Day 58 of The Big Adventure, according to Sarah.
We woke up at 8am and went downstairs for breakfast in our pyjamas.

The hostel owners were so friendly, they gave us each a menu and said have whatever you want (brekkie was included in the room – RESULT). We asked if we could have more than one thing and they said to have as much as we want. 

We decided we’d each get something egg based to begin with and then we’d all share a banana pancake. Fraar and I had fried eggs with a baguette and Parker had a tomato and onion omelette with a baguette (everything is served with a baguette in Vnam). 

Parker and I got some yummy fruit shakes and Fraar got an iced coffee. By the end of our egg based brekkies we were all too full for a banana pancake 😦 tomorrow would have to do.

We had arranged to do the free walking tour of Hue so we set off to the meeting point. 

We stood around and couldn’t see anyone who looked even vaguely walking toury. Not as a spectator, nor a leader. 

PK double checked her confirmation email that we were in the right place at the right time. But everything was as it should be. We stood there for 10 minutes looking hopefully when a (very ordinary) man nearby asked what we were waiting for. We told him we were waiting for a walking tour at which point he told us he is the one who usually runs them, but his boss had not emailed him to let him know about ours. He made quite a song and dance about how he could not believe how lucky it was that he happened to pass by. 

We were all rather sceptical at this point, but decided what was the worst that could happen? So we went along with it.

10 minutes in and we were convinced. He knew all about Hue’s history and he had clearly given this speech many a time. 

He showed us the famous bridge (made by the same architect who made the Eiffel Tower) across the river and taught us all how to pronounce it properly in Vietnamese. 

Then he showed us around a local market and got us to try jackfruit (not that nice). 

Then he walked us to the imperial city and told us some background about the King. At this point he had to go to class (he was a medical student, studying at the Hue Hospital) so left us to explore the Imperial City on our own. He invited us to an event at his university that evening: an English competition. Apparently it was the final and a really big deal so we agreed to go. He told us to ‘come prepared’ and that we should wear trousers .
We wandered around the grounds of the Imperial City for an hour or so 

but the midday heat had worn us all out and we were all pretty shattered. So we jumped in a taxi back to the hotel and had some pool time to cool down.

We all went upstairs to shower and change and the girls realised they were seriously craving nachos. So we found the nearest Mexican and tucked into two large plates of nachos. Yumm.

Then we headed back to the hotel ready to meet our guide. We had agreed to go for some dinner first and then to his university event. 
He took us to a steet food spot we never usually would have gone to (mainly because the menu had no English on it and the chef didn’t speak a word) and ordered us some vegetable pancake type things, that you roll up with lettuce and pickles in rice paper. It was delicious and so nice to be able to have some truly authentic Vietnamese food. 

Then he took us to another local street food place and ordered us some ‘Vietnamese chocolate’ which turned out to be shrimp paste. Ick. 
I’m not a huge fan of seafood so it wasn’t really my thing, but Parker and Freya loved it. 

It was clearly very rare too see westerners in this little street food tent and I was very aware that people were staring at us. We felt like mini celebrities just because of our skin colour.
The guide then took us to show us around his university before the English competition started. 
Everything was so dirty and dated, it’s how I imagine schools were back in the 70s. 

Because he was studying medicine, his university was part of the hospital and so he wanted to show us the shocking conditions of the hospitals in Vietnam. 
And it was shocking. 
There were 10 beds to each room, with no curtains for privacy. Each patient was allowed one family member to be their carer who had to bring a mattress from home and sleep out in the corridor. 

Everything was dirty.
I don’t think I saw a doctor the whole time. 
Our guide even took us up to the maternity ward – where they all gave birth in the same room. There were no incubators, no oxygen machines, the beds were more basic than most of the ones we’d been sleeping on in hostels – it was unbelievable.
We were amazed at how anyone could come in and wander around and how that would be completely impossible in a hospital back home. 

We headed out of the hospital pronto; we didn’t want to catch anything and our guide said this was somewhere where you came because of one disease and ended up leaving with three others. 

So we headed to the main hall where the University English Competition was being held. We made our way to our seats (strategically next to a fan) and waited. It was due to start at 7pm and preceedings only began at 8.30pm – classic Asian time. 

Although it did mean that by the time it actually started, our bums already hurt from the hard wooden seats. 
The competition basically consisted of different teams (team names included LOL and Ice Cream) having to do a mini play about issues surrounding doctors in Vietnam and then they had to answer questions from the judges. 
It was the most surreal experience of our lives. 
I feel I can’t really do it justice with words so here are a few videos so you get the jist…

After the first round we decided to was home because we were all shattered and this was clearly going to drag on all night. So we made our excuses and said goodbye to our lovely guide and hopped in a taxi home. We slept verrry well that night.