The tomb of khai Dinh

At the moment I am sitting in the lower level of the Tomb of Khai Dinh. He is one of the Nguyen dynasty emporers. All the Nguyen Kings took themselves out of Hue to be buried. They built huge tombs covering large areas of land. Each Tomb has the same basic layout. There is the front gate followed by a courtyard with buildings on either side to honour the mandarins that served the king. Then there is a pavillion containing a stele that chronicles  the achievements of the king. Following this is a temple honouring the king then the entrance to the tomb enclosure. The actual burial site is a secret which the blokes who bury him die for. I am glad I do not live in such times, that level of devotion is beyond me.

I am currently on my first "tour" of the trip. I wanted to see the tombs of the Nguyen Kings but my directional skills have let me down woefully and I didn't want to spend my time dealing with the map while it was pouring with rain. This tour involves a "Dragon Boat" ride down the perfumed river, visiting a traditional Viet house, a Temple and Pagoda, another Temple (womans) then 3 Tombs (Muan Ming, Khai Dinh and Duc Tho). The boat trip was very relaxing and the lunch provided alright (just). We deboated to a bus for the ride round the tombs. The most impressive was the tombs of Duc Tho followed by a close second in Muan Ming and then Khai Dinh. Duc Tho used to live occasionally at the tomb site so there were a series of buildings in addition to the actual tomb buildings. They were all very impressive. Khai Dinh apparently was gay and Duc Tho impotent a result of mumps as a kid. Muan Ming was prodigeous, he had approx 140 something kids from some 30 odd wives. The gardens in Duc Tho's place are very beautiful and peaceful as are the ones in Muan Ming 's place. Khai Dinh was much more introspective with everything happening with the buildings and interiors. There were impressive mosaics covering the insIdes.

All in all it was a great day and worth the $7:00 it cost! I have one more day in Hue. I'll do a quick check on the bike and go and do a bit of wondering around the town. I saw some electronics shops yesterday so I'm going to check them for a Go Pro. Stay tuned for the next episode.