Vietnam Trip Post 5 - Hoi An

being put to work in the herb garden

It has taken me forever to post this! Really i am working on getting all my posts up from Vietnam, hopefully they will be up by the time I go on my next holiday to Australia in October! Next time will write posts well on the holiday.

Vietnam Trip post 4 - Hoi An

cleaning dishes in the Hoi An market 

Ooooooh I actually thought I had already started this post then I opened this file and nothing... oops... darn... not as easy to post this as I was thinking....

The Chili Soup Challenge!

the first challenge the #8

Me and Gus with #8

Ed with #8

A few weeks ago I got a text from a friend saying "Ed and I are thinking of going to the spicy noodle place in Causeway Bay for a number 9, you keen for a rematch? Also Ed says hiccups are acceptable in a chili eating competition!" It all started the other night after way to many drinks we were at a friends apartment and all he had to eat was saltine crackers, chili paste and wine! So the chili challenges started... how much chili paste can you eat on a cracker? After a large spoonful Gus got the hiccups and I said he lost the competition. So I met Ed and Gus in Causeway bay and we went in to the restaurant. We tried to order a number 9 bowl of soup, there are 9 levels of hottness of soup at this Szechwan restaurant. The waitress actually said NO to us, another patron who translated for us (the waitress only spoke cantonese) said that she was afraid we would waste the food. So after some persuasion we convinced her to give us a number 8! I ordered mine with pork belly and tofu. They don't serve beer so we got 3 Tsing Tao beers at 7-11 to drink with the soup, hopefully making it a little easier to eat. Words cannot describe how hot this soup was! painful frikin hot, numbness, Gus was sweating, Ed turned red!

Vietnam Trip Post 3 - Hue

infront of a Kung Fu centre in Hue 

We arrived in Hue by train and walked with Robyn and Trudy to the taxi stand, and were met by the guys on Harley Davidson who were taking Robyn and Trudy to Hoi An. They organized a taxi to take us to a hotel that they owned. We went up to the room to have a look, looked ok, then manager said actually they have no rooms available. "huuumm Uh why did you show us the room then?..." Went across the road to their sister hotel (Hong Thien Hotel), room available $12 dollars. It was to hot to walk around and look for another hotel so we booked it!." We Said goodbye to Robyn and Trudy and wished them luck on their bike journey.

Vietnam Trip Post 2 - The Train Ride And Halong Bay

me with coconut Halong Bay

The below post is what I wrote on my iPhone while on a very long train ride.....sorry it keeps jumping back and forth.