To be exact, I happened to meet and hear fragmentary stories about “my Hue” from a French tourist on the legendary Caucasus mountain top – said to be the place where the god Prometheus was chained in Georgia during his last wandering.
Thanks to some very strange connections, I had the opportunity to return to Georgia - a country that used to be part of the former Soviet Union in the Caucasus region, the intersection of West Asia and Eastern Europe - once again.
This is the homeland of Stalin, and the first President of independent Georgia was Eduard Shevardnadze, who was also the last Foreign Minister of the former Soviet Union.
Because the passport still had the entry stamp intact, proving that it was an “acquaintance”, this time the female customs officer at the airport only flipped it over for a while and then said “welcome to Georgia” instead of checking it back and forth, her face fixed with the question “why did you choose to come to Georgia?” like last time.
Of course, one of the places I was determined to return to again on this trip was the 1,000-year-old Jvari Monastery on the Greater Caucasus mountain range that separates Georgia from the North Caucasus countries of Russia.
This, as the Greek myth goes, is where Prometheus, a giant god, created mankind and stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mankind. Zeus was angry and punished him by tying him to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains so that an eagle could eat his liver every day. But his liver would regenerate every night after being eaten during the day.
Interestingly, the myth of Prometheus's liver regeneration parallels the fact that among the human organs, the liver is the only one capable of regenerating itself if damaged.
That day, the Jvari Monastery – an Orthodox church, was as usual a sight to behold with tourists from all over the world. In that crowd, I don’t know how by chance I “bumped into” a girl – a French architect whose name symbolizes intelligence and love, Camille.
When Camille heard that I was from Hue - Vietnam, she exclaimed in surprise, almost hugging me as if meeting an old friend who had been lost for a long time. And now it was my turn to gasp in surprise, unable to believe it when Camille said that she was a distant relative of Mr. Bernard Morin's family - grandson of Mr. Wladimir Morin - a member of the Morin family from a village called Mesnay, in the Jura province of France.
Mr. Wladimir Morin was the one who bought the Grand Hotel de Hue in 1906 and later renamed it the Morin Hotel (now the Saigon – Morin Hotel), one of the French architectural works that bears witness to the history of Hue, which has just celebrated its 123rd “birthday” in 2024.
Then Camille suddenly asked me: “At the Morin Hue Hotel, there was once a banner that said: "We can be born in a Morin cradle and die in a Morin coffin", do you know this?”.
Of course, I not only knew but also explained to Camille that this banner was born in the context of that time, the Morin Hotel was a place to organize receptions, film screenings, exhibitions, seminars... and at the same time was a large store, capable of meeting all the requirements of guests.
Even from the 1930s until before 1945, almost all Europeans living in Hue or transiting through this city were welcomed by the Morin family.
So from that moment on, the Jvari Monastery, the Great Caucasus Mountains or the god Prometheus almost no longer had much meaning because Camille kept clinging to me to passionately tell stories about Hue. The two of us talked to each other in broken English on Google Translate. She said she had been to Hue 3 times but would still come back because "Hue is so beautiful, so charming and mysterious that I can't stop exploring".
Camille said she was very proud that her distant family members had left Hue a Morin Hotel that had become a symbol of the concept of “urban memory”.
Camille also recalled a very interesting story that on the 123rd “birthday” of Morin Hotel (March 26, 2024), Mr. Bernard Morin, in his very short speech, said that Morin Hotel is now “a symbol of Hue tourism”. And “we are very proud to see that Morin Hotel today is a smooth combination of modern and classic”.
The other day, when we were chatting via Facebook messages, when the topic came to “Hue”, I told Camille that the leaders of Thua Thien Hue province were also seeking public opinion on whether the name of the city under the Central Government would be “Hue city” or “Thua Thien Hue city”.
And Camille said something that startled me, roughly: It can only be Hue because Hue is not simply a name with deep historical value and significance but also a global brand in terms of commercial factors.
“The word Hue is like a seal, a logo stamped in the minds of foreigners, especially the French-speaking community, when thinking of Vietnam. The word Hue is synonymous with the ancient capital of the Nguyen Dynasty, synonymous with depth and cultural heritage that has become the common property of humanity…”.
Joy is the affirmation, like Camille's about the new name for my hometown, which is also the wish of the government leaders and most of the people. And then recently, when the National Assembly voted to pass the Resolution to build Hue city into a city directly under the Central Government, the three words "Hue city" were affirmed in the Resolution, although a few days before that, many National Assembly delegates were still wondering about the name.
Many years ago, I left Georgia for the first time with an indescribable feeling of elation after hearing many strange stories about an ancient land with architectural works that have remained almost intact over time, so I always felt like I was in a dreamy, sleepy state after the drizzle.
This time I said goodbye to Georgia, still with that indescribable feeling, but not only because every stone in this country seemed to carry within it thousands of years of legends that I had yet to fully discover.
And also because this is the first time in my life, I met "my Hue" in the form of a very beautiful girl named Camille in the remote Caucasus mountains outside the border!
(Article from the special publication of Lao Dong Xuan Bac Mien Trung - 2025)
