Author: chyde

Vietnam Grey – Day 16

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Our last full day in Vietnam

Was nothing short of a charm

An early rise to start the day

The final time together as Vietnam Grey

 

Our trip to the Mausoleum was grand

Even though we didn’t get to see Ho Chi Minh as planned

We saw the presidential palace along with Mr.Minh’s home

And gained lots of information we had not known

 

We next headed to our last chosen lunch

With smiling faces down to the final crunch

Off to the embassy we went

Where our questions were answered with our time well spent

 

Eager to go shopping there was still more to do

A short tour around the old quarter a due

We hit the streets in groups of four

All we wanted to do was buy some more

 

The day concluded with a plentiful dinner

Leaving our stomachs no thinner

But now it’s time to go to bed

Knowing that this poem is better than Vietnam Red

  
  
 
  
  

  

  


  

Vietnam Grey – Days 14 & 15

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imageYesterday 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

Vietnam Grey – in Hanoi

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We’ve arrived safely in Hanoi after a long and rickety train ride. We’ll post details of Days 14 and 15 later tonight.

   
   

Vietnam Grey – Day 14 early

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Here are some photos from this morning. We are boarding a train to Hanoi now and will be without wifi overnight so today’s post will be sent tomorrow. We are excited to continue our adventures up North.

    
    
    
    
  

   

Vietnam Grey – Day 13

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Our day started off with a bit of an early start in comparison to the usual 8:00 am wake up in Hoi An. Although, as per usual we ate a delicious breakfast with a range of delicacies from Vietnamese fried rice, to Western pancakes. It was really quite a feast. After being fuelled up we were enthusiastic for the bike ride to our first destination which was very Royal; The imperial palace.

  
We had a wander around the palace, learning about the interesting ways of how the royal family lived. We found it riveting, overwhelmed by the amount of Chinese and Japanese influence. We explored the grounds, finding gold dragon statues, and a very uncomfortable gold plated throne for his majesty. It wasn’t surprising that the King only spent his time in that particular chair for special events and ceremonies! An interesting fact which we learnt today was: The intricate security system made up of thousands of security guards and lock mechanisms, helping the King stay safe from harm. We also learned that the longest ruler was Nguyen IV who ruled for 36 years. We left the royal palace 20 minutes late due to our interest in the information which our great tour guide, Hai, gave us.

   
    
    
   
We made our way to the Thien Mu pagoda. The bike ride – although long and tiring – was very scenic as we travelled through a village called Kim Long (meaning Golden Dragon, where many of the royal family reside) and rice fields; which gave a large contrast from the scary bike ride along the heavily occupied main roads. When we arrived at the pagoda we were treated with ice cream which helped cool us down and boosted our energy levels for our ride to the next pagoda.

     
   
After yet another bike ride we made it to lunch at the pagoda. We ate many vegan dishes ranging from potato curry to tofu soup in effort to respect the lifestyle of the monks. Speaking of monks we went to visit one after our delicious lunch. After translating conversation we learned the guidelines, rules, and regulations which monks had to obey by.

  • They had to receive permission from the monk master to go to the supermarket, visit their family, and leave the pagoda
  • They are not allowed to lie, steal, get married, have sexual relations, smoke, or drink alcohol
  • They pray at 4:00am and 4:00pm every day
  • They also must complete an hour of silence every day
  • They wake up at 3:00 am and go to bed at 10:30 pm
  • They must study Buddhism

We then returned back to our hotel after a short city ride followed by a fun pool session. We then were given time to get ready for dinner, which ranged from Mexican to Italian. We ended the fantastic day with some fun card games. Tomorrow we will farewell Hue as we travel overnight on the Reunification Express to our last stop: Hanoi.

  
We all look forward to seeing everyone back in Australia! Missing you lots!
Bella, Garrett, and Siobhan

Vietnam Grey – Day 12

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We began our day, by far the best buffet breakfast Hoi An could offer, for the last time as we were reluctantly leaving the beautiful hotel and city. Once we had all finished our rounds up and back to the different foods that were served in the buffet, we endured the hard task of cleaning the “bomb site” that we called hotel rooms. Our bags were soon rushed out of the door and packed onto yet another bus as we began our travel to Hue.

On the way to Hue we stopped off at a historical site called the Hai Van pass which was on top of a mountain covered in dense and tropical bushland and shrubbery. The road that takes us to the site was almost as exciting and thrilling as a roller coaster as it bends and turns. “Woooo’s” and “ahhhh’s” were gushing out of almost everyone’s mouths as we would almost skim the sides of the railing on the side of the road. The trip up was also filled with disgust and confusion as we passed a small truck, no bigger than our bus, filled to the brim with live pigs. Many people in the group were shocked to see this however, we all now see the realty of the foods that we consume as well as the other side of Vietnamese culture and cuisine.  While visiting the Hai Van pass we learnt about some of the history including how it was developed originally in the14th century; however, the station that we visited was built during the French ruling in Vietnam. The purpose of the station was to check people’s tickets when visiting the two halves of the country as the station was used as a border between North and South of Vietnam.

After a refreshing venture around the old and run-down station, we piled back onto the cool bus. For lunch we stopped at a small restaurant and enjoyed cuisine such as fried rice, noodles and dumplings. After the lunch stop our final destination was Hue, to a four star hotel called Asia Hotel. After getting settled into our rooms we set off for a walk around Hue to learn about some of the history and culture of the city. On the walk we stopped at a river called the Houng (Perfume) River. We saw small boats that were decorated like dragons as well as tourist boats. People would often use the river as a form of transportation as well as a tourist activity, to see the Citadel. We also learnt that Hue was the original capital city of Vienam before Hanoi came to be the current capital.

Tonight was the night for the dinner of all dinners, the Emperor’s dinner. After a quick swim in the hotel pool or down-time for others, we all headed off on foot to a traditional, historical style restaurant. Upon arrival we were all handed robes and caps that were, as you can imagine, extremely flattering. All but two were given these robes as the other two lucky members were chosen to be the Emperor and Empress for the night, these two being Nic and Gemma. Nic was dressed in a lovely gold robe with an extravagant hat to match the equally extravagant robe as well as Gemma’s eye-catching red number with a wild gold and red hat. As the night commenced we entered in two lines as if we were part of the upper-class, Vietnamese society in ancient times. The Royals sat at the front of the room on a separate table, looking down on the “peasants” as they would have during ancient times. The meal started off with a tasteful sweet potato soup with a side of entertainment that was very common in ancient Vietnam including many of the traditional instruments. As the night went on the food kept rolling in as well as the wonderful songs and entertainment that was performed.

After the lovely meal the group reluctantly slipped out of their colourful robes and arrived back at the hotel for a good night’s rest.

-Rose and Nilab

Hope all is well back in Australia!