This morning we took a 4 hour bus trip on the only highway in Vietnam. We traveled along the coast of the south china sea and through the mountains, the view was so breath taking it hardly felt like a 4 hour trip, occasionally I catch myself just smiling for no reason lately and I'm certain it's because of this beautiful country.
We stopped at the peak of marble mountain for some photos and refreshments, I made a new friend called Hai, she was a lady hell bent on selling me something so I bought a marble bracelet that means good luck since she let me use the toilet for free (yes you pay for public toilets) and as I left she yelled out "good bye Lisa, don't forget me, Hai!!" lol!
I also met some kids who wanted money but I gave them some spare SDA pens I had in my satchel (courtesy of Joanie) and they LOVED them! I mean I like free pens but this was something else!
We got to Hue and all decided to meet at the "Why Not Bar" after check in for lunch...since there are no copyright laws in this country there were actually 3 "Why Not Bar's" within about 200m of our motel but we eventually all ended up at the same one.
It was 38 degrees and humid in Hue today and we went to look at the temples, we all had to wear clothing that covered our shoulders and knees so needless to say my trusty fan got a workout (I'm becoming quite a professional at using things like fans and chopsticks!)
We stopped at a little stall and saw how incense is made, the lady made it look very easy but one of the American boys had a go and proved otherwise ( his we called Mr Hanky on a stick lol)
We caught a dragon boat to take us back down the river to our motel but it turns out maintenance may have been skipped this week at the dragon boat distributors because we got less than 500m from the shore and the engine conked out, there were also no paddles on board so we were left floating in the middle of the river waiting for another boat to come get us. This was due to take half an hour or more, as all the other boats were booked out...we used this time to "bond" and play charades lol.
The next boat was taking too long and our guide was worried we would miss our dinner arrangements so a bus was called and the boat driver paddled us to shore with a stick lol.
When we finally got back to the motel I quickly ducked up to the chemist to get some antiseptic for my jellyfish stings, its crazy cause there are no pharmacy laws so you can pretty much get any drug you want over the counter! I stuck with some sort of Vietnamese bedadine.
Went for tea at a local restaurant run by a family of deaf and mute people, they were all so cheerful and surprisingly really easy to communicate with...I suppose we are used to making conversation with people who don't understand us by now.
The food was good, all traditional Vietnamese and then fried bananas for dessert.
The walls were all graffitied so we left our mark where we could, I gave Broken Hill a mention :)
You may have noticed I added a few photos to the blog, they are all on my camera so I took a photo of the screen with my iPhone to upload them, they're a bit blurry but you get the idea.

My friends Brad and Jordan are also blogging this trip, they have better photos than me
Brbjebasia.blogspot.com

I'll have all mine up in better quality when I get home.
Xx

P.s good news from the girls today, North won the footy!!! :) I'm a happy chap