[Gross]So I left Hanoi in quite a painful way. About an hour before I caught the sleeper train I became incredibly sick to my stomach. I spent probably the next 12 hours in misery. Worst part, I absolutely had to use the restroom by the time I got to the train station. As I was about to enter some old vietnamese lady (saying vietnamese for the next few weeks seems redundant) accosted me, and made me giver her 1000 dong = 8 cents to use the bathroom. More baffled than anything I grabbed a dollar bill and threw it at her and ran in. To my horror is was by far the most bile filled bathroom I had ever entered. Just imagine a truckstop bathroom not being cleaned for a year. There were cockroaches even, of course they were all dead from the smell I’m guessing. Worst part no toliet paper. So I had to run to my group, grab a roll, run back to the disgusting bathroom and spend 5 minutes holding my breath for fear of inhaling poisoned fumes. Apprently the little fee I had to pay was for that little old lady’s effort in keeping the bathroom clean. Frankly I feel very ripped off. Afterwards I have been binging on a diet of pepto bismal tablets [/Gross]
The of the group had a blast on the train ride to Hue. They partied like it was christmas and sang drunken carols loud enough, that a few of the other passengers complained. I unfortunately was lieing in my surprisingly clean bunk praying not to die.
We arrived in Hue the next day and checked in to our very nice hotel, Duy Tan. We took a tour up the perfume river and saw a monk / buddhist temple. The architecture was quite beautiful and jungle seem to be encroaching to give it a sirene look. After the temple we took our boat up the river a bit further and saw the king’s tomb. It was very impressive with lots of ruins again. I have a feeling by the end of this trip I will be sick to my stomach at the sight of seeing another ruin. Much like how I was bored senseless when I was in Italy and constantly seeing Jesus.
That night our tour guide Chtrung took us to this very fancy restaurant, where we, as a large group of white people, were forced to put on Mandarine robes and walk in a parade through the building with a band leading the way. Its a sad day when the Vietnamese are taking your picture. I feel like I should have charged them 10000d, which seems to be the going picture rate here. We had a delicious 9 course meal for about 10$ and hopped a taxi back to our hotel. Now I’m about to catch a bus to Hoi An so I must be off. I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!
Halfcent out.
Comments:
were dog or hamster one of the courses in your 9 course meal? ew, it makes me sick to think about.
Posted by your gf at 01:34 PM on December 26, 2007
Mmmmmm . . . dog. You can taste the loyalty.
Posted by George at 04:21 PM on December 27, 2007