Today we spent the day visiting the imperial palace and several of the late emperors burial mounds. As gloomy as it sounds some of the emperors had used the areas as resorts before passing. As such they didn't just feauture the grave itself but also the leisure areas of an emperor. We did however learn very little about the areas and emperors themselves. We read the signs and even googled a bit but nothing can really replace the value of a guide. So to sum it up, we saw several pretty sights but would've like to have more context to them. AFter this we spent most of the time at the hotel, relaxing and gathering strenght for the upcoming three days ride to Dong Hoi. But loitering around at the hospital made me restless and we went to see a local nightmarket which was nothing special. It did however allow us to sea the beautiful sights of the waters of Hue in evening light.

Our ride for the day  

Huge flag/flagpole on the outer wall of the palace  
Admittance into the imperial city

The area was very large and feautured gradens, temples, guardhouses as well as the palace.

Every so often, no matter the place we were visiting you could feed the fish(carp?)  

I would love to tell you more about each picture and structure but as said above. We didn't really have anyone to tell us so we mainly enjoyed the views.         

For (very big) inscense(?)  

The gardens at the imperial city was also very lovely and well kept.       

Turtle!  

Locked and loaded.  

We did however figure out some things about the royal family. The four holy animals are: dragon(power), unicorn(intelligance, kindness and tolerance?, bit unsure about this one), turle(long life) and phoenix(peace and nobleness). Sacred symbols are apricot, orchid, chrysantemum and bamboo.    

The exit out of the imperial palace, our driver was always waiting outside to catch us whenever we came out.  

Khai Dinh Tomb, one of the less colorful tombs, atleast on the outside  

Still very impressive.  

All tombs had statues of commonfolk, warriors, merchants(?), nobles(?) and animals outside,  

Altar of prayer and memory, photography was allowed.  

Decoration was really well made and all the interior walls was in similar quality, the area was maybe 80 square meters in total  

Picture of the tomb itself, bad quality  

View just outside the Thien mu pagoda, river was really nice!  

The pagoda was however semi interesting, and as I said without context, the exterior is what you get.  

Hall of prayer and cermony behind the pagoda.

Next stop, the Tu Duc tomb. One of the more extravagant buildning complexes(exept for Minh Mang Tomb and of course the Palace). So extravagant that the actual building of the place consumed enough resources and manual labor to have the lower class in a riot. The riot was however subdued and the emperor's resort(and later tomb) compleated. They seemed to have a room/place for everything - One for poetry, another for concubines, deer hunting, thinking, eating and so on... What also left and impression is that Tu Duc's queen is burried separately about 300m away from his own grave.

Local fruit(Durian) which smells reaaally bad, but which is(according to Martin) supposed to be really tasty.  

Before entering the grave itself you walked by an area with pillars like this in every corner and a large slate about 4-5 meters high cramped with letters. Probably praise and the history of Tu Duc.  

Yet again bowls for inscense?  

The grave itself  

Last place Minh Mang tomb. This guy seemed to have done alot of good in his reign. All from improving quality of life for the common to stabilazing relation and easing out a ongoing war. While doing this also had time to get around enough to have 140 childing. Don't wanna try to follow that family tree.  

Like the imperial palace this place also held large plazas inbetween buildings. Made for a grand effect but also ment you had to brace the sun without shade to get to the next worthwhile thing seeing.  

More of the statues before the tomb.  

This place also feautured a quite nice garden.    

Nightview over the Hue river.  

Flag of imperial palace in the background  

Illumination of a random park, the lanterns really stood out!  

So tomorrow we leave with MC(riding behind our drivers) to Dong Hoi. There is an exact schedule to what is to be done tomorrow but to be honest I've not really had the time to read it since booking the tour. Guess tomorrow will be a bit of a surprise.