Berry's SEAJ trip Day 12: Chicken slaughter and bus ride to Hanoi (6/17/15)

I checked out and put my bag in storage and find Andrew whose bike is better now. We then head over to the pub with cold beer (actual name) who is known for their chicken meal experience of getting to kill the chicken and then eat that chicken.

Berry meeting the pet at the pub with cold beer. Berry is an incredibly social bear.

Lady weighing our bird as you pay per kilo.

Taking our bird back to  prep for cooking.

Our bird is now on the grill getting ready for the meal.

View from the pub (sign with the name in the background). Pretty nice.

View from the side of the pub's grounds. Berry cant decide whether to go eat or keep taking in the view.

Golden steeple in the distance from the pub. Churches are more prominent than I had expected.

The pub with cold beer had a sand volleyball court on its backside. Berry wanted to play but no people to play with.

Andrew and I eating our meal while some vagabonds laze about in the hammocks near us. Was tasty indeed.

We get a chicken and I attempt to chop its head off with this seemingly dull cleaver. Either I didn't put enough force behind it or the thing was dull (probably a bit of both), but the swing just pissed the chicken off and injured it. I felt kinda bad, more so since the chicken wouldn't stop moving to allow me another shot so it was just suffering. The guy overseeing this, takes the chicken wings and wraps them in a way so that I get another shot and off comes the head with blood spatter on my arms and a pool of blood forming on the ground from the neck. I put it in a tin for cooking preparations. Found out after that if you want, you can help with the plucking and the whole process in preparing the chicken for eating which would have been awesome to learn. Instead we were chilling in the hammocks with a beer until the kill was ready to eat. We eat then head out to the boar farm, a similar idea as the pub, but we just find some hammocks at the edge of a cliff and enjoy the view while having some more beers, chatting, and just relaxing until its time to get back to the hostel for me to catch my bus.

At the next place, we grabbed a beer and found our way to these hammocks on the ledge of the cliff.  Berry wasted no time making himself comfy. 

He then sat up and enjoyed the view for a bit.

Another of Berry's many friends decided to come say hello as we were hanging at the overlook. 

These guys were riding wood planks attached to jugs of air/water down the stream. There was more than just the one guy.

Congregation of the river floaters Can see one walk up the hill with the jugs strapped to his back. 

Berry looking at the mountains in the distance. There was hardly anyone around which made this incredibly peaceful.

Berry enjoying the shade and the wonderful view of the land around us.

Berry and I hanging in the hammock. Shame I have to leave tonight to go back to the city life.

Berry and a very nice looking knee hanging out together.

These were the other people near us. Building a place presumably for the visitors to sit and enjoy a beer while looking out over the land.

Get back and the bus is 2 hours late (oh Nam!). Get on at 11pm and fall asleep in an uncomfy position but these things aren't really built for people my size to be comfortable. I wake up around 1am after the bus comes to a quick stop and turns off. I didn't think anything of it until a couple mind later when nothing changed. I look outside and there is a ball of fire. I assumed it was just a bonfire. Turns out on closer inspection, I saw that its a motorcycle. That sucks. Then I realized that everyone was off the bus. I start leaving the bus with my stuff and I realize the floor is hot. I get outside and put 2 and 2 together – the bike that's on fire was in our cargo hold and I guess someone neglected to dump the fuel. Glad I didn't die (Nam keeps trying to kill me) but all the bags were covered in soot. The impressive thing is the company had another bus to us in ~40 minutes and got us to our destination.

Motorbike burning outside my window. Just another day in Nam.