A curious person will go to stand right above the middle of the river, 25 feet above the water surface. And he’s not going to smell a thing.

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Technically, you can still smell that vaguely humid, dusty smell that is ubiquitous in many tropical areas. Plus the exhaust fumes from the thousands of scooters and motorbikes whizzing by on the Phu Xuan Bridge. However, the Perfume River (or Hương Giang or Sông Hương) can be aromatic once in a year, in the fall, when the orchards’ flowers goes down onto the water. Those flowers apparently become quite pungent as they float about 10 miles further downstream, past to the South China Sea. It’s always too late even if you’re there in the autumn. No flowers are anywhere to be seen or smelled.

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The thing you’re likely to see is a calm brown river about 350 yards across, on which just few boats are standing still. Some locals do dredging to sell the sand to cement manufacturers and somehow make the water soupy brown. It’s not so pretty water, at least in broad daylight. There are families living on boats. They bathe in the river. to them, it’s much more of the kitchen and bathroom. Fishermen try their luck casting a net from thin, long, wooden sampans.

In the late afternoon when the sun is about to hide below mountains and thick haze on the horizon, the orangy light completes the kind of golden scene of romantic visions of Southeast Asia, silhouetting the distinctive shapes of the local riverboats.

You have to wait until the sun goes down to see with your own eyes the life on the waterfront in Hue. Locals love to gather in the waterfront park in front of the university on the eastern bank. Large neon advertising signs near the Dong Ba market on the western side cast their vibrant colors on the rippled surface of the river. You will be able to appreciate a buzzing and pretty scene, but by now, the only smells you can sniff on are ones coming from the street food vendors.