Week of Antiquity (Part 1)

This week was family vacation week. We travelled to central Vietnam to Hue, the imperial capital, and to Siem Reap, the center of the Khmer empire in Cambodia. The Sargrads just can't seem to get enough ancient ruins...

Hue was the capital of Vietnam during the Nguyễn Dynasty, from 1802 to 1945. The line of 13 kings seemed to start off strong, but by the end of their rule, they were basically puppet kings, since the French had colonized Vietnam and had control over the government. Regardless they built some pretty sweet walled cities and tombs for themselves. The first place we visited was the imperial walled city, inside of which was a second walled city reserved only for the king and his family. And his thousands of servants. And hundreds of concubines (who are picked out by his mother). And his herd of elephants that carried him everywhere (the king doesn't walk). A lot of the royal grounds were actually destroyed during the Vietnam war, becuase it is located near the border between north and south Vietnam. The best part were the tombs of the kings. The first one we visited seemed like the king's vacation home. It was on a really pretty lake (a manmade lake the king had built for himself), away from town, with a reading dock, a private theater and georgeous grounds. The tomb itself though was just a sandstone box. Inside a wall, which was inside another wall. Here are the grounds.

The other tomb we visited was crazy ornate. It was on a mountain top, so you had to climb hundreds of steps to even get there. It was the next to last king's tomb so there was huge French influence and you could definitely tell. Once you finally got to the top of the mountain, there was a building that housed his tomb. Every inch of the interior walls was covered in a ceramic and glass mosaic: some mythical creatures, flowers and plants, birds, and just awesome designs. When you looked closer you could tell what the ceramic bits actually were, there were some soup spoons, beer bottles, plates etc. In the middle of the room was a lifesized gold statue of the king himself. This guy had some insecurities.