Day 7 - Hue, Motor Bike tour and Christie's Birthday
Today in Nam I woke up fairly early because I had planned to go for a run with Christie. Since it had been a week without any exercise apart from running up and down stairs my body was starting to feel it. So I met Christie in the foyer of the hotel wished her a happy birthday and we set off on our run. We decided to run along the Perfume River in a straight line to minimise the chances of getting lost. Our run ended up being just over 4 kilometres which wasn't that long so we finished with a five minute ab workout in the hotel (5 minute ab workout on the iPhone. I know both my brothers Dave and Andrew loved doing it).
After working out we had breakfast at our hotel which had a fantastic variety. My breakfast consisted of pancakes with banana and honey and yoghurt with fresh passion fruit (the yoghurt in Vietnam was really nice). I also took the opportunity to try some Vietnamese Dragon Fruit. Dragon Fruit when peeled is white with black seeds and to be honest doesn't have much flavour.
From breakfast we all met in the foyer ready for the optional motor bike tour around Hue. Everyone in the group had decided to do this tour since Vu said it was one of the best activities and only cost about USD $20 for half a day (including lunch). At the front of the hotel we all got paired up with a different rider, because of numbers Vu was also a rider so Lauren got to pair up with him.
Sitting on the back of the bike took some getting used to, especially when the driver is crossing some of the roads in Hue (I found closing my eyes and praying didn't really help). As we got out of the town and into the country side I found myself relaxing a bit and enjoying the ride. Our first stop was a small village where we would visit a museum, market and get a drink. The museum wasn't really what I was expecting, it was a one room building with different items scattered in the room. If we weren't with a local we definitely wouldn't have realised what this building was. It was great having Vu in the museum because he showed us the purpose of all the items. Most of the stuff in the museums was equipment that the farmers use in Vietnam to grow rice and different crops.
After our short stop at the village we made our way to the tomb of King Dong Kahanh. The tomb like lots of places in Vietnam had suffered pretty badly from the bombing during the war. The tomb itself is a large area that is surrounded by a massive stone wall. Inside the stone wall is a large garden and somewhere in that garden is the grave of the King. The people who dug the grave for the king were apparently killed after digging the hole so that the location of the grave stayed a secret. Unfortunately the tomb is locked and tourists aren't allowed in but we could see the wall and some buildings around.
From the temple we then made a stop at a shop which made incense sticks and then onto a monastery where we would enjoy a vegetarian lunch. Unbeknownst to us the lunch that we were about to experience would be the best lunch of the whole Intrepid tour. The lunch had a large variety of food but my favourite was the prawn crackers with some type of topping (kinda like a salsa but different).
After a massive lunch which we didn't end up finishing it was time to get back on the bikes. Our next stop was an arena in Hue where the King used to battle Elephants against Tigers. Most times the elephant won the battle because it would crush the tiger with it's feet. The arena was a little bit smaller than the MCG... well alot smaller. Pretty much it was a stone wall that covered a small patch of ground. Inside the arena we did get to see the area where the tigers were kept and on the wall you could see claw marks from the tigers. After the arena we took a boat ride to a temple then finally back on our bikes who took us back to our hotel.
Vu had mentioned that Hue was great for glasses shopping so anyone that wanted glasses he would show us a good shop. Dave, George, Morag, Christie and I decided that we would check this shop out to see what was in stock. Once inside the glasses store we noticed pretty quick that the glasses for guys looked like they had been made in the 80's. It was an easy decision to then get the boys (George, Dave and myself) and do a self tour of Hue. Armed with the map that Vu had provided we started exploring the city.
Our destination was any place that sold beer or coffee. First stop on the map was a bar Vu had marked called "Brown Eyes". Once we arrive we noticed the sign said "5pm until the last one passes out"... Damn it was only 4:45. We walked in the bar anyway but the owner insisted we come back later because he didn't have hot girls to serve us yet. So we kept walking and found a coffee shop just down the corner. After a beer and coffee (we couldn't decide which one to have) we went back to the hotel.
Whilst waiting for time to depart for dinner we decided another round of "Last Card" was in order. So George, Taylor came into Dave and my room and the competition started. During the games Taylor was talking about some of the nicknames his friends gave him for example Taylortrash. David then suggested that a good nickname would be Swifty. George and I found it funny but it was officially going to be Taylor's nickname once Taylor said "I hope that nickname doesn't stick".
For dinner Vu took us to a restaurant in town which was the worst place of the whole tour (we had the best lunch and worst dinner on the same day). The meals were small and all came out at very different times. Vu had organised however a cake to celebrate Christies birthday, after singing happy Birthday multiple times we left the restaurant and headed to "Brown Eyes" (again) to have some drinks.
Once in Brown Eyes Dave and I found out after we bought the first round of drinks that it was "Buy 1 get 1 free" for the first drink only (if you order through a waitress and not at the bar). So after foolishly buying a Hue beer as the first drink we convinced the waitress we didn't get the "buy 1 get 1 free" and we started hitting the cocktails. After a few cocktails Dave and I kept doing rounds, the rule was that you had to buy the other person a drink but it was a drink of your choice. I expected Dave to buy Southern Comfort but instead he bought us both a Jim Beam and coke. So we ended up on bourbon for the rest of the night, Dave ordering Jim Beam and me ordering Jack when it was my round.
The interesting thing about Vietnam is you buy the shot of bourbon then you pay extra for the coke. Most times the waitress understood this but once I had to spend 5 minutes explaining to the waitress that I wanted coke added to the straight Jack Daniels she had bought out. This was made harder by the language barrier and the fact I was a little bit tipsy so I'm sure my english wasn't the best. During the night Dave also noticed that they had cigars on the menu and they were only 80,000 dong (roughly $4), so we decided in our drunken state that cigars would be a great idea.
Once midnight hit we realised that suddenly it wasn't Christie's birthday anymore.... luckily we stil had a reason to celebrate because it was Morag's birthday. So after a few shots ordered for both birthday girls we continued drinking and dancing.
At some stage during the night it was decided as a group that it was probably time to go home, so we all ended up stumbling back to our hotel. It had been a long and fantastic day in Hue, the next day we had a bus ride to Hoi An.
Today in Nam I woke up fairly early because I had planned to go for a run with Christie. Since it had been a week without any exercise apart from running up and down stairs my body was starting to feel it. So I met Christie in the foyer of the hotel wished her a happy birthday and we set off on our run. We decided to run along the Perfume River in a straight line to minimise the chances of getting lost. Our run ended up being just over 4 kilometres which wasn't that long so we finished with a five minute ab workout in the hotel (5 minute ab workout on the iPhone. I know both my brothers Dave and Andrew loved doing it).
After working out we had breakfast at our hotel which had a fantastic variety. My breakfast consisted of pancakes with banana and honey and yoghurt with fresh passion fruit (the yoghurt in Vietnam was really nice). I also took the opportunity to try some Vietnamese Dragon Fruit. Dragon Fruit when peeled is white with black seeds and to be honest doesn't have much flavour.
From breakfast we all met in the foyer ready for the optional motor bike tour around Hue. Everyone in the group had decided to do this tour since Vu said it was one of the best activities and only cost about USD $20 for half a day (including lunch). At the front of the hotel we all got paired up with a different rider, because of numbers Vu was also a rider so Lauren got to pair up with him.
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| Group outside the walls of the tomb |
After our short stop at the village we made our way to the tomb of King Dong Kahanh. The tomb like lots of places in Vietnam had suffered pretty badly from the bombing during the war. The tomb itself is a large area that is surrounded by a massive stone wall. Inside the stone wall is a large garden and somewhere in that garden is the grave of the King. The people who dug the grave for the king were apparently killed after digging the hole so that the location of the grave stayed a secret. Unfortunately the tomb is locked and tourists aren't allowed in but we could see the wall and some buildings around.
From the temple we then made a stop at a shop which made incense sticks and then onto a monastery where we would enjoy a vegetarian lunch. Unbeknownst to us the lunch that we were about to experience would be the best lunch of the whole Intrepid tour. The lunch had a large variety of food but my favourite was the prawn crackers with some type of topping (kinda like a salsa but different).After a massive lunch which we didn't end up finishing it was time to get back on the bikes. Our next stop was an arena in Hue where the King used to battle Elephants against Tigers. Most times the elephant won the battle because it would crush the tiger with it's feet. The arena was a little bit smaller than the MCG... well alot smaller. Pretty much it was a stone wall that covered a small patch of ground. Inside the arena we did get to see the area where the tigers were kept and on the wall you could see claw marks from the tigers. After the arena we took a boat ride to a temple then finally back on our bikes who took us back to our hotel.
Vu had mentioned that Hue was great for glasses shopping so anyone that wanted glasses he would show us a good shop. Dave, George, Morag, Christie and I decided that we would check this shop out to see what was in stock. Once inside the glasses store we noticed pretty quick that the glasses for guys looked like they had been made in the 80's. It was an easy decision to then get the boys (George, Dave and myself) and do a self tour of Hue. Armed with the map that Vu had provided we started exploring the city.
Our destination was any place that sold beer or coffee. First stop on the map was a bar Vu had marked called "Brown Eyes". Once we arrive we noticed the sign said "5pm until the last one passes out"... Damn it was only 4:45. We walked in the bar anyway but the owner insisted we come back later because he didn't have hot girls to serve us yet. So we kept walking and found a coffee shop just down the corner. After a beer and coffee (we couldn't decide which one to have) we went back to the hotel.Whilst waiting for time to depart for dinner we decided another round of "Last Card" was in order. So George, Taylor came into Dave and my room and the competition started. During the games Taylor was talking about some of the nicknames his friends gave him for example Taylortrash. David then suggested that a good nickname would be Swifty. George and I found it funny but it was officially going to be Taylor's nickname once Taylor said "I hope that nickname doesn't stick".
For dinner Vu took us to a restaurant in town which was the worst place of the whole tour (we had the best lunch and worst dinner on the same day). The meals were small and all came out at very different times. Vu had organised however a cake to celebrate Christies birthday, after singing happy Birthday multiple times we left the restaurant and headed to "Brown Eyes" (again) to have some drinks.
Once in Brown Eyes Dave and I found out after we bought the first round of drinks that it was "Buy 1 get 1 free" for the first drink only (if you order through a waitress and not at the bar). So after foolishly buying a Hue beer as the first drink we convinced the waitress we didn't get the "buy 1 get 1 free" and we started hitting the cocktails. After a few cocktails Dave and I kept doing rounds, the rule was that you had to buy the other person a drink but it was a drink of your choice. I expected Dave to buy Southern Comfort but instead he bought us both a Jim Beam and coke. So we ended up on bourbon for the rest of the night, Dave ordering Jim Beam and me ordering Jack when it was my round.
Once midnight hit we realised that suddenly it wasn't Christie's birthday anymore.... luckily we stil had a reason to celebrate because it was Morag's birthday. So after a few shots ordered for both birthday girls we continued drinking and dancing.
At some stage during the night it was decided as a group that it was probably time to go home, so we all ended up stumbling back to our hotel. It had been a long and fantastic day in Hue, the next day we had a bus ride to Hoi An.
