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Published: August 2nd 2015
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Woke up and had the free breakfast before going back to bed! Then at about 1 Jadine had to leave so we said bye and Beth and I went for lunch. We hung out for a bit but I was dying so went back to bed. Later I Booked the 'easy rider' tour for tomorrow with India and Alisha from my room. It was a pretty lazy day and in the evening I watched a bit of the tennis with the 4 J's (too many j names here!). Andy also from nha Trang came to join us for a bit. I planned an early night but when I got in my room 3 guys in there were all drinking with their friends playing charades. I ended up joining in but sober which was fun... Ended up going to bed gone 12 when they went out.
Had an early start for the Easy rider tour at 6.45 with India and Alisha. We went to the office and got our bikes and bags strapped on to it. We met our drivers and off we went. We drove to marble mountain( which i'd already seen) Before going to Danang beach. They were all
really good drivers and had been doing it for years. They were happy to stop wherever along the way and take photos which was fun. We Had lunch in a really nice location on the way. Me and the girls ordered some 'sautéed vegetables' as we weren't that hungry and were given a plate of spinach :/ haha then we drove on to the hai van pass. It was really Beautiful and such fun on a bike. On the way to Hue we stopped at a waterfall which was so much fun. We were boiling so jumped in straight away it was fun as the side was so slippy we were sliding down into the water. Then after we drove on to hue. My driver decided we could make it before the approaching storm and drove off! He was right though and we got there just as it started raining. I met up with jadine and we checked in to a double room as it was the same price as a dorm! We chilled, chatted and got ready. We went for dinner with India, Alisha and their friend Ben. Dinner was so good- garlic bread, pasta and a chocolate mousse!
We had an Early night watching tv.
The next morning we had breakfast, before checking out of our double room and Into a dorm. After We went on a dragon boat down the river and then got a bike to see the Tu Duc tomb. It was cool to see but not that exciting, there were other tombs nearby but we decided one was enough! We Came back and chilled before having an early dinner and saying bye to Jadine again. Then I Finally found a book to 'swap' so I read that. I felt a bit like I was getting a cold so I had an early night to recover.
The next day I woke up and had breakfast with Ben. Our buses were at 5 so we just chilled out in the hostel and chatted most of the day and read books until the afternoon when we went to get food. We ate loads so that we could survive the 13 hour bus journey. After dinner we got snacks for the coach and then I had to leave for my bus. I had to get there at 4.45 despite the bus not turning up until 6... Got to
love the timing of transport over here! Chatted to a guy called Will while we waited. The bus journey was fine- just the usual driving too fast! I stayed awake until about 11 so that I could sleep through until we got to Hanoi.
Woke up about ten minutes before we arrived to 'Barbie girl' being played full blast on the speakers! When we got off Will and I were asked if we wanted a taxi ... Which ended up in an argument/fight between two taxi drivers who both wanted to take us... So we snuck off and jumped in another! We got to the hostel early (green Hanoi backpackers) and the lady on the desk was lovely. We checked in as soon as someone checked out and I had a HOT shower (not often that happens in Asia!). Then I met up with Jadine and we went to the Hoa lo prison. It has been turned into a museum and was really interesting to learn more about when the French invaded and the Vietnam War. Then we went round town looking at the markets before having a rest from the heat in a cafe. After we went to a
water puppet show - it was very strange but good fun! It's a big stage at the front and they tell various Vietnamese stories (in Vietnamese so some guess work involved as to what's going on) using the puppets. From there we went back to the hostel got ready and went to the night market to have a look around. We didn't have long as the Wimbledon final was on so we went to watch that. We were team Federer which obviously didn't work out too well 😞 was a fun night though as rum and cokes were only £1.10 haha
Woke up a little late at about 12. Jadine had a castaway tour she was going on so I was just by myself. I didn't really do much, just walked about town for some lunch and tried to find out prices for the rest of my time here. In the evening I went for dinner but was still feeling a bit 'coldy' (which a few people seem to have at the moment) so went to bed early again.
Woke up feeling better so had a super productive day exploring Hanoi. I walked to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum
but it shut at 10.30 and by the time I had walked there it was 10.45... But I looked at the outside which was cool. So I went to his museum instead which was actually really funky with loads of statues everywhere. It was all about him and had some translations but I would like to have had more so I could find out more about what he did but still an impressive museum! Then I walked to the one pillar pagoda- which is as it sounds! So I carried on to the temple of Literature which had nice grounds and temples. I went to a cafe for lunch/ to escape the heat and drink my bodyweight in water! Then I walked to Ho Chi Minh's palace, it was cool but they don't really have much at each attraction so it only took about 20 mins at a vey slow pace to walk around as nothing is really open for viewing! Next I walked down to the Tran Quoc Pagoda on the west lake which was really nice but I didn't go inside as I was wearing shorts! I walked / crawled as I as exhausted back to the hostel
after being out all day. I went for dinner and bed as I had to get up the next day.
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