In the old royal city of Hue

I’m going to treat myself. A whole penthouse dorm on the fourth floor with a view over the old royal city of Hue. For me alone. I just about have the four euros a day. You can get some WiFi at the top, I work the whole first day. There are good restaurants, I try far too many. In the evening I’m almost too stupid to work with a bloated stomach. The DMZ bar is buzzing, but I get tired quickly.

In the morning, I set off for the old royal palace. The Vietnamese rulers of the Nguyen dynasty reigned here from 1805 to 1945. Hue is a citadel. High walls and a moat surround the city. The palace is a citadel within the citadel. At the very centre is the sanctuary: the innermost citadel housed the royal concubines.

Most of the buildings were destroyed in all kinds of wars. Some are currently being rebuilt. The really beautiful thing, however, are the old ruins. Crowds of tourists stand in front of the new buildings. Behind them are beautiful abandoned gardens. The construction workers now live in the ruined royal rickshaw shed and the royal lawn is home to elephants for hire.

I walk on through Hue. The guidebooks were right. The pushers here are worse than mosquitoes. If you say no, they come closer. If you say no twice, they get really pushy. From the third no, you practically can’t get rid of them. A rickshaw driver accompanies me almost the entire 3km walk home. The only thing that helps is something I don’t like: ignoring them completely. No, I don’t want a lift, I don’t want hookers, weed, opium or watches. I just don’t want to have to treat you like idiots.

In the evening, I bump into the Englishman Marc in the DMZ bar. My facial memory has grown, but the man is insane: after a few sentences in Fiji eight months ago, he recognised me immediately.

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