After a good 11th floor buffet, and 7 too many crepes, we set off on a bike riding journey through Hue. Unlike your casual bike ride down beach road after nan’s Sunday arvo roast, in Vietnam you have to dodge speeding motorcycle maniacs, courageous cows and the way too fast and furious Mrs Tattersall. Every intersection was hectic, but the highlight of the bike ride was reaching a famous bridge. Our tour guide, the super smart Sunny explained the history of this bridge and how it was built by a Japanese woman in the 18th century to connect two villages. Riding a bike in Vietnam is very humbling to experience, nobody acknowledges your existence but can dodge you at the last moment, which makes the experience feel safe and kept us strangely reassured. The ever capable Mrs. Tattersall expertly dodged through the streets of Hue with a Vin Diesel-like passion. The only casualty in this whole venture was a pair of pants that was ripped and repaired quicker than the tailors in Hoi An can fix them. We stopped at local authentic markets and observed the life style there as well.
In our down time after the ride we all seemed to watch the same shows at the same time in our separate rooms: Vietnamese dramas, intense 8 ball mania on fox sports 6 and Days of Thunder that every hotel in Vietnam plays 3 times a day. We then elevated to the 11th floor and swam in a rooftop pool that has a view over a soccer pitch fit for a Cahill.
After a lovely trip to the pool, we were given time in the room to prepare for the trip to Hanoi tomorrow. For dinner tonight we were allowed to roam the streets of Hue looking for a good feed for dinner. Unfortunately some of us were met with a carbonara disaster, with very overcooked pasta: it was genuinely bad (Pro Vietnam Red Hot Tip; never order western food in Vietnam, rookie mistake). We finished the day basking in the beauty of ice cream from Baskin Robin ice cream.
P.S. from Will, sorry I went over budget but tell Sarah her gift is awesome, like really cool, so worth it, no regret at all.
P.S.S. from Lauren, I’ve almost gone over budget too, I bought a suit and now I can’t afford to eat, just kidding, also I got you guys some alright gifts. ciao