Hue: The Wet Way Tour

Hue, Vietnam is one of the rainiest places on earth, and we have caught it in high mass form. It has alternated between drizzling, pouring, and raining water buffalos ever since we have arrived. Water is pooling ominously in the streets, and at times I half expect animals to start lining up two by two and asking the way to the ark, but it hasn't quite come to that yet.

The people seem perfectly accustomed though. Many get around by bicycles that have been customized with a basket that holds an elongated rain poncho from wheel to wheel. The shops and restaurants also have wide awnings that make it possible to walk around without getting too wet. Street life, so common in the rest of the Vietnam we have seen, is muted here, or driven into the garage-like restaurants on the bottom floors of buildings.

Hue was the first large town south of the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, the 10 kilometer swath of land that separated North from South Vietnam. It also lies at the narrowest point of the country, only 50 Km (30 miles) across. These circumstances made it the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Of course, in Vietnam, no one seems to remember. The DMZ tour is remarkable for its lack of sights. Apparently, on the few sunny days when it operates, you are taken to areas where such and such a thing happened, or such and such a firebase used to dominate a hill, but there are almost no monuments. The tour is supposedly a good way to see the countryside. The Vietnamese seem as intent on forgetting the war as the Americans are on refighting it shot by shot in books, movies, and chat rooms.

But it is rainy and nearly impossible to get around, or even stay outside for more than ten minutes at a stretch. What you do see is an unpretentious city that stretches out along two sides of a river (its lovely name is "Perfume River"). On one side is the imperial seat of the Vietnam empire. On the other side is a familiar backpacker district of hotels, restaurants, photo shops, and Internet cafes.

This afternoon, we will don our ponchos and go see the imperial palace.