Euro Year

It was quite a rowdy train ride getting to Hue. Great ocean and jungle views but everyone on the train was super excited about being there and they were all talking loudly and moving around constantly to get pictures. I sat next to a very talkative 7 year old local which made the trip pretty fun. At one point he asked me how old mum and dad were and when i told him he said, "do they do good stuff? Coz if they do good stuff theyll have good luck and live longer!" (He was worried coz they were so old! Ahahaha).

We only had one night in Hue so we hired a tour guide to show us around. He took us along the perfume river (sitting inside a boat that was effectively just a big floating sauna) and to a few temples and pagodas but it was so hot that before long we had completely lost interest. We told the driver we were over the temples so he took us to an abandoned water park, an incense village and a great lookout spot over the river instead. All 3 of those things were awesome! The incense in the village smelled sooo good, I spent like 50 bucks. Hopefully im allowed to keep the incense through customs!! The view of the river spot reminded me heaps of gallipoli, same kind of pine trees and brown pine needle / woodchip dirt.

The next day we took a van to hoi an. We splurged a bit on the hoi an accommodation, the restort had a great pool so we spent the arvo swimming and drinking beers there. In the evening we walked to the lantern river for dinner. The river at night was so pretty, there were colourful lanterns everywhere and beautifully lit row boats cruising people around. People also sent wish candles down the river in colourful paper rafts so there were heaps of those twinkling along on the water.

The next morning we got up bright n early for a food market tour. We tried 46 different local foods and drinks which were mostly all really tasty and interesting. The most noteworthy thing for me was a medicinal clear goop drink made from boiling a special type of birds nest. Id seen something on tv about it, theres this one really tall cliff in vietnam where a special species of bird loves making nests for mating season, after mating season is over some crazy locals climb up on ridiculously tall and rickety bamboo ladders to collect all the nests that are left stuck on the cliff. The drink itself was alright, actually kinda yuck, i had to try not to think about the fact i was essentially drinking rehydrated bird vomit.

At night we went back to the lantern river to see the full moon festival which happens once a month but it was super rainy so we just got soaked and then came straight home.

Hoi an was the relaxing leg of our trip so that was about everything we did. Most of our time was spent at the pool. On our 3rd day we discovered the best bahn mi street kart ever!! Mum and i went, i had 3 and she had 2 and we were very very happy :)).
Banh mi if im every in hoi an again:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/FwUDwHzKR2fnMayv9

After hoi an we did an overnight in ho chi minh city and now im on the plane home 😢Read more