If You Thought the Elephants Had It Bad ...

Right before we left, I was playing around with my best friend Google and happened across a new-to-me travel website. Looking at what it had listed for Hue, it mentioned something called Ho Quyen, the tiger fighting arena, as "probably the most interesting site in Hue, and it is too often overlooked by visitors." We obviously did not hear about this three years ago, or we would have so been there with the sons. We had plans to bike there each of the past two weekends but between my having a cold on the first of those and intermittent rain this past one, we never made it. Today, the husband rented a bike on his way back from the university and, after a lunch of fruit from Dong Ba Market, we set out. The arena is only a bit more than two miles from our hotel, but most of that is on a somewhat rural street with no shade to speak of meaning that it could make for a rather uncomfortable day. Biking was definitely the way to go.

A little background ... the Nguyen kings who ruled Vietnam had as a symbol of their monarchy, the elephant. Tigers symbolized rebellion. The kings initially staged annual battles between tigers and elephants on an island in the Perfume River. The emperor and his retinue watched from a boat. During one fight in the time of Emperor Minh Mang (who is perhaps more famous for his 142 children), the tiger bolted into the water and swam to the emperor's boat before being subdued. The emperor decided that a better fighting place was needed and ordered the construction of Ho Quyen in 1830. The last fight was held in 1904; the arena still stands today though you cannot get up to the tribune where the emperor and his party sat.

This may be the most interesting site in Hue, but all we had to go on were the directions on the travelfish site. Bike 2.5 kilometers down the street in front of the train station, Bui Thi Xuan, to Nguyen Tran Cong Chua on the left. Go past this street and look for an alley, Kiet 373, on the left. The arena is 200 meters down the alley. We actually found it with no problems other than dodging trucks and motorbikes on our pedal-your-own bikes. As we were parking and locking our bikes, a cute little boy about six ran up with a shoebox of bracelets and necklaces made of wooden beads. He showed me several and told me they were 30,000 VND (Vietnamese dong), which is a bit less than $1.50. Knowing what such bracelets are sold for back in the city center of Hue by people not nearly as polite and cute as this guy, I bought one, after which he disappeared and did not try to press his luck on a second sale, another thing setting him apart from many of the merchants here.

Another Western tourist type person had just left the arena with a motorbike driver, and he told us that the man in the uniform who had watched us lock our bikes and buy the bracelet would open the arena for us for 20,000 VND, or a bit less than $1.00. While the outside is impressive
the inside is even more so. This is what it looks like (my point-and-shoot digital has a neat panorama feature that stitches three shots together) from the gate through which the elephant would enter, beneath the royal viewing stand. This is looking from the gate directly across the arena, one of the five through which tigers would enter. The arena consists of two concentric brick walls; the inside diameter is 144 feet. The concentric walls made it easy to have "holding cells" for the tigers to be used in the fights. There are still what look like claw marks in the at least one of these cells. Whether these really are claw marks as suggested by travelfish is debatable since the truth of the fights is that they were rigged so that the imperial elephant would always win. The tigers were weakened through starvation or drugs and might have their claws and fangs removed or their mouths sewn shut. This is why the travelfish description ends by noting "gruesome, yes, but one of the most vivid object lessons in Vietnamese history available in Hue." As much as I felt sorry for the elephants currently housed in the Citadel in Hue, I felt even sorrier for the tigers in these fights.

After we exited the arena, the guard who opened it for us told us there was a temple down a side path. Since the bikes were locked up, we decided to take a look. The temple sits opposite a pond and has an entrance reminiscent of many of the other pagodas we've visited. Although it is basically deserted inside, someone maintains several small altars.
Someone also keeps the grounds looking neat. On the way back to our bicycles, we noted a rather colorful caterpillar and bought a small drum made from a large nut from a young man making them in his front yard. We biked back into town and treated ourselves to banana-coconut fruit shakes from our favorite cafe for such things, and pronounced it an afternoon well worth the effort and minor expense (about $12.00 total including bike rental, bracelet, drum, opening of the arena gate, fruit shakes, and spring rolls). The only down side is that biking makes it cumbersome to stop and take street photos. There was an old woman wearing the conical hat of Hue, crouched beside the road puffing away on a roll-your-own cigarette that would have made a priceless photo. Perhaps I should have borrowed the helmet camera younger son has for his motorcycle rides. Maybe next trip. I'm already thinking of an extended bike trip here in some future year. You can let me know if you want in on that action.

From One Extreme to the Other

Three years ago, we toured the Citadels and the Imperial City on one of the hottest days of our stay. This year, we went on the second day of what may turn out to be an incredible cool spell. The ten-day forecast I checked earlier this morning had no daytime high over 78 degrees Fahrenheit. All the lows overnight were in the 60s. And for one day, 1 April, the forecast high and low temperatures were 69 and 65 degrees. These are totally unexpected temperatures for this time of year. The husband actually expressed gratitude for our post-Hue trip to Australia without which, he said, he probably would not have even brought along a jacket.

The area outside the Citadel as a paid attraction is usually teeming with activity on weekends, and yesterday was no exception. Football can be played almost anyplace, especially with bicycles to use to define the goal areas.
With Hue Festival looming on the horizon, much of the Citadel and Imperial City no longer lends itself to "postcard photography." Between temporary lighting rigs and stadium seating, they also appear to be adding some large stages. The shot above was taken from the top of the Ngo Mon (Noon) Gate, looking outside toward the flag tower. The Ngo Mon Gate is 190 feet wide and was once reserved for the sole use of the emperor. Once inside the gate, the Trung Dao Bridge leads to the Esplanade of Great Salutations and the Thai Hoa Palace (Palace of Supreme Harmony). During court ceremonies, the mandarins would stand in ranks of nine, civil mandarins to the left and military mandarins to the right as they faced the emperor. No photography is permitted inside the palace, a posted rule that I followed unlike several folks who seemed to think the posted signs did not include phonotography (cell phone-photography). Behind the Thai Hoa Palace once stood the Can Chanh Palace which contained a second throne room in which the emperor conducted daily business. The golden dragon statue in the center of the above photo is pretty incredible up close. The Mandarin Halls to the left and tight of where the Can Chanh Palace once stood still exist. The hall to the right displays works from the Hue Museum of Royal Fine Arts as well as contains a small art gallery. This painting was a particular favorite of mine there. The Left Mandarin Hall now houses a tacky (my opinion) concession in which tourists can don mandarin attire and pose for photos with a replica carriage and throne. Suffice to say, we spent no real time there.

Behind the Right Mandarin Hall is the Royal Theatre. They offer four 30-minute shows of imperial music and dance here each day, but we had arrived just after the morning shows and well before the afternoon shows. Still, we heard music and, when a gentleman at the door indicated we could enter but to do so quietly, we did. We think that what we happened on was a rehearsal for something that will be part of Hue Festival. There was one gentleman who was obviously directing things, getting things set up in between acts. There was also someone filming who, afterwards, also conducted an interview with one of the performers. We entered during a fan dance, and since other people were filming or photographing, I jumped right in.
The second act was a performance by an instrumental musical group. The director set this up complete with sound checks.

Though the instruments for this number were all wind and percussion, there were stringed instruments played for the one final act. And in between numbers, there was even the ubiquitous cell phone played. The final number we saw was a vocal and dance performance that was nothing short of extraordinary. The costumes were incredible,
and the flowers the performers were carrying turned out also to be lights.

Even the leggings are stunning.
And everything built to a big finale. Behind the theater is the Reading Pavilion, which is undergoing some extensive renovations. It's the scaffolded building to the right of the lake. Three years ago, we found a tennis court near the back of the Citadel, behind where the Forbidden Purple City stood. We jokingly called it the imperial tennis court and when we asked a guide about it were told that it probably had been built as part of a boondoggle by city officials. It turns out that we were more correct than he was, at least according to the sign that is there now. As this shot shows, very few complete buildings actually remain as part of the Imperial City. Yes, some were destroyed during the American (what we call the Vietnam) War. Probably just as many, though, and perhaps even more were destroyed in the 1940s when the Vietnamese fought against French colonial rule. In lieu of photos of non-existent buildings, here's a smattering of detail shots that attracted me. This grating is from a wall near the Right Mandarin Palace. This is from outside the theater. This lantern hangs in a hallway connecting two buildings that are no longer there. This dragon sits in a wall that still remains. This and the detailed shots that follow are from a wall panel.
In the same section of the hallway is this ceiling. Unfortunately, this sign is nowhere hear this graffiti. There are some incredible gates with details that would be even more incredible with some restoration.

In terms of restoration, we saw signs citing Poland, Korea, and Thailand as having provided support for restoration efforts. Near the end of our trek, we visited the Nine Dynastic Urns, four of which are shown here. These urns were cast between 1835 and 1837 and were intended to help celebrate the country's beauty and dynastic stability. The scenes depicted on them celebrate Vietnamese culture. Each urn is dedicated to one of the Nguyen emperors. Each urn also shows the effects of the various conflicts that have been waged around them.
The husband thought the large hole above was probably from a 50-caliber shell, but don't quote him on that.

Three years ago, we rounded a corner within the Citadel and came face to trunk with one of two elephants. They're still there and, unfortunately, don't look too happy, particularly the guy in the bottom photo.
They are apparently a for-profit tourist attraction, one that, needless to say, we did not use.

Finally, in an effort at humo(u)r after the elephant sad face, we tried to catch a ride on the Tardis, but were unable to find the Doctor.