Hue Imperial City, Vietnam

Bao Dai was the last emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. His seat of power was the Imperial City of Hue, a place of dilapidated beauty. Old photographs of Bao Dai's time as emperor (1926-1945) adorn the walls of the buildings within. These photographs as well as the Imperial City itself seem reminiscent of a time long, long gone, but this is deceptive as Bao Dai's time was in fact very recent. He was forced to abdicate after the Japanese defeat in 1945. From 1949 to 1955 he aligned himself with Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon and held the title of Chief of State in South Vietnam. Diem removed Bao Dai from power following a rigged referendum in 1955 that turned South Vietnam into a republic. Bao Dai spent the rest of his life in exile in France.

Bao Dai was never short of a penny; he lived a life of opulence from birth to death. But he was a pauper when it came to dignity. Thrice a puppet - first under the French, then under the Japanese, and finally under Diem - he never commanded respect. And so, fittingly perhaps, he passed his last few years chasing skirt in Parisian nightclubs. He died in Paris in 1997.