Entree Kibbles

Wednesday, April 01, 2026

Day Trip to Hue City: The Former Imperial Capital, with Chinese Speaking Guide @ Vietnam

Detailed Postings for the Day Trip

Hải Vân Pass
Toilet Break at An Cu Lagoon
Thien Mu Pagoda
Lunch @ Phước Thạnh Garden Restaurant
Hue Historical Citadel
> Thai Hoa Palace
> Kiến Trung Palace
Mausoleum of Emperor Khai Dinh

All rise and shine for our only day trip via Klook.com on our second trip to Central Vietnam! As we were travelling with my dearest mom who only understands the alphabet but not when the letters are strung up; we opted for a tour with a Chinese speaking guide!

Group was small, with just five persons, including two sisters from Taiwan! Cost per person was about S$82, which wasn't too bad, considering the small group.

Pick-up was 7.30am from our hotel (Minh Toan SAFI Ocean Hotel) and traffic was smooth despite the closure of some roads due to the Ironman 70.3 Da Nang, a triathlon, taking place that day!

After an hour or so, we arrived at Hải Vân Pass; structures of which was built by the second emperor of the Nguyen dynasty back in 1826, to protect against enemies even though its location has always been of strategic defence importance.

The scene on our left as our vehicle drove past was so breathtaking that we wondered where this place was! Look at that calming water with the imposing hills behind it! I am surprised the area still seemed relatively undeveloped!

Thankfully, we were granted a toilet break, where we took some photographs and soaked in the beautiful sights surrounding us. Turned out this is known as the An Cu Lagoon, and it's just a few hundred meters away from Lang Co Beach, a popular tourist destination.

Driving past a Christian cemetery! There's actually a very famous An Bang Cemetery nearby; known as the City of Ghosts, it's unfortunate we wouldn't be making a stop there.

Sights along the way; there's an option to take the train from Da Nang City to Hue City; which we didn't consider given the language barrier, and that I am travelling with my mom to Hue for the first time.

Reaching Hue; the former imperial capital!

Crossing the Nguyen Hoang Bridge; open for traffic in 2025, it's "a 380-meter-long suspended arch bridge designed with two 180-meter spans", and 45-meter wide.

Third stop for the day tour; Thiên Mụ Pagoda, a temple known to be the oldest in Hue City, and was built in 1601 to honor a celestial goddess. The tiered pagoda in the middle of the photo was said to be the unofficial icon for Hue City.

Driving past the historical citadel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that housed the residence of Vietnam's last imperial dynasty, and also known as Vietnam's Forbidden City!

Let's have lunch first at Phước Thạnh Garden Restaurant; covered as part of the tour fee, the food was not bad, with love reserved for the prawns and the banh xeo.

This river had a romantic name; Perfume River. Origin of name had two stories; one said a princess washed herself at the river and the perfume was infused into the water. Another sounded more logical; that there were a lot of temples along the river in the past, with heavy use of incenses; incense can also mean perfume.

Frankly, I was drawn to Hue City mainly because of the imperial citadel and I can't wait to step in to this mini forbidden city (as compared to the one at Beijing) and walk through the paths and passages used to be reserved for the royal family.

Majestic Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City; constructed in 1833 and modeled after the same one in Beijing, the scale of this gate was comparatively smaller although still imposing for mere humans.

Thai Hoa Palace; recently restored, it was said to be the biggest structure in the forbidden city. What I remember most was how golden and red everything was, including the shimmering golden imperial throne right in the middle!

Long corridors that used to connect the different buildings within the citadel but I did note that some sections, like the one for Thai Hoa Palace, appeared to be removed. Nevertheless, it was a good shelter from the rain, and there were many photographs that gave us a good glimpse of the past.

Kiến Trung Palace - the most unusual palace given its unique yet creative mix of both western and eastern influences. While destroyed during the Indochina Wars, it was reconstructed for completion in 2023, at "an estimated cost of $5.3 million".

Insides of Kiến Trung Palace. As with most of my main post, there shall be sub-postings and there will be a sub-sub-posting just on Kiến Trung Palace. Do look out for it, in due course.

Photograph of the three of us along the imperial passage again, as we would need to walk along it in order to get out of the forbidden city!

To be honest, I would love to explore more of this Vietnamese forbidden city as I had only got through only about a third of it! There were so much more, and I guess I would stay a night or two in Hue City next time so that I would have plenty of time to go through!

Last stop - the Mausoleum of Emperor Khai Dinh. Now, a mausoleum is basically a much bigger tomb housing someone of importance, and this particular one may look gloomy from the outside.

Inside was a different story; a bronze statue of the former emperor sat in the middle and the surrounding was literally an elaborate set of intricate mosaic tiles, with dragons on the ceiling that made me go "wow"! p.s. the emperor was deeply hated by its citizens though.

Ending the post with a photograph of one of the souvenirs you can get from the mausoleum. A rubik's cube with six notable attractions of the imperial city of Hue.

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Pricing

Day Trip to Hue with Chinese Speaking Guide - S$82 a person

(Purchased from Klook.com)

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Tou Ke Shan Mushroom (新社頭嵙山香菇) Eatery at Xinshe in Taichung City [Taiwan]

The drive up Lavender Forest (薰衣草森林台中新社店) from Tea Way Hotel is going to take us more than a hour, and included navigation up a narrow mountain road. Hence, I decided to pencil in a lunch destination at Tou Ke Shan Mushroom!

Named after the 859-meter tall mountain, Tou Ke Shan Mushroom appeared to be more a farm with a retail wing for fungi, that eventually expanded to the F&B given its fantastic location right at the edge of a y-junction.

Let's start with the retail section; aside from mushrooms, there's a selection of other agricultural produce like pumpkins, bamboo shoots. Things that my mom would likely go excited for given their freshness！

My mom loves buying dried shiitake mushrooms and often uses them in her cooking, and I can so imagine her eyes lighting up if her eyes were to ever fall on the above huge bags of aromatic fungi! While my love for dried mushrooms blossomed only in my late 20s, early 30s, my field was limited to just eating them, unlike my mom.

Thankfully, the shop also sells freeze dried, ready to eat mushrooms (sliced / whole mushrooms) that came in flavors like natural, wasabi, black pepper etc! Best of all, sampling was strongly encouraged, and I had such a great time; my eventual bill for just the snacks came up to about S$100 worth!

Vegetarians would be pleased to know there were also vegetarian meat floss and vegetarian bak kwa for sale! Well, they didn't quite interest me since I am not a vegetarian and prefer meat floss and bak kwa in their original, real meat form.

To encourage customers to buy their dried mushrooms, the operator even offered a smaller pack at just NT$100 (about S$4), with the advice that if we like, we can always return to buy! I did buy, and enjoy them in soups, but I am so, so far away in Singapore!

Notice with the things to note before sitting down at their dining area. For the benefit of those who can't read traditional Chinese characters: food is cooked upon order (so please be patient), no special request on holidays (they will be busy), don't move table after you have ordered, dishes ordered might be cooked together (hence, a person who ordered later than you might receive the food earlier), cutleries are placed next to the pillar in the shop, toilet is outside, and the final message "the boss has no patience for rude customers, so apology in advance).

Order list for our lunch!

Deep Fried Mixed Mushrooms - in a mushroom farm that had operated for over 20 years, it's a must to check out their mushrooms right?! Given my love for deep fried food, the above would be a best start so that I can try out a range of mushrooms!

Honestly, they tasted just like the normal deep fried mushrooms you can get elsewhere and the batter was just lightly seasoned with salt and pepper! Freshness aside, I did find the batter cloying towards the end, although to be fair, Alex isn't that big of a mushroom lover.

Grilled Mushroom Sausage - fascinating enough for me to order! Tasted just like your typical taiwan sausage, albeit with a crunchier texture given the pieces of mushroom. However, there's no hint of the earthly mushroom flavour I was expecting!

Mushroom Minced Pork Rice - I can't resist luroufan whenever I am in Taiwan; how to when one bowl cost just less than S$2.00?! And it also came in smaller portions which I would very much prefer so that I can have stomach space for other snacks!

This was delicious; reminded me of the braised pork that my mom would sometimes cook, with a sweeter and richer flavour that reminded me of home-cooked meals. Meat floss was also added and they sure elevated the palatability of this already good minced pork rice!

Fried Salt and Pepper Squid - according to the reviews, people were raving about the dish, even though the area is not exactly near the sea, which was about 30 kilometers away!

Loving it for sure; the natural flavor of squid was so strong with a non-rubbery texture that they could never be from frozen squid! Batter was crunchy yet airy. Absolutely delightful! What I needed most then was a mug of beer!

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