Author: jgourley

By Leah and Claire

This morning we woke up in Hue for the last time with excitement for the day ahead. After a delicious breakfast which consisted of more crepes and fruit in the gorgeous Romance Hotel, we loaded the bus and started our three and a half hour trip to Hoi An. Fortunately, the heavy rainfall did not bring our spirits down. 
Two and a bit hours into the bus trip, we stopped at a nature site right next to the beach to experience the stunning cliffs of Marble Mountain. After a long, tiring walk up what felt like 10000 stairs, we were amazed by the beautiful views of beach and town. After a quick lesson and demonstration of safety and rope techniques professional abseilers use, we enjoyed a simple but yummy lunch of a baguette with tomato, cucumber, cheese, and fruit. Then it was finally time to climb up another set of steep steps to use our new ‘pro’ techniques to a safe, yet thrillingly scary abseil down a 25 metre vertical cliff. It was hard to walk down an acute angled cliff after the rain soaked the rock making it very slippery. Many of us had the thought of slipping and falling straight down ‘to our death’, but thankfully we all survived with smiling faces, wanting to do it again. With only a couple of slips by Matt and Zeb, (on the steps, not the cliff!), we made the long journey back down the slippery steps to board the bus for the second time, just to discover an elevator just around the corner of the mountain!

After about 20 minutes of driving, we had to get off the bus because the roads were becoming too narrow for this particular bus, which caused us to split up into two smaller mini busses to take us to the hotel in the pouring rain. We arrived at Van Loi Hotel to check in and relax in our rooms until heading out to the streets of Hoi An to explore the area and markets that were kept safe from being bombed during the Vietnam war. We discovered shops that tailor clothing and jewellery for a reasonable price, as well as different bags and shoes that were made by the Vietnamese to be sold to the locals to enjoy. When it began to rain once again and the sun went down, we all ran through the rain to come together in a little restaurant for dinner. We paid for our dinner tonight and majority of the group feasted on delicious pizzas and pastas while others ordered fried rice and sweet and sour chicken to share. 
After dinner, we were given an hour of free time to roam the streets of what is known as the most romantic city in Vietnam. This was shown when origami-like lanterns were being sold to be placed in the river and float away during the night. The lanterns above the streets were absolutely astonishing, and we didn’t hide that when we all pulled out our cameras to capture the moment. With still much time to spare in the night markets, a few of us in the group decided to get temporary tattoos on our backs, arms and behind our ears. After we had enough walking, we slowly strolled back to the meeting point where we were surprised to see Vietnam Grey walking across the Hoi An bridge. It was a happy moment to see other friends and fill each other in with what’s been happening and all the fun times we’ve been having so far. We said our goodbyes and walked back to the hotel to relax before heading off to bed. 
We’re all excited for tomorrow and what has been planned, but it will be hard to top the day we just had. 
Hope you are all having fun back home and missing you all but not to worry as this experience has been amazing so far. 
Signing off, 

Leigh and Ross 
Ps. Happy birthday Mum. Sorry I missed it, but I hope you had a great day. Love you lots 💕 -Leah 

By Sophie and Carien 
Today started off with a welcoming breakfast full off western food, like crepes with chocolate sauce, which we were all very excited about, and the usual scrambled eggs. We then headed off on an adventurous bike ride around Hue. Let’s just say it wasn’t the usual relaxing bike ride. Through the busy streets of Hue we managed to cross our first road of constant traffic successfully. Five minutes into the bike ride we took our first stop, which happened to be at a primary school. It was amazing to see the difference, because when we arrived we probably saw a million little kids storming through the traditional but modern school. It honestly felt like I was in a jungle surrounded by little kids, boys and girls, overly excited to see us. It was so much fun talking to the kids and trying to communicate. Even though we might have misunderstood some words, it was definitely a highlight of the day leaving everyone in awe. 

Next, we hopped back on our bikes to ride to a unique place that creates different types of incense. Incense is traditionally used by Buddhism followers who take 1 or 3 incense sticks when they go to pray. If you take one incense it means everything but if you take three each one stands for something different; earth, heaven and the God. Some of us were lucky enough to even get the opportunity to create some ourselves. 
Next we had the chance to take in an incredible view of the Perfume River. Everyone took a deep breath while Hoang shared historical background information on how the last kings have shared the same view as we were seeing. The final stop before heading back to the hotel was to the third emperor’s tomb. Hoang gave us insight to the sentimental value of this historical monument. From his speech we learned that the emperor had over 100 wives. As he could not have a child with any of them (as a result of an earlier illness) he adopted three children.

We discovered he was a very romantic guy, who was down to earth and loved nature and his country. His actual tomb, where his body was stored deep below the ground, was only a small part of the huge environment we had entered. We learned that for a tomb the environment must contain a lake and a mountain. By the lake he had built a resting place and an area that also consisted of a theatre and another beautiful house that held some of the body’s of the kings wives. Ultimately, the third kings tomb was an amazing monument to see even though we nearly melted in the 30 degrees heat. 
After some free time to freshen up we headed out to dinner which Hoang. He as a little cagey and it was not till we arrived that he told us we were having a Royal dinner. Lucy and Liam were nominated as the Queen and King for the night and the rest of us were the princes and princesses. We all got a special gown with all sorts of different designs on it and we can’t forget about the matching hats that summed up the whole outfit. We then elegantly made our way into the dinning hall and enjoyed a night of traditional music and meals with lots of laughter. 

While roaming the night markets along the Perfume River we experienced the fun night life Hue has to offer. It is safe to say that although this might have been one of the busiest days so far, it was a remarkable adventure with many ups and downs (literally, hill after hill, on the bikes).
We miss and love you all very much xx

Sophie and Carien 

Awaiting photos to come through and will post tomorrow. 

All well and off to Hoi An in the morning. 

Bye Hue!

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 

By Liam and Austin

Today we woke up packed our bags and were ready for our last day in Hanoi and we were ready for a big one. We met in the lobby waiting for the bus. When the bus arrived we all got on and were ready to go. When we arrived at the lake we got into the golf carts and went on a tour through all the different types of streets in the old quarter. The shops of Hanoi are split into sections based on the products they sell, for example we saw a metal street, paper street and a bamboo street.  

After the golf cart ride we were ready for lunch. We had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in a shopping complex. On the menu there were Vietnamese baguettes which were recommended by our tour guide. These baguettes were a bit different to home and some included vegetables, bbq pork and a fried egg. 

Once we finished lunch, we were on our way to the history of Hanoi museum. It displayed all of the important milestones that have happened over time such as: the American war, Ho Chi Minh’s speech in 1945, the numerous attacks that the Vietnamese people had to fight off to keep their land, and information about the different kings and emperors of Vietnam. After the museum, we were on our way to an early dinner. 

Desperate for a taste of home, we all went for a bite at the Asian-Western restaurant: Koto. Even though our spaghetti and burgers were good, the history of the restaurant was better. Koto had been founded by a Vietnamese-Australian man, who wanted to give opportunities to the homeless youth of Hanoi. The restaurant trains and provides jobs and accommodation to the homeless children, and many of them succeed and work in restaurants and hotels across Vietnam. However, they still feel great loyalty to the place that trained them, and they find time to come back and teach another street kid. This is how the restaurant got its name “know one, teach one”.
From Koto we took our bus to the train station. After unloading our bags and a short wait, we all piled into our carriage. We have settled into our cabins, and are now moving. We have 7 cabins for our group which gives us our own carriage. For the first hour we have played music, card games and shared stories. Will be interesting to see how we all sleep tonight. 

Hope you’re all doing well. We’re looking forward to seeing you all.

Liam and Aussie

Tonight we move from Hanoi to Hue on the overnight train. No wifi access, therefore blogs will be posted tomorrow. 

All are well and ready to head south. 

Bye Hanoi!!!