Roxcool

Roxcool
'For Adventures of a lifetime'

Thursday 30 June 2016

Arrival in Hanoi (Tired but excited)

Goooooooooood Morning Vietnam!

Since 4am yesterday, the team has already experienced hardships, turmoil and frightening encounters. However we’re sitting in a youth hostel in the bustling city of Hanoi and I’m guzzling a breakfast of pancakes and honey so we’re all safe and happy and ready to go on to our project.
You (Parents) left us in George Best City Airport, not knowing what to expect just like us, preparing for the emotional battle of missing your dear children for three whole weeks. I however, was trying to stop myself from dying from a mind splitting headache, so my father got a hug and was sent back to his bed. The first flight out of Belfast was quick and clean and we made it to the busy hub of London Heathrow. When we saw the monstrosity of a plane we would take for the eleven hour flight to Bangkok (And as Patrick D’Arcy keenly reminds us all too often that it was an Airbus A380) we knew that it was to be a long ordeal. We sat on the beast in our colourful chairs, getting to grips with the endless amount of movies, music and features of the little TV we had at our disposal. It’s needless to say, with us being teenage boys, (Ed. Not all of us ) we were content for this world-wide voyage. We landed in a new world, but we had no time to marvel. We rushed through the airport as a wave of rucksacks and busy chatter to catch our final flight. This was spent mostly sleeping, most of us still in the same consciousness as when we left. Then finally….. we had arrived. And it was humid…..  and overcast. Just as we were ready to begin we hit a problem. The transport had not arrived. Therefore for the next hour we sat, slept and some of us played cards which was a great source of amusement to some of the locals passing by. Finally we were on the bus and we arrived to our hostel. We walked around and started to see our surroundings. The traffic was chaotic, no laws or patterns. Buildings we had never seen the like of were high above us and street vendors pushed their home made merchandise. We split into groups for lunch and went in search of new tastes. My group found a wee family establishment and we tried two of everything and it was delicious! The owners were lovely and homely and served with a genuine smile. As we arrived back at the hostel we were assigned our rooms and proceeded to go and unpack and shower, as we were all a bit wiffy. Dinner was a Mexican feast of fajitas and fruit (Ed. Hostel special). We were given the option to go to the local market or to turn in for the night which I took gladly and was out like a light and now I’ve had a twelve hour sleep and we’re all packed and ready to go for our project.
We’re all here, safe and happy and it’s time to go and see this far-away corner of the world.
Robbie Marrs

Ed. Hi Parents and Friends….Not sure how much wifi/internet use we will get over the next few days so please do not worry…we will of course post when we can.  The boys are all good and ready for the trip ahead….may be a little tired J        We will up load photos later...