Since I am doing some online stuff before checking out... I just had my traditional breakfast, an amazing Vietnamese iced black coffee... basically a shot of espresso with ice, or more accurately about ten shots of espresso condensed into one... the stuff is so strong that while the bubbles on a strong black coffee at home are kind of creamy brown, the ones on this stuff at dark brown and the coffee is thick and black... you get all twitchy after a few sips. The hotel staff know how to make it the way I like it... I seem to have developed something of a cult following here, on my first night they all took a liking too me, with my scruffy clothes, stubble, ruffled hair and giant backpack. I wandered out into the alley out front to smoke and before I knew it I had an audience of five hotel workers and I was chatting with them in broken English about my travels etc... while all the other guests wandered in and out of the empty lobby looking kind of lost. I think I am kind of the opposite to what they usually get for guests, it is quite a nice place and all the others are pasty well dressed European couples. Whenever I emerge from my room or arrive back from somewhere all the young porters and doormen congregate out the front with me to have a cigarette and hang out and ask me all sorts of questions.
Today is overcast again, as it is every day, but it is not too bad, it is still a nice change from the last month of heat and stickiness. It is hard to believe that in two days I would have been on the road for a month solid, after a while travelling all the days sort of blur together and it becomes a way of life. I can't imagine how it must be for people like Rob who I met, just travelling for two years...
The next few days are something of an unknown quantity, in all my travels and in all the millions of travellers and backpackers I have run across I have yet to talk to anyone who is going the route I have planned. Should be fun and games, especially since I will likely be on the road/rail for maybe 48 hours straight, maybe more. As always I wish I could stop off a bunch more places but I have plans for when I get to Hong Kong so I am going to just keep on trucking til I get there. Wish me luck and say a little prayer... Anyway, off to pack up and wander Hue a bit more til the bus is going. Take care all and will hopefully let you know how I went in a day or three.
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