Hue - Intellectual Cultural Spiritual

Now in Hue (pronounced Way) with Joe and is beautiful family. Mom, brother, sister, brother in law, Amy, Joe and I.
Hue is the intellectual, cultural and spiritual heart of Vietnam. Palaces and pagodas, tombs and temples, culture and cuisine, history and heartbreak - there's no shortage of poetic pairings to describe Hue...
Joe was so eager to try the special dish that is unique to Hue so as soon as we found a hotel we were out the door in search for our first meal. I can't pronounce this or even spell it so Amy and I call it red soup but the correct name is Bun Bo Hue. It has a red coloured broth with rice noodles, greens, shrimp pate, beef, pork and liver...it was REALLY yummy. So far just being with a Vietnamese family for the day has been very special, we find and experience more of what the locals do and for a locals price.
We visited the Citadel after breakfast which is one of Vietnam's decaying treasures. Though it was heavily bombed by the American's and much of it is now used for agriculture, it's scope and beauty still impress. Emperor Gia Long began construction of the moated Citadel in 1804 and was used until 1975, when it was destroyed by the American bombs. We wondered around the grounds observing and trying to picture what it would have been like 200 years ago, however in this humidity that followed us up the coast we stopped every few hundred metres to rest...ha
The reason I'm writing again is because our hotel has a computer in our room...go figure a backpacker could afford to have such luxuries, but Amy and I wore the white robes down to the pool for a swim, came back and watched the city from our balcony and I had a sleep while Amy enjoyed a massage! It must be that we are with a Vietnamese family and getting local prices :)
Joe is still amazed with this country, they all can't get over how cheap everything is. I keep forgetting that this is his first time here as well, I keep thinking he should be showing us around...I think Joe and his sister are more Canadian than I am. They are constantly saying 'EH', although they do speak fluent Vietnamese, Joe apparently gets laughed at by a few...must be his accent.
This evening we took a 3 hour river cruise down to Song Huong River (Perfume River) and saw the city light up around us. We stopped at Hue's speciality cakes place for dinner, Luu Ngoc was the name. We tried Beo Cake, Nam Cake, Loc Cake, Ram It Cake and Khoai Cake. These aren't like the typical sweet cakes we eat for birthdays they are rice cake with grilled pork & veg mixed with rice noodles and different fish sauces to add to them. SO good! It's great trying all these different dishes...Amy and I hope to fit a cooking class in while in Vietnam too.