By Annabelle
Today we woke up bright an early for a day that we knew would be jam packed! We were packed and ready to head to the airport at 7:15am. Our journey to the airport started by the girls and boys splitting into two mini bus’ and heading to the actual bus stop as our bus was too big to get through the streets to our hotel. After arriving at the bus that would take us the rest of the way, we all settled in for a rest. Most people plugged their headphones in and listened to some of their favourite tunes but for the rest of us, we either sat there looking at the crowded streets of Hoi An or we had a nice quick sleep. When we got to the airport, we checked in our bags in small groups. This has become somewhat of a skill so we were all capable of checking in our luggage with no hassles whatsoever. We finally boarded the aeroplane and we were off. This flight was a short one and I managed to sleep the whole way! When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh city we raced to get our baggage, praying that none had been lost. After around 25 minutes of bag collecting, we were able to leave the airport once and for all, well at least for the next few days.
Ok, so we were finally at the hotel and ready to check in! Our eyes were filled with happiness when we saw the hotel. It is a massive hotel with white and gold features inside. The breakfast buffet room is in view of the entrance and one’s eyes are immediately drawn to a white piano placed in the corner of the reception room. We got settled until 2:30 and then we headed out for lunch at a restaurant called pho24. We all had a choice between chicken noodle soup or beef noodle soup. The vast majority of us chose beef but some people had chicken. The food was amazing and filled us all right up. When lunch concluded, we headed off to independence palace. It was a 20 minute walk to get there and the view was amazing. We were able to walk through the palace and see many of the conference rooms. Some of us also went to the top floor where we were able to see the two bombing points from the 1975 April attack. As we were inside the palace, it started pouring down with rain. Of course, being typical teenagers, we felt it would be fun to run through all of the puddles and and jump around in the humid rain. The walk back to our hotel was an interesting one with many of us quite wet, but we made it back in one piece. We had around time to get changed into some clean clothes, have a shower and relax.
Before heading off to dinner we all gathered around the piano to have a classic St Leonards sing along. What trip would be complete without one of these!? We were amazed by the voice of our tour guide, Hoang, who we had never heard sing until today. He was brilliant to say the least! Shortly after, we headed out to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant called Restaurant 13. When served with a bowl of rice, a bowl of noodles and some chicken and beef we were all pretty happy. Dinner was done in a heartbeat and we all headed back to the hotel for a nice sleep before another jam packed day tomorrow, where we will travel to the Mekong Delta for an overnight home stay. After arriving at the hotel we were briefed on what would happen tomorrow and then we went to our rooms for a good night’s sleep.
We are all having a great time and I can speak on the behalf of everyone when I say we are really missing our families back home!
Lots of love,
Annabelle xx
*** Day 15 and 16 will be posted tomorrow night as one blog for Mekong Delta.