Binh quoi tourist village

Tourists visiting Hue City in Thua Thien-Hue Province should stand next to the Huong (Perfume) River and take a deep breath, while listening to the honeyed voice of Hue residents. They will truly feel how lovely Hue is.

Hue’s climate is so special. It is scorching in summer, which lasts from March to August, while temperatures plunge in winter and turns quite cool in spring, which is from January to March.

The rainy season in Hue, located in central Vietnam, lasts from October to January.

Thuy Xuan Incense Village is a popular destination for the youth in Hue. Situated on Huyen Tran Cong Chua Street and around seven kilometers from the center of the city, it takes 15 minutes to travel to the village by motorbike. The village attracts tourists with colorful incense bunches. Tourists can buy conical leaf hats and use them as an accessory to take photos or give them as a souvenir. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

Tourists from large cities can come to Hue by plane, train or coach.

From Phu Bai International Airport, which is about 15 kilometers from the center of Hue City, tourists can get a taxi or bus to the city center.

Trains and coaches also run to the city center.

Ngoc Quyen, who was born in 1999 and does office work in nearby Quy Nhon City, Binh Dinh Province, and her six friends went on a four-day-three-night trip to Hue last month.

The trip left a strong impression on them of a peaceful, cozy, and simple place with human love and delicious dishes.

As there was no flight from Quy Nhon to Hue, they chose to travel by train.

The train departed from Quy Nhon at 9:00 am and arrived in Hue at 6:30 pm.

During the nine-hour train journey, the team enjoyed the imposing and beautiful scenery of Vietnam, such as aircraft when passing Hai Van Pass, romantic beaches, and majestic mountains.

If you visit Hue, you have to experience its traditional folk songs on the Perfume River. Taking a ride on a boat, which can carry 25 people, along the river costs VND150,000 per person. Tourists can enjoy the sweet melodies of traditional Hue songs and the romantic scenery of sparkling lights and the shade of the Trang Tien Bridge on the river. They can also drop flower garlands and colored lanterns. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

In Hue, visitors can catch taxis or hire motorbikes at VND150,000 (US$6.5) each per day for their journeys, but traveling by motorbike is preferable as they can experience nature and people.

“Despite staying in Hue for a short period, I feel it is so peaceful and different from the noise in other cities,” Ngoc Quyen said.

“Local residents talk gracefully thanks to their special voice. I love listening to them although I cannot understand all of what they say.”

Not flashy or luxurious, Hue is simple and romantic with its rains, rivers, people, and dishes, all gently stealing the hearts of tourists and making them fall in love with this place.

Actually, Hue is a place to love and to remember.

Coming to Hue, tourists must visit the Imperial City to touch a cultural relic site recognized as a world cultural heritage site and learn about dynasties’s history. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

Hue Flag Tower with a height of 54.5 meters is a part of the Hue Imperial City. It has witnessed many large historical events of Vietnam, attracted many tourists, and been a favorite destination of young people. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

Tourists should not ignore the tombs of emperors under the Nguyen Dynasty during their journey to explore the architecture there, including those of Emperors Khai Dinh, Minh Mang, and Tu Duc. The tomb of Khai Dinh, officially known as Ung Mausoleum, is one of the most beautiful in Hue. Situated in Chau Chu Mountain and about 10 kilometers from the city center, the tomb is a harmonious combination of Western and Eastern architecture and culture with meticulous, sophisticated, and magnificent patterns. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

Also known as Hieu Mausoleum, Minh Mang Tomb is the final resting place of Emperor Minh Mang. Located in Cam Khe Mountain, on the bank of the Huong River, and about 12 kilometers from Hue City’s center, the tomb features traditional beauty. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

Thien Mu Pagoda is also a must-visit place of interest. This is a magnificent but sacred, tranquil, and poetic pagoda, which is located on the north bank of the Perfume River, and some six kilometers from Hue City. Thien Mu Pagoda features ancient architecture. Local people said that the sound of the bell in Thien Mu is like the soul of Hue. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

Eye-catching and tasty dishes will definitely satisfy tourists and stay with them forever. Hue lemongrass pork skewers are very special. They are made of grilled pork and pork skin marinated with spices. The fermented mixture is placed on lemongrass stalks and grilled. The dish is often served with Hue crispy rice crepes. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

A dish of Hue rice dumplings. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

‘Bun mam nem’ (vermicelli with fermented fish sauce) can be found in most of the central provinces in Vietnam. The dish includes rice vermicelli, pork, boiled pig’s ear and nose, roasted pork, and fermented pork rolls. The fermented fish sauce makes the dish in Hue more special as it has special flavors. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

Rice balls with roasted pork filling sweet soup is a very famous dish in Hue that all tourists want to try. It looks simple but its recipe is complicated. The crust of balls is made of tapioca starch and their fillings include pieces of roasted pork, which is considered the soul of the dish. When enjoying the sweet soup, visitors will feel the chewy taste of rice balls, the greasiness of roasted pork, the sweetness of sugar, and the faint redolence of ginger and pandan leaves. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

‘Com hen’ (baby mussel rice) and ‘bun hen’ (baby mussel noodles) are simple specialties of Hue but anyone who has tried them will never forget them. Hue baby mussel rice is made with many steps. Baby mussels taken from Hen (Mussel) Islet are mixed with pork fat, sesame, peanut, and giant elephant ear stalks to create a frugal but intense taste with the typical spicy flavor of Hue. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

‘Bun bo Hue’ (Hue spicy beef noodle soup) is popular in all regions in Vietnam but the noodle soup in Hue has its own taste. The stock is cooked meticulously with many spices. The beef, pork, and crab cake are fresh. The dish served with herbs will satisfy even the pickiest eaters. Photo: Ngoc Quyen / Tuoi Tre

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Earlier this month, Indigenous Maasai people in Tanzania were violently attacked by state security forces for protesting government plans to evict them from their ancestral lands. Hundreds of police officers came to clear the area to make way for a new game reserve. When the Maasai protested, they were beaten, shot, and arrested. These brutal police crackdowns forced thousands of Maasai people to flee their homes and become refugees in neighboring Kenya, where there is limited food and resources.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated situation. After investigating 10 protected areas, my team of researchers found a systematic pattern of human rights violations against Indigenous peoples worldwide. International organizations including the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and the Wildlife Conservation Society are partnering with local governments under the guise of environmental protection. But behind the scenes, there is a tremendous cost to the people who have been the stewards of these lands since the beginning of time. Now, they are being displaced, as if their very existence were a threat to biodiversity, and replaced with hunting game reserves or ecotourism, absent of Indigenous involvement or consent.

We spoke with communities in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Nepal, and Uganda. For each one, the findings were the same . Indigenous peoples in protected areas are subject to forced displacements, losses of ancestral lands, beatings, sexual violence, looting, extrajudicial killings, and the torching of property, often perpetrated by militarized law enforcement personnel and park rangers.

In Chitwan National Park, Nepal, more than 20,000 Tharu people were displaced when the park was established in 1973 and continue to live under constant threats. They are beaten when going to the river to fish, which has been part of their way of life for generations. Meanwhile, local tourists can fish without repercussions. During the evictions in 2019 and 2020 , the army raped 27 women, six of whom were killed after refusing to leave their village.

“This type of violence affects our culture, rituals, language, food habits, livelihoods, occupations, and traditional practices,” said Chini Maya Majhi, chair of the National Indigenous Women’s Federation in Nepal, who contributed to our report.

Similarly, when Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was created, Indigenous peoples were forced out of the forest, which they relied on for subsistence hunting and fishing. They were pressured to turn to agriculture for food, which isn’t sufficient to meet their basic needs, nor consistent with the preservation of their culture. When one man returned to the area and was suspected of fishing, he was publicly executed. Rape, torture, and other types of abuse are common in this national park , and against all Indigenous peoples who are simply trying to survive and maintain their way of life.

These crimes and violations will repeat themselves unless we do something differently. Fortunately, there is an opportunity to do just that.

Coming up this fall is the U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP 15), where the 30×30 policy is set to be approved. This worldwide initiative aims to increase protected areas from approximately 16 percent of the Earth’s land and water to 30 percent by 2030 in order to mitigate climate change. So far there has been a lot of lip service around the need to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples through this policy, but we know from experience that this will not be the case, unless there is a new approach to conservation.

First, Indigenous peoples must be included from the start as peer stakeholders with equal decision-making authority. Second, there must be no violence allowed against Indigenous peoples as part of the enforcement of these policies. Finally, Indigenous peoples must maintain ownership of their land. After all, they are the best conservationists.

There is staggering evidence that the current, Western-centric conservationist model is leading to systematic human rights violations and needs a root and branch change. As Maud Salber from the Rainforest Foundation U.K. said, “This pattern won’t be overturned until the conservation industry shifts away from military-style enforcement and recognizes that Indigenous communities have a fundamental right to own and make decisions over their traditional lands and resources.”

Without decolonizing conservation, the outcome of the global effort to mitigate climate change through land conservation will likely be permanent displacement—and the possible extinction—of Indigenous peoples worldwide.

Today the Maasai are getting attention for the egregious abuses committed against them, but every day Indigenous peoples bear the burden of international organizations seeking to “preserve nature.” I urge those developing the 30×30 policy to make sure that this does not become what Indigenous groups are referring to as potentially the biggest land grab in history .

Nicolás Süssmann-Herrán is project lead at Project Expedite Justice .

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.