Video produced/edited by Theo & Xavier

Special Feature:  Interview with CODA

Video produced & edited by Theo & Xavier

Good morning to my people with the curiosity in their minds,

Honestly, nothing can beat the feeling of waking up and feeling tired, yet knowing that there's an amazing adventure awaiting ahead of you. That's exactly what I felt when I got up earlier morning today as I know my eyes might not be fully opened in the early morning, but I know that we are in a beautiful country: the sky was cloudy, the parents are bringing their kids to schools, kids were riding the bicycles around with school backpacks, and even elders were playing badminton outside with the beautiful trees around. The scenery and vibes spread throughout the country as if it's giving you the energy to dance around regardless if you're so tired.

Enough with the scenario, we all know that Vietnam is a beautiful country, so we thought to ourselves, "What's the best way to enjoy the morning with those beautiful sceneries", and that's something that goes with coffee! Not just to enjoy but need something to fuel ourselves before we get ourselves in another long amazing day. We decided to go to "Highlands Coffee" since it's pretty famous in Vietnam and literally almost everywhere as Starbucks in America. We all got food and drinks, and I ended up got one drink that has been bugging me in the corner of my eyes. So I just went with that drink, and surprisingly, it's not something that I would expect myself to like. That drink goes by the name, "Freeze Cookies & Cream", and honestly, who can just ignore a drink with "Cookies & Cream". Yeah, definitely not me, but it just tastes super good and not so much coffee flavor (I'm not a big fan of coffee). Not just their drink, but their food is too especially their bread stick with chicken and cheese stuffed.

Now, I think we can imagine why it's a popular company in Vietnam, but anyway, that place's deliciousness caused us to barely meet up with our ride; otherwise, we could've missed our trip to Hue. Let's keep this between us- okay, I'm actually willing to spend more nights in Hoi An, just because everything is just so peaceful and the harmony is perfect. It might be not so perfect, only because it's sometimes crowded with the tourists during the nighttime. Good thing, or you can call it a bad thing, but whatever, we hurried and met up with our ride at the perfect time after spending too much time in Highlands Coffee. So here we go to next city and that is Hue!

Finally, we are at Hue after spending around two and a half hours and a half in a crowded van! I mean it's really crowded as one person had to sit down on the van floor so that everyone can hitch a ride with our backpacks. So we have to make a quick stop to stretch ourselves and get ourselves food at the same time. We happen to encounter a Deaf owned restaurant (Lac Thien) in Hue and it's family business running. We all got excited, obviously, and rushed to see if there were actually any deaf employees or owners if possible. We ended up just meeting the grandchildren of the deaf founders, but they were pretty friendly and gave us the most possible warm welcome that I could think of. They were able to communicate with us through the signs and showed us something so cool. It's just a can opener but with a cool-looking technique and generous enough to give all of us their homemade can opener. Not just vibes of generous that they are giving out but their food gave all of our stomachs of generous feeling of full. There cannot be another explanation of how or why did they got TripAdvisor to recognize that restaurant until you have to try out their food first. We are just so full and enjoy ourselves off the day without actually doing anything special yet. The quick stop turned out to be a great hidden restaurant filled with warmth and harmony.

Now, it's time for us to start our adventure to Imperial City, and it's a good thing that it's nearby, so it didn't really take us much trip to Imperial City. All I can say about it is that it's just so huge for no reason, but yet, it's so satisfying to walk and see the beautiful scenery around. Especially Thai Mai Palace is a place where the Emperor stays and sleeps there, and honestly, the decoration from the inside to the roof. It's just so top-notch and breathtaking when you can see every detail from the inside of the cravings to the statues around. I can imagine that they really worship the Emperor. The more time I spend in Imperial City, I can actually imagine what it is like being an emperor, but at the same time, it's frightening to be in that position and have all of the people believe in you. The most thing that makes Imperial City outstanding is that there's citadel inside of the another citadel and all of Emperor's underlings will be living in the same city as Emperor but just that outside of citadel but still behind another citadel. There's only 20 buildings that is still preserved while the remains were destroyed, so there's really nothing much to see around so we go ahead and visit Thein Mu Pagoda.

 A pagoda has become the unofficial symbol of Hue, so of course, we have to pay a visit there to see around. Honestly, Thein Mu Pagoda is smaller than what I thought, well I mean, we just got out of Imperial City and everything there is huge. There are towers around but one that is outstanding others is that the octagonal tower which got seven sides. Another one is a pavilion that contains a massive marble turtle which is well-known symbol of longevity. Those aren't incredible nor remarkable as one small building which talks about one famous monk who burned himself in the middle of the street because he want Vietnam to protect the freedom to practice religions while the president want to ban the Buddhist religion. It also has a car, which is considered a relic of that male monk. The story of his brave actions is bewildering to just aware of how much he really wants to protect the freedom to practice any religion. Now, I'm wondering if we will find anything more extraordinary than that monk's action during our stay in Vietnam…

Stay curious fellows, 

Lev