After a very late night I was a bit reluctant to get up early, but Matt and I had promised we would go for a run at some point in Vietnam. We had left it until the last day... We left at 6:45 and ran for about 2.5km along the river in the humidity and heat before walking back and checking out what was going on along the river. A very large gathering was occurring, probably something for the Hue festival. A whole lot of boats were on the river but we couldn't really decide what was happening. We went back to the hotel for breakfast at about 7:30.
I had a decent amount of cash to spend before we left the country so Matt and I went for a walk around the streets to see if we could find anything else worth spending money on. Matt bought a couple of T-shirts but I couldn't decide on anything. Check out at the hotel was at 12 so I spent the rest of the morning packing and watching the football until Tom and I checked out at about 11:45.
The bus arrived at 12:30, a lot smaller than had been anticipated. Including the bags, we only just had enough seats for everyone, and I was sitting on the wheel, so I had no space for my legs, with a 3 hour drive ahead...
We drove back to Da Nang over the mountain (last time we went through the tunnel). The view was quite amazing over both sides of the mountain, unfortunately there was a large amount of smog over Da Nang and you could only just make out the city, photos couldn't quite capture the city. One last encounter with tourism occurred at the lookout on top of the mountain, as soon as we got off the bus, everyone from their stores came up to us trying to get us to buy something from their shop. They also tried very hard to rip-off those people that did buy something, taking Singapore dollars straight out of wallets and not wanting to give change.
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| The back of the mountain near Da Nang |
We arrived at the airport at 3:30 pm with half an hour before check in opened. Most of us grabbed a small bite to eat to get rid of the Dong before we checked in and headed through customs into the departure lounge. Our flight to Singapore was delayed by about half an hour due to the plane arriving late. I sat on a window seat by myself near the back, for some strange reason our whole group was scattered all over the plane even though we were booked in groups of at least 5. I slept for about 2 hours of the 2.5 hour flight in the hope that it would be enough so that I could watch some movies on the big flight.
We arrived in Singapore at 10:15 pm and raced through the airport to board our next flight just after 11 pm. I still had $20 Singapore, I had a look for things to buy along the way but again couldn't decide on anything. On the plane to Adelaide I sat with Scott on the window seat again. I was able to fit in two movies before a 2 hour sleep, waking up just before we landed in Adelaide at 8:20 am.
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| Good morning Adelaide |
This trip has been a fabulous experience for both learning about and enjoying a different country and culture. I would suggest to anyone that may get an opportunity like this to take it up, it really is worth it. I got to know everyone on the trip much better than I had previously which is great for both my professional future as well as my personal future. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to travel on this trip with, they have all made it even more enjoyable, providing a great source of knowledge as well as (more importantly) being a great bunch of people to talk to and enjoy the entire trip with. (Hopefully my blog will help with everyone's assignments)
I hope you have all enjoyed reading my stories of Vietnam, I look forward to talking about my adventures in greater detail with all of my readers.
Until my next great adventure (hopefully not too far away),
- Nick
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