S. Presently, I am home in Wisconsin, awaiting surgery, which is scheduled for June 3rd.

For the past few weeks, I have been dealing with finding a doctor, doctor appointments and tests and dealing with insurance issues, so I haven't had much time nor the drive to do much writing. But now things are rolling and I am positive that everything will turn out ok. And for the next few months, I pretty much have nothing to do! I will, probably, be doing a lot of reading, sleeping and watching Netflix as I recover! However, I also will be finishing my journal entries. I have a lot of stories that I want to tell about my trip and so I will do my best to use this free time to continue what I have started. Even though I am home, the journey will continue, so be on the look out for future articles and pictures that I will be posting. Without further ado, let's go back to where I left off, the former imperial city of Huẽ, Vietnam!

01/12/14 - 01/13/14

The city of Huẽ stands in central Vietnam on the Perfume River. It is an important Vietnamese city, as it was once the Imperial capital of first the Southern part of Vietnam under the Nguyen Lords in the 17th through 19th century and then the entire nation under the Nguyen Dynasty. The Nguyen Dynasty lasted for nearly 150 years. In 1945, the last emperor abdicated and the Communist regime was established in Hanoi. Huẽ has lost a bit of prominence since then as the Communist regime did not view the Nguyen Dynasty in a favorable light. Fortunately, this view has been changing in recent years and some historical relics are now being restored.

I arrived in Huẽ in early afternoon, and after checking into my hotel, went of to find the Citadel. The Citadel was the old palace of the Nguyen emperors. It was not just a normal palace, but a fortified imperial city, which contained another smaller city, that was forbidden to anyone other than the Imperial Family. Of course, now it is open to the public. The concept is very similar to the more famous Forbidden City in Beijing, China.

The walls of the Citadel and several of the buildings are still standing, but a lot of the opulence and grandeur of the imperial city were gone. Unfortunately, the Citadel was bombed heavily during the Vietnam War, so many of the structures are not there anymore. One can walk around the ground and see where the buildings once stood and can get a good idea of how they looked from the buildings that survived the war. The buildings that were standing, however, were very interesting. The one thing that I have noticed in Vietnam is how heavily its culture has been influenced by the Chinese. This was quite noticeable here, as there were several images and motifs that seemed vaguely Chinese, including dragons, the architectural style of the buildings and even some of the traditional clothing worn by some of the people working in the Imperial forbidden city. The reason for this influence is most likely due to the fact that the Chinese, at one point, ruled the territories of Vietnam for nearly 1000 years! Even though, the Citadel was half destroyed, it still was very impressive to see.

I wandered around Huẽ a little more after visiting the Citadel and stumbled upon a curious and more modern part of Vietnamese life. I came into a large area right outside the Citadel, were hundreds of kids were rollerblading! It struck me as odd, for some reason, especially since most of the kids were so abysmal at rollerblading. Maybe it was some sort of special event or maybe it was just something the kids liked to do in the evening, but it still was rather entertaining to watch. Some of the kids were pretty good skaters, but most weren't. Since, I had hundreds of subjects to choose from, I decided to practice my motion photography. Unfortunately, I didn't really get that great of shots. Oh well, it was still fun watching the kids messing around with each other and doing their very best to rollerblade.

Finally, on the way back to my hotel, I stopped to get something to eat. I stopped at place that had an outdoor patio and sat down for some food and a beer. While I was eating, a few people showed up with a large camera and started filming something on the patio. This wasn't just a small portable camera you might have at home, but it was like those cameras you see on the news or are used to film tv shows or movies. I wasn't sure what was going on, so I ordered another beer and asked the waiter what was being filmed. He had no idea either, so I hung out a little longer to see if I could find out. The "actors" were a couple of pretty Vietnamese girls and they had a cameraman and someone that could have been a director or a producer or something. They shot a few scenes, but I still had no idea what was going on. Not much seemed to be going on though, so finally, I lost interest and just went on my way, never actually finding out what was being filmed. Who knows, maybe I'll be showing up in the background of some Vietnamese movie or TV show!

The whole next day was pouring rain, and unfortunately for me, I had signed up for a tour. So I was stuck in the rain most of the day. Despite the rain, the tour actually turned out to be pretty good. The tour was to go to a few temples in the city and then some of the Imperial tombs of the Nguyen Emperors outside of the city. The temples were very nice, with Chinese style Pagodas and structures, and the tombs were fascinating in their opulence. The statues and architecture of the tombs were very interesting and strangely the rain gave them a more somber atmosphere, which seems appropriate for visiting tombs. I actually quite enjoyed the tour, despite the rain.

After the tour, I went back to my hotel and waited to go the train station. I was now taking the night train to Hanoi. Even though, I was only in Huẽ for barely two days, I really enjoyed the city. The historical significance of the city and the building and tombs of the city really made it interesting. The city was also a nice little place to walk around in and just enjoy the atmosphere. Now I was off to the chaos of Hanoi, which would be a jumping off point to visit the world famous Halong Bay!