Rice Paddies & Water Buffalo
Part of Citadel
The mandarin & the concubine
Scene on the Perfume River.
Hue, Vietnam, March 13, 2007
We docked at Chan May, Vietnam then drove north to Hue located on the Perfume River. During the 19th century the Nguyen dynasty imperial citadel was located here. Earlier it was a center for Buddhism with its famous Thein Mu Pagoda and the Forbidden Purple city with its imperial architecture, which housed the Emperor and his 110 concubines. These places some how survived the Tet offensive, as they were in the DMZ between Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and Hanoi. The tomb of the Nguyen emperor includes an ancient theater, his mausoleum and a Poem Pavilion where the emperor’s poems remain. That evening we had our own dynasty dinner and elected our Emperor and his first wife, the Empress, Mack and Bette. Then Ben and I became civil and military Mandarins accompanied by our concubines, Arlene and Barbara. We were dressed up in authentic looking gowns and head-gear and dined in a private Hall after marching in to a drum and oriental flute procession. We were entertained to Hue music on original instruments and songs by lovely vocalists
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