Vietnam 26: Hue

Mom and Dad once again invaded/blessed us with their presence in Vietnam and we did some touring. After a few days in sunny Hoi An, we drove up the coast to Hue. It’s a beautiful three hour drive. First, up the coast through Danang, passing a several mile stretch of massive hotel construction. Danang has a beautiful white sand beach – known as “China Beach” during the war. Within 2 years, the 20 kilometer stretch from Hoi An to Danang should have thousands of 5-star hotel rooms, golf courses and a (huge and tacky) casino. I go to Danang frequently for work and am always impressed by its well-regulated traffic (trust me, if you lived in Hanoi, you’d also be thrilled by well-regulated traffic), modern infrastructure, and fresh seafood. Anyway, Mom and Dad got to see the airport and a highway.

Once past Danang, the three hour drive took us up and over the mountains in Bach Ma national park along the coast. The road winds up along the mountainside overlooking the East (South China) Sea. As we approached heights of close to 2,000 feet, we enjoyed a wide panorama first of Danang in its bay and then, once we cleared the pass, of the coastline up to Hue. On a sunny day, you can see for miles. On a hazy day, somewhat less, but it’s still a wonderful view. It’s always windy, so the temperature was quite mild. Once we finished traversing the hairpin turns on the way down the mountain, we could look back at the cloud-covered mountain tops marching to the ocean.

Hue served as the imperial capital of Vietnam during the reign of the Nguyen Emperors from the dynasty’s founding in 1802 by Gia Long to its end, with the abdication of Emperor Bao Dai in 1945. The Perfume River bisects the city, with the citadel and the Imperial Purple Palace on the north and much of the modern city on the south. In the hills and valleys surrounding the city lie several elaborate tombs for the Nguyen Emperors. Unlike many Vietnamese waterways, the Perfume River has not yet been subject to heavy industrial and urban pollution. While I can’t see it actually lives up to its name, at the least, you could call it the “Neutral Smelling” River or the “That Actually Smells Like Water” River.

We stayed at the Le Residence hotel, which was constructed as part of the French Governors residence in the early part of the 20th century. Newly expanded, it retains its art deco architecture, with beautiful rooms over the river. Liz and I enjoyed massages at the hotel Spa, where I saw a copy of “AsiaSpaMen” magazine. Now, I can imagine a fairly large market for a certain type of men’s spa in Asia, but this seemed to be on the up and up, which made me wonder how large the target demographic would be for Asian Men who like spas or for Men who like (legitimate) Asian spas.

The tombs of the Nguyen Emperors and the Imperial Palace are the main tourist attractions in Hue. We visited three tombs – Minh Mang and Tu Duc, from early in the 19th century, and Khai Dinh (Bao Dai’s predecessor) from the early 20th century. The sites were well chosen – nestled into mountain valleys or along rivers and streams, carefully situated according to Feng Shui principles. With rolling hills and fresh-scented pine, they were a far cry from hazy Hanoi. The tombs for Tu Duc and Minh Mang were (not surprisingly) very Asian, most likely modeled on Chinese architecture. Khai Dinh, who served as Emperor when the French were firmly established in Indochina, had a tomb that merged European and Asian styles remarkably well. The Imperial Palace was undergoing some repairs and didn’t impress us as much as the tombs. I did, however, almost walk into a 9-inch spider in the men’s room (I have photos), so the visit didn’t lack for excitement (read: terror).

Into every life a little rain must fall. For us, it was the food in Hue. Throughout Vietnam, Hue is known as the place to get the best Vietnam food. From imperial cuisine to spicy local dishes, this is the place to eat well. Except, we didn’t. Even Liz’s co-workers from Hue pushed us towards the tourist traps. Too much time worrying about presentation, less time focused on taste. I know it must be there and won’t rest until we find it. We did, however, find a couple of nice, low-end places, but nothing like we had expected. Nevertheless, as per usual, I returned home with a nice batch of food poisoning – the souvenir that just keeps giving.

Vietnam 25: Shanghai

For two countries that border each other and share a similar governing ideology, Vietnam and China do not make air transportation easy. Though Shanghai airlines recently inaugurated thrice weekly service from Hanoi to Shanghai, the 2 am departure and 5:30 am arrival didn’t seem too appealing. Instead, I chose the Dragon Air flight connecting through Hong Kong. What it lacks in directness, it makes up for in scheduling (11 am departure). Plus, I got to use the Cathay Pacific business lounge at the Hong Kong airport (American Airlines, you could learn something).

I spent four days in Shanghai visiting my good college friend Brian McKay. When not getting schooled at NBA 2K9, Brian was a warm and generous host, indulging my desire for good Chinese food and showing me Shanghai’s vibrant nightlife. It’s impossible to get to know a mammoth metropolis like Shanghai in 4 days, but I came away with a few impressions.

Shanghai is huge and Brian noted that is has more skyscrapers than New York City. With about 20 million people, the metro area stretches on for miles horizontally and hundreds of feet vertically. It has modernized at a remarkable pace, with the Pu Dong area of towering office buildings and hotels constructed on a riverbank that not so long ago was largely barren. In other areas, modern shopping malls have sprouted along bustling arteries, connected to residential neighborhoods through a modern metro system. And, they’re not done. As signs everywhere tell you, Shanghai will host the World Expo in 2010 and the city fathers are hustling to complete preparations. Its per capita income of over $11,000 is over 3 times the national average and roughly 11x that of Vietnam. Yet, at the same time, compared to Hanoi, it seemed an oasis of peace and tranquility. Sure, there are motorbikes, but most of them ran on electricity rather than the noisy two stroke engines in Vietnam. Almost nobody honked. Most drivers seemed to follow traffic guidance. Nice.

Like many Asian cities, as Shanghai modernizes, it faces the conundrum of what to keep and what to bulldoze. I don’t know what the future holds, but, for now at least, not all areas of Shanghai have yet become the new set for Bladerunner. Beside the Huang Pu river, the old Western banking houses built in the early part of the 20th century along the Bund remain, some of which now host upscale retail establishments and restaurants. From across the river in the evening, you can watch their stately fascades brightly lit up. In the French concession, there are apartment buildings that seem magically transported from Paris, complete with tree-shrouded boulevards. On my first day, the weather was beautiful, enabling me to stroll through parks and watch retirees practice tai chi or ballroom dancing.

Shanghai has long been a trade and financial center and does not have the historical monuments of Beijing, the beautiful scenery of Hangzhou or the terra cotta warriors of Xian. Yet, I enjoyed strolling through the ultra-modern urban planning museum, with its giant 3-D map of the city and its collection of old propaganda posters (the posters that I viewed were more colorful and Norman Rockwell-like than those in Hanoi, many of which focus on the struggle against the French and the U.S.). The Shanghai museum has a great collection of Tang Dynasty Buddhist statues and pottery. Outside, I struggled to avoid the clutches of friendly, well-dressed young folks, who kept trying to convince me to join them at tea shops. I can be a bit oblivious, but even I’m not getting sucked into purchasing over-priced tea from touts.

Liz and I typically judge a vacation based on the quality of food which we consumed. Using that standard, I’d call my trip a success. Brian took me on a tour of Chinese regional cuisine, allowing me to sample sweeter Shangai dishes, Cantonese favorites from Hong Kong, well-seasoned Yunnanese plates, and spicy Szechuan cooking. From neighborhood shops to modern and sleekly designed restaurants catering to expats, it’s all there. Plus, access to all sorts of other Asian cuisine and Western bars and bistros.

After dinner, Shanghai has many entertainment options. In Hanoi, the sidewalks are rolled up at 10 pm, so I was unprepared and paralyzed by choice. One night, we went to see jazz, another a bar specializing in Belgian beers, and finally a trip to a salsa club, where I tried to shuffle my feet gamely when dragged onto the dance floor. I had thought Bangkok was remarkably cosmopolitan, and it is, but I think that Shanghai’s new wealth and huge population (local, but also expat – including over 25,000 Americans resident in Shanghai) put it in another league. Liz and I had never really considered a China posting. Now, who knows?