Day 6 - Hue, "I think you guys are right about the water"
Today in Nam I woke up to the gentle rocking of the train, well not really all through the night I kept waking up whenever the train driver would put on the breaks (which was quite often). We were getting closer to our destination so it was time to clean up our room and pack our bags. Our room was really clean since we hadn't partied in it the night before, the girls room on the other hand was a mess. The floor was similar to a nightclub floor with your feet sticking to the ground for a few seconds every step. I really wouldn't want to be the person who was staying in the cabin after us.
Whilst waiting in our cabin Taylor had mentioned that he had drunk the water from the hot tap on the train. Dave, George and myself all said that it probably wasn't a smart move because that would be local water but Taylor disagreed. His logic was because it was from the hot tap the water had already been boiled, anyway Taylor wasn't worried because he had tablets for "that" so he may as well use them. Taylor then left the cabin to ponder his dilemma whilst the rest of us packed up.
About 20 minutes later Taylor came back into our cabin a little pale. Standing in the doorway with his fly undone and holding a bottle of water he calmly said to us "I think you guys are right about the water". Suddenly George, David and I burst into fits of laughter which went on for about 5 minutes. Eventually some of the girls came into our cabin to see what we were laughing at and obviously being nicer people than us they assisted Taylor with medication.
After Taylor's stomach settled a bit we decided to pass the remaining minutes we should play cards. George suggested we play "Last Card" which is very similar to Uno but with a deck of cards. The rules of the game is: Each player is dealt 7 cards, and the top card on the deck is turned face up. Players take in turns to put either the same suit or same number down and the first person with no cards wins. When a player is down to their last card they must declare "Last Card" otherwise they get a 2 card penalty. The fun comes in with some cards being worth different things which are:
Once the train stopped we hoped off, got onto a bus to our hotel, checked in and went and got some breakfast. After breakfast we had a tour planned of the Citadel with Vu, so we walked from the hotel over the perfume river to the Citadel (Imperial City). The imperial city is a walled fortress which used to be the capital of Vietnam, during the war the citadel was mostly flattened by the bombing with only a few buildings remaining. The Vietnamese government and UNESCO are in the process of reconstructing the Citadel.
Through the gates of the Citadel we saw elephants, horses and a pond full of fish. Vu purchased some food from a vendor and dropped the food in the water. Suddenly hundreds of gold fish had quickly swam over and were practically begging for more food. It was crazy, I have never seen so many fish practically jumping out of the water for food.
We spent the next couple of hours walking around the citadel which was really large before making our way back to the hotel.
For dinner we had an optional group dinner which was a Royal Banquet. As part of the Royal Banquet we were required to pick a King and a Queen and dress up in traditionally clothing. We decided the fairest way to decide the King and the Queen would be to draw names from a hat. The females were first so they all drew names, if you drew the piece of paper with the word "Queen" on it then you were the Queen. So after a few happy shouts from the girls that didn't have Queen written we all heard a shriek from Morag. So the Queen was decided it was going to be Morag.
Next up was the drawing of the King, Vu went round and David, Allen, George, Taylor and myself drew a piece of paper. I unfolded my paper and it was thankfully blank then I heard someone yell "Crap!!". I looked up to see David jumping around more than he usually does. There we had it David and Morag were going to be our King and Queen for the night.
At the restaurant we put on different costumes and then paraded from the front, through other people dining and into our own private dining area where there was a traditional band playing music. The King and Queen were seated at the head of the table and us plebs got to sit down at the lower table. After kneeling before my King I took a seat at the lower table.
The food that then followed for the next couple of hours was fantastic. The one thing we had noticed during our short stay in Vietnam is they love presentation. Lots of food we had eaten was nicely decorated and the food this night was no exception
After dinner we had the choice to go our or back to our hotel. Since most of us were still exhausted from our massive night on the train we opted to go back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel we found out that there was a free pool table on the top floor of the hotel. So Dave, Morag, George, Vu and myself went up and played a few games of pool. Unfortunately Dave and my magical run we had experienced in Hanoi disappeared and we lost every game to George and Vu. At least we (I) always managed to sink at least one ball so there was no pants down.
After embarrassing ourselves in pool we went to bed ready for the motorcycle tour we had booked the following day.
Today in Nam I woke up to the gentle rocking of the train, well not really all through the night I kept waking up whenever the train driver would put on the breaks (which was quite often). We were getting closer to our destination so it was time to clean up our room and pack our bags. Our room was really clean since we hadn't partied in it the night before, the girls room on the other hand was a mess. The floor was similar to a nightclub floor with your feet sticking to the ground for a few seconds every step. I really wouldn't want to be the person who was staying in the cabin after us.
Whilst waiting in our cabin Taylor had mentioned that he had drunk the water from the hot tap on the train. Dave, George and myself all said that it probably wasn't a smart move because that would be local water but Taylor disagreed. His logic was because it was from the hot tap the water had already been boiled, anyway Taylor wasn't worried because he had tablets for "that" so he may as well use them. Taylor then left the cabin to ponder his dilemma whilst the rest of us packed up.
About 20 minutes later Taylor came back into our cabin a little pale. Standing in the doorway with his fly undone and holding a bottle of water he calmly said to us "I think you guys are right about the water". Suddenly George, David and I burst into fits of laughter which went on for about 5 minutes. Eventually some of the girls came into our cabin to see what we were laughing at and obviously being nicer people than us they assisted Taylor with medication.
After Taylor's stomach settled a bit we decided to pass the remaining minutes we should play cards. George suggested we play "Last Card" which is very similar to Uno but with a deck of cards. The rules of the game is: Each player is dealt 7 cards, and the top card on the deck is turned face up. Players take in turns to put either the same suit or same number down and the first person with no cards wins. When a player is down to their last card they must declare "Last Card" otherwise they get a 2 card penalty. The fun comes in with some cards being worth different things which are:
- Ace: Player can change it to the suit of their choosing
- 2: Next player has to draw two, if they have a 2 they can place it down so the following player has to draw 4 (max draw 8 cards)
- 5: Next player has to draw five or can put down a five (max draw 20 cards)
- 10: Skip the next player
- Jack: Reverse the direction
It was soon to become a card game that we played regularly between the guys.
Once the train stopped we hoped off, got onto a bus to our hotel, checked in and went and got some breakfast. After breakfast we had a tour planned of the Citadel with Vu, so we walked from the hotel over the perfume river to the Citadel (Imperial City). The imperial city is a walled fortress which used to be the capital of Vietnam, during the war the citadel was mostly flattened by the bombing with only a few buildings remaining. The Vietnamese government and UNESCO are in the process of reconstructing the Citadel.
We spent the next couple of hours walking around the citadel which was really large before making our way back to the hotel.
For dinner we had an optional group dinner which was a Royal Banquet. As part of the Royal Banquet we were required to pick a King and a Queen and dress up in traditionally clothing. We decided the fairest way to decide the King and the Queen would be to draw names from a hat. The females were first so they all drew names, if you drew the piece of paper with the word "Queen" on it then you were the Queen. So after a few happy shouts from the girls that didn't have Queen written we all heard a shriek from Morag. So the Queen was decided it was going to be Morag.
Next up was the drawing of the King, Vu went round and David, Allen, George, Taylor and myself drew a piece of paper. I unfolded my paper and it was thankfully blank then I heard someone yell "Crap!!". I looked up to see David jumping around more than he usually does. There we had it David and Morag were going to be our King and Queen for the night.
At the restaurant we put on different costumes and then paraded from the front, through other people dining and into our own private dining area where there was a traditional band playing music. The King and Queen were seated at the head of the table and us plebs got to sit down at the lower table. After kneeling before my King I took a seat at the lower table.The food that then followed for the next couple of hours was fantastic. The one thing we had noticed during our short stay in Vietnam is they love presentation. Lots of food we had eaten was nicely decorated and the food this night was no exception
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| Spring Rolls and some type of meat. The decorations were made from real food |
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| Prawns |
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| Um to be honest I forget what this food is but it was tasty |
After dinner we had the choice to go our or back to our hotel. Since most of us were still exhausted from our massive night on the train we opted to go back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel we found out that there was a free pool table on the top floor of the hotel. So Dave, Morag, George, Vu and myself went up and played a few games of pool. Unfortunately Dave and my magical run we had experienced in Hanoi disappeared and we lost every game to George and Vu. At least we (I) always managed to sink at least one ball so there was no pants down.
After embarrassing ourselves in pool we went to bed ready for the motorcycle tour we had booked the following day.
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