On the last day in Hue, I had some breakfast at a restaurant close to my hotel (see image below), and set off to see the forbidden city of Hue.

When I say "forbidden city", most will think of the one in Beijing. But Vietnam also has its forbidden city. It was the closed city of the emperor until he surrended and abdicated to the revolutionaries. The oldest buldings are a few hundred years old, while the newest is as new as from the thirties. The structure of the city is much like the one in Beijing, with an impressive entry, and homes to servants and concubines. 
Much of the buildings are being restored, so images doesn't show too much of what was once an impressive city. I have enclosed some images that I took. Not the best images, but I hope they give you an idea. Remember that you can click on the images to see larger versions.














One bad point of the experience, was this "student" who had designed an elaborate scam. First, he approached you and told you he had a survey for tourists. And after you had filled in the form, he told you he was collecting money for the blind on behalf of The Red Cross. This is of course not true. How many millions of dong he earned from this scam, is unknown. But given that the average wage for a school-teacher is 1 million dong, and that most people gave him 100 - 200 000 dong, it is obvious that he made a relative fortune from this scam. I told the guards, and one of them took me with them to point him out. I saw him, but when he saw me and the guard coming, he ran like the wind. I had taken a photo of him, that I showed to the guards. 
The "Red Cross scam" is found all across the country. Using the credibility of this organization, and the fact that "everybody" knows it, lends them the credibility. And thus, they can lure unsuspecting tourists into giving them lots of money. Not much to the tourists, but a fortune to them.
Here is a picture of him approaching a spanish woman. I managed to convince her it was a scam before she paid him any money.