Visit the ancient capital of Hue, explore the Western street on Pham Ngu Lao street

Pham Ngu Lao Street at night

Winter fun at night

Along the street there are souvenir shops selling all kinds of traditional goods, restaurants, hotels and tourist offices. The street is most bustling when night falls. Groups of tourists stroll around the souvenir shops, after a day of visiting the royal palace, mausoleum or pagoda.

The main street of the Western street in Hue is coincidentally named Pham Ngu Lao, like the Western street in Ho Chi Minh City.

Today, this street has expanded to nearby streets such as Chu Van An, Le Loi, Vo Thi Sau. There is a restaurant named DMZ (the demilitarized zone during the war), located right at the corner of Le Loi - Pham Ngu Lao, with tables and chairs placed outdoors.

On Pham Ngu Lao Street, there are some large restaurants that also sell coffee, such as Octopus. The restaurant is painted in elegant pink, an old-fashioned house, formerly a garden house. The restaurant's name is stylized as an octopus, inlaid with broken pieces of porcelain, which looks quite beautiful. Along Pham Ngu Lao Street, of course, there are also restaurants serving Hue specialties such as beef noodle soup, banh beo, banh khoai, banh nam, and nem lui.

The names of the dishes are written in both Vietnamese and English: Bun bo is Hue beef noodle soup; banh nam is nam pancake… This translation is quite naive, so it may be difficult for foreign tourists to imagine what the dish is. Therefore, some restaurants have printed pictures of the dishes on the menu, under the English names to make it easier to imagine.

The old days were deserted

In the Western street, there are also cyclos that look very striking: The frame is painted Hue purple and the canvas is red to cover the rain and sun.

In the 1980s, only student couples strolled here. In the past, it was deserted because this street was short and few people lived there, there were very large garden houses. This place began to be built a lot, after the appearance of the Rose 2 Hotel and other tourism services. Then other shops, hotels… also appeared. From then on, the land price began to increase.

A familiar image that everyone can easily see is that people living in the neighborhood are very conscious of taking their motorbikes out of the walking street.

Pham Ngu Lao Street is just over 200m long, with Vo Thi Sau and Le Loi streets at both ends. Le Loi Street has the most beautiful location and the most expensive houses in the ancient capital, located along the banks of the Huong River with nearly 60 ancient trees. The ancient capital still preserves many relics recognized by UNESCO as world cultural heritage, including Bach Ma Mountain - where the French previously built a resort, and many beautiful pagodas such as Thien Mu.

Hue is near Quang Binh - famous for Phong Nha cave, Quang Tri ancient citadel, Vinh Moc tunnel, Hien Luong bridge... This city is also not far from Hoi An so it can be considered a tourist center, visitors can stop by before visiting other tourist attractions.

What is special is that right in the middle of the Western Quarter is the home of a Hue singing group, at the house of writer Buu Y (9 Pham Ngu Lao). The group usually meets every Saturday. Veteran Hue singing artists such as Thanh Tam, Minh Man, Thanh Huong… still come here to sing for each other.

Hue Western Street opens on 3 weekends

The writer's house also welcomes many domestic and foreign tourist groups to enjoy and learn about Hue singing. They do not need to buy tickets; the writer does not do business.

The artisans here just want to preserve and introduce this art form. No matter how much the Western Quarter in particular and Hue city in general develop, it seems that some locals still try to preserve the unique traditional cultural features, not wanting them to be lost.

University (according to VTC News)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/den-co-do-hue-kham-pha-pho-tay-tren-duong-pham-ngu-lao-394200.html