Good Morning Vietnam!

Thank you to everyone for my birthday messages!! I really appreciate that I am still remembered by so many people on the other side of the globe, and that of course you spend all your waking moments refreshing the blog to see if I've posted anything. Don't deny it. I had a fantastic birthday and if you care to read on I'll fill you in on some of my exploits... or at least the parts I remember!!

Hue (aka Wahaaaaay!) (aka Hawaii!)

We arrived in Hue after possibly the worst bus trip of the journey so far. It was 13 hours, no where near the longest I've done roaming around the world, on a sleeper bus, so there were beds. The problem wasn't the roads or the sharp corners or other people. The problem with this bus is that I was in a "bed" that was so small that even curled into some crazy feotal position there was no chance I was ever going to fit. The back half of the bed was raised at such an angled you just slide down if you try and lie on it. So I didn't actually sleep that night, which made it all the more fantastic to arrive in Hue. It made me terribly annoyed that I didn't stick to my original plan and buy a motorbike and drive down. Unfortunetly this wasn't to be since I can't afford it and my visa runs out at the end of the month, thus not giving us enough time to drive down. So I'm a bit disappointed about that, but I hope I can rent a motorbike in a few places and drive around.

We decided against having a sleep as we only had the day in Hue so we rented some bikes and went into the Imperial Palace enclosure. It's one of the few places in Vietnam where there are still some original bits of architecture that survived the American War. Although most of it did and still is rebuilt now. On the way there the chain came off my bike 3 times!! I got bored in the end and walked back to get a new bike. It was a bit dangerous on the roads since its a complete free for all. Plus we had to cross a huge bridge which isn't wide enough at all for the amount of traffic that runs through. It looked amazing though. Actually inside the complex we went for a really nice bike ride around the walls, although this was by accident because we missed the entrance. Still it was nice. Inside there is a huge a assembly hall and courtyard and I met an artist called Phong who showed me some of his work. I enjoy collecting art in different countries but the whole no-space-in-my-bag thing remains to be a problem.

We went for a nice lunch that was amazingly cheap and tried some of Hue's local beer. I enjoy that everywhere we go there is a local beer, love it. It was searingly hot so after another ride into the complex to see a really nice lake we went back to the hostel. Cooling down in the middle of the afternoon with some air con is always a good idea in 40 degree heat. A nice Vietnamese meal and a few drinks later we got an early night. For tomorrow we go to Hoi An and for tomorrow is my birthday!

Tomorrow

Got up early to get some free birthday breakfast and to listen to a remarkable rendition of 'Happy Birthday' performed in Vietnamese by Alice, Briony and Andy. Also I really need to learn how to specificy a black coffee with no sugar. Somehow I keep getting starved of the fantastic Vietnamese coffee by having it ruined with powdered or condensed milk or a ton of sugar! So we got the uneventful bus to Hoi An, which only took 4 hours, giving us the whole afternoon and evening to enjoy my birthday!I had a traditional Vietnamese lunch of Cao Lao and "Cauliflower" Beef with some locally brewed fresh beer that cost 4,000VND (that's 11.2p). We caught motorbike taxi's to the beach and spent a few hours resting on the beach. We tried to go in the sea but something was stinging us and it really hurt. We found out later that it was Phosphorensence (spelling?!), but we are yet to work out what that actually is.

Foolishly I agreed to go for 22 drinks in a day for my 22nd birthda. So after my 5th drink so far we started some drinking games and ordered some pizza up to our room. At about 9pm we left to find some bars and managed to get lost. Andy (mapbearer) forgot which way we left the hostle and took us in the wrong direction for 15 minutes. Eventually we found our way to the bar and had some more drinks whilst playing pool and fussball. When the bar shut we made our way by motorbike taxi to the beach bar (incidently on a beach) where we stripped off and threw our drunken selves into their swimming pool. Some more drinks on the beach and the hours seemed to drift by until suddently it started getting light (by this point I had succesfully imbibed 22 drinks!!) and we watched the sun come up. It was stunning. We taxi'd back to the hostel where we had a breakfast of noodles before passing out in bed, where we stayed until 3pm this afternoon!

I had a fantastic day and I thank everyone who reads this and who has sent me birthday messages/eCards. I'll try and get back to everyone but I'm running short of time. Oh, and GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!

PS. It's 5:45 in the afternoon... can I pretend I'm on England time and I'm jetlagged so that I can get away with saying it's still morning???

PSS. The spellchecker doesn't work on this and I'm too tired to proof read, sorry.