Yesterday our day started with the usual buffet breakfast shortly followed by a comfortable cyclo ride through the streets of Hue to one of the local markets. After the successful bargaining in the market and making purchases, Vietnam Grey looked forward to the overnight train ride ahead. We surprised our selfless teachers with some fresh flowers to celebrate National Teachers Day and everything that they have done for us. We enjoyed the experience of Vietnam’s unique culture inside something as simple as a supermarket. Here we were given time to consult with our train cabin groups and buy dinner for the train ride. We got to witness the foreign food and drinks of Vietnam as well as grabbing some cheeky snacks to last us the 13 hour journey ahead.
After a 10 minute delay it was finally time to board the train where we would be travelling to Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi. We enjoyed our time bonding with our roommates in our tiny, shoebox cabins while eating one of Vietnam’s most famous dishes, two minute noodles. After countless card games, friendly conversations and endless packets of Oreos, m&m’s and lollies, it was finally time to call it a night and get our beauty sleep before our 4:50 am wake up.
It was buzzing with excitement in Hanoi and some of the locals were already out and about going about their day. If before, we hadn’t stood out as tourists, we most definitely did now as while the locals were bright eyed and happy, we were all half asleep and dreary. To keep us awake, we headed to the Lake of the Restored Sword where we joined in with the locals, participating in their early morning exercises such as Zumba, soccer, aerobics and Tai Chi. It was the perfect way to wake us up, just like a shot of Espresso in the morning.
It wasn’t long before our tummies were grumbling and we had set off to the hotel to enjoy yet another buffet breakfast. As it wasn’t time to check in yet, we had to fill in time somewhere so our tour guide Hai planned for us to visit the Temple of Literature where we learnt all about Confucius and Vietnam’s first university. Although the thought of school makes us squirm, it was nice to see the respect Vietnam has for its teachers and made us appreciate the work that our teachers do back home (no student has been bribed during these comments!).
As we were all exhausted, we spent the afternoon in our hotel rooms, catching up on our Journey Docs and getting some more sleep before heading out again this evening.
Currently we are sitting in Highlands coffee shop at the base of our hotel writing this blog before we head out to see the Water Puppet show, have dinner and return to the hotel for some well deserved rest. Tomorrow we treasure our last full day in Vietnam and we couldn’t be more happy to return home to see our beautiful families.
To those at home, we love you and we will see you soon!! – Brooke, Luke and Chloe