By Matt and Simon
We began this morning different to most others. We awoke to the bumping and jolting of the train, feeling as though we’d been on the train for days. Most of us waking up at about 7, we quickly realised that our time on the train would be coming to an end. Some were happy to leave the small enclosed space but other were disappointed that we wouldn’t be on the train longer. Hurriedly, we prepared our breakfasts and soon after our bags. The first thing I saw after getting off the cloistered train was a nice looking bus, and I thought to myself, yes!!!
We were off to our new hotel, we all had hope in our hearts, and then our tour guide Hoang delivered the big news… “There’s a pool!”. We were all jumping out of our skins. After lunch and one hour in the much needed pool, we set off to the river where we boarded a two headed dragon! Well it was a boat that was painted as a two headed dragon, but close enough.
We ventured down the river to see a Buddhist temple, built in the 1600’s by one of the kings. The King heard about the story of a lady that always stayed on the hill and waited, the King thought that she was waiting for him so he built his palace. It was destroyed and then rebuilt in in 1904 by the kings of that time. After the Buddhist temple we took the boat to the Imperial City. It was a short and interesting experience to hear about the layers of defence used to protect the Forbidden City.
After the Forbidden City, we took a walk through the streets of Hue in warm and humid conditions. We came back to the hotel ready for some refreshing showers and some much needed rest. We were now all excited to chose what we wanted for dinner. The boys went off and found their own restaurant where a pool table was present. The dinner was amazing and the boys played tournaments to see who was the greatest pool player – obviously Simon is the greatest of all time, meaning he won. After dinner we were all exhausted and have now returned to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
We are missing all of you but still not ready to come home just yet, hope you are all doing well and not missing us too much, from everyone in Vietnam Yellow.
By Matt Spaz and Simon