Nhi Ho Waterfall

Two pools lie side by side at the foot of a mountain, and in the morning the mountain's shadow still rests on both.

In the south of Hue, where the Trường Sơn range begins to give way to the plain, there is a corner of forest. People there call it Nhị Hồ Waterfall. The name says it all: two pools, next to each other, under the mountain.

The place belongs to the Phú Lộc area of Hue. Two streams run down from the slopes of the Trường Sơn and meet in the low ground, where they form two pools of clear green water. The pools lie close together, like brothers. Each has its own shade of green, its own stillness, and its own floor, which no one looking down can guess at.

In the morning, the sunlight has not yet made its way far into the canopy. The pools still lie in shade, and the water is flat as a mirror. The sound of the stream goes on, steady, from somewhere upstream. The air carries the cool of old forest, of wet stone, of thick shade.

Then the children begin to wade in. The cold water touches their feet, rises to their ankles, then to their knees. And the familiar argument starts. They argue over which pool is deeper and which has more fish. Nobody knows for sure, and nobody stops to find out. That is the best thing about this place. It gives a child a real question, with no answer printed on a board.

Nhị Hồ is a natural spot, still wild and little developed. Because of that, it keeps the look of real mountain country. There are only trees, rocks, water, and the sound of wind slipping through the clefts of the hills.

Hue has its citadel, its royal tombs, the Perfume River and the Trường Tiền Bridge. Those belong to the Hue of history. But Hue also has places like Nhị Hồ. Here the children wade in the stream, and the grown-ups sit on the rocks and listen to the water. The whole family goes home still hearing the forest faintly.