Nha Trang, scooting about is ace!

We jumped off the bus bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and not in the least bit smelly. We had a look round hotels, but were being turned away from everywhere, since apparently it was the first week of the summer holidays. Anything that was available was pretty overpriced. It was getting a bit worrying, but we eventually found a nice room, although it wasn't going to be ready for a half hour. We dumped our bags, and headed across the road for breakfast.

After checking in, Larissa conked straight out!  I headed out and blogged for a few hours, and then went back to meet up with everyone.  We went out for lunch, and  had really good pizza for the first time in ages!

Nha Trang is basically a beach town, and we hadn't bothered going to the beach in Hoi An, which was 5km out of town, because the town centre in Nha Trang is pretty much on the beach.  The only problem was that, while the weather in Hoi An had been scorching, in Nha Trang, quite typically, it was raining.  So the beach was out.

Larissa and I headed to the post office, to check the price of sending all our lovely new clothes home.  There, we bumped into a Canadian guy whom we had met before, but couldn't really place him.  Larissa thought he might have been on our bus somewhere, but wasn't too sure.  Oh well.

We met the others back at the hotel, and while Larissa went on the net, the three of us decided that there was nothing for it but to go for a beer.  We went to a bar that was mentioned in the book for being set up to help street kids, and to reduce child abuse among them.  I'm not sure the kids that were hanging out in front of the bar were involved, but they were the cheekiest wee gits we had come accross!  They asked us if we would buy postcards, but we told them we didn't want any.  They then said that they would play us in connect 4, and if we won we could have them for free; if not we would buy them.  I like to see people doing something to make their money, and showing a bit of ingenuity so, while I knew this 8 year old was going to kick my ass at connect 4, I agreed to play him.

Needless to say, he beat me, and that was when he turned a bit nasty.  He asked for 90,000 dong for his postcards, even though I had paid 10,000 for the same ones that week.  He got really cheeky and started saying 'I don't think so', and got a real attitude with me.  Another kid was saying similar stuff to Brad, and they were being really out of line.  I eventually gave him 20,000 for them, but they just stood outside shouting abuse at us.  I don't know where they were getting it from, they were all of about 10 years old.  It was really sad - they were clearly smart kids, but it was all going to waste.

Larissa joined us, and we played cards for a bit.  After that, I spent the evening blogging, and doing little else.

That night we went out for dinner.  Brad and Chelsi were looking to get a takeaway and watch a dvd in bed, but we ended up sitting in a bbq seafood place that looked good.  That was when it started to go downhill.  We ordered drinks, and then the waiter proceeded to tell us all about the seafood platter (no thank you) that was very cheap (no thank you) that we would really like (we don't want it) that was a great deal (really, no thank you) and was very fresh (still don't want it).  When we did try to order our food, he got as far as taking Brad and Chelsi's order, then walked off and gave it in to to the kitchen.  We called him back, and he arrived a little flustered.  Larissa was mid-order, when he rushed off to welcome some other people to their table.  When we called him back again, Larissa asked him if she could have the scallops.  "No" was his reply, and with that, he was off again.  I swear, it was like Fawlty Towers.

After that we had pretty much had enough, and called him over and told him to cancel our orders.  With that, he kicked off - he was the manager, and as such was very busy, and couldn't we see he didn't have any scallops? and the kitchen had already started making their order.  Brad went to the kitched with him, and their argument went something along the lines of "Why are you so angry with me", to which Brad would reply "Please stop shouting, I just want to cancel my order."  It got pretty messy, but in the end we finished our drinks, paid for them and left.

Take two involved a similar restaurant on the waterfront, which had a very similar menu. Things there went fine until Brad smashed a mug of beer, followed by someone across the restaurant doing the same. Oh my god get us home...!!!

The next morning after breakfast, we faffed around for a long time deciding what to do with the day (it's a hard life this traveling lark). Brad and Chelsi were thinking of getting a scooter and heading to a beach out of town, but Larissa and I weren't too bothered, and decided to spend the afternoon on the beach in town. Besides, I tend to get bored of the beach quite quickly, so it didn't seem worth the drive out of town.

The beach was nice, and we didn't get hassled that much to buy stuff, which was quite surprising. We just lay on the sand and hoped the sun would come out from the behind the clouds. It didn't, at least not until we had decided we had had enough beach time! It was pleasant enough though. We headed back to the room, and got a call from Brad and Chelsi to say that there was a 'picnic' in their room, and that we were invited! How exciting! They had been to the supermarket, so there was quite a spread of salad, bread, crackers and cheese, and some local refreshments. We were out on the balcony when we saw Joe walk past, so he called up to join us as well. It was a great evening, involving much Dalat wine, and some bottles and caps that we just managed to get the hang of! We even convinved the kiwis to stay another day, since there was no way they'd get up for an early bus at that stage!

Joe headed out to a bar to meet a girl, and left us with strict instructions to watch Chelsi and Larissa's phones for 'help' texts.  We got one shortly after, and all headed out to meet him.  There was a good crowd in the bar, including Candice (from Vientiane) and a crowd of Irish lads she'd been hanging out with, and Daniel, who I never actually got round to speaking to!  Paul from My Son was there as well, so it was quite the reunion.  The only downside was that my camera broke, but that may have had something to do with me breaking it...  On the Joe front, apparently things looked up after we got there, so I think he left happy...

The next day, after brekkie and laughing at the night before, we all hired bikes and set off to see some of the countryside.  This is not a decision to be taken lightly - driving in Vietnam, as I may have said before, is nothing short of MENTAL.  You have to distinguish and filter out the 'beep beep I'm behind you' from the 'beep beep if you don't move I'm about to run into you', but you get the hang of it.  Amongst the chaos of scooters coming from you at all angles, somehow a gap appears, and you drive there.  Larissa and Chelsi weren't up for it, so Brad and I drove, and they got on the back.

We were immediately distinguishable from the rest of the crowd, not only because of our whiter than white skin, but also due to our lack of facemask, long gloves to cover our arms from the sun, and the replacement of the conical hat with the helmet.

First stop for Larissa and I was Po Nagar Cham Pillars, which were similar to My Son, but on a smaller scale.  These were also still in use for worship, so it was nice to get an idea of what the My Son ruins may have looked like at one stage.

After that, we headed up north along the beach, which was gorgeous.  We found a massive resort that was being built up the coast, but after that the road seemed to stop.  We headed back, and stopped off in the Pasteur Institute Museum (at my request!), which is dedicated to Dr. Alexandre Yersin.  After that it was Long Thanh Gallery, which housed a number of fabulous black and white shots by the famous Vietnamese photographer.  It was a bit out of our price range though!

We stopped for lunch after that, and after trying in a few places (one of which said they didn't have food, but we got the impression that they couldn't be bothered cooking!) found a busy local's joint.  It was fantastic!  The menu on the wall consisted of about 3 items, but there was no English translation, so we just pointed at some other people's food.  It was great, and so cheap!

After blogging for a few hours, we headed out on the bikes that night for dinner.  We had read about a place in the book that did a bbq at your table - we got one on the balcony - and it turned out to be a real treat (if a little smoky!).  The bbqs were mini tabletop set-ups, and we were just brought out the raw meat and veg to cook ourselves.  It wasn't just the novelty factor, the food itself was wonderful!  You just had to be careful when you were sitting down-wind of them!

Brad and Chelsi left the next morning (tears all round!), and we woke early to find the sun shining - beach time!  We had brekkie, and then headed to the beach.  Joe had told us that the covered sunchairs were really cheap for the whole day, so we opted for them.

It was so nice lying under the palm trees, just chilling out reading a book!  When it got too hot, we just jumped up and had a dip in the sea, it was lovely.  Larissa used her waterproof camera to 'accidentally' take some 'interesting' photos - needless to say they were deleted immediately!!

Later on, we saw some go up on a parasail, which looked pretty cool!  Larissa went to check it out, and returned to report that it was pretty cheap!  We had some fruit shakes, and then after getting some more money from our room, headed down the beach to have a go.  Once there, we met Lisa and Phil, from Surrey Hills in Sydney, who were watching their mate Min who had just been dropped in the water.  We had seen the boat guy dip people in as part of the ride, but Min had been dropped in and left there!  I was beginning to wonder if this was such a good idea after all!

It turned out that the boat was low on petrol, so they filled it up, and Min had another go.  We stood watching not only him, but also the storm clouds approaching the beach from all sides - we were surrounded!  Lisa and Phil went after Min, and then it was my turn!  I was pretty nervous getting rigged up, and that was made even worse by the fact that they had to change the parachute for my turn, for some reason.  By the time everything was good to go, it was raining pretty hard, and it seemed an unusual thing to do in that weather!  It was amazing though, I just ran towards the sea, and up I went!  I loved it!

They only take you up for three minutes, but it's such good fun.  Once you get right up to the maximum height (which was higher than the tallest hotel buildings, so about 15 storeys!), the boat stops, and you start floating back down towards the sea.  You're still moving forward though, so when you dip in the water your legs drag back a bit, but with that the boat starts up again, and another ascent begins.  The driver does this twice, and other than that, you're just scooting round the sea, enjoying the view (and the rain in my case!!!).

When landing time came, I got a bit of a dunk in the sea, and it was all over.  It was brilliant though!  Larissa was up next, and she had an equally enjoyable experience, although for some reason she got dropped in the sea, and got a bit of a jetski ride back!

We said goodbye to our Australian friends, and headed back to our sunloungers.  The sun had gone in at this stage though, so lying there in our soaking wet clothes got pretty cold after a bit!  I headed back to the room for a shower, and left Larissa enjoying her book. She came back about 10 minutes later, and when we were ready, we headed to the post office to send our new clothes home.

Two hours later, we were still in the post office!  It took so long to get everything sorted.  The boxes our stuff were packed in were used cardboard boxes with tape on them, and the address wasn't written on, it was just on a piece of paper that was selotaped at the edges.  I don't hold out great hope in ever seeing it again.  I asked about insurance, but they didn't seem to know anything about that.  Fingers crossed...

On the walk back, we got stopped by a guy from a restaurant across the road.  The food looked nice, and quite cheap, so we headed in.  It turned out to be quite a fancy-pants place, in appearance at least, so we felt like right grubby travelers.  The food wasn't great though, so I didn't feel so bad then!  After that it was home, pack, bed.

The next morning we got our bus at 7.15, and after the now usual drive round the town for an hour picking people up, we headed down the coast.  We stopped for lunch, and got chatting to an American couple who had been working in the Peace Corps in the Philippines.  They said they probably knew the people Mike and Nikki met!

Driving in Vietnam is funny.  People put the maddest things on their motos when driving around.  At one stage on this journey a hedge appeared from around the corned on two wheels, but that's not the worst.  I've seen panes of glass, fridges, even widescreen tvs, just balancing on the back.  And that's not to mention the families of five kids.  In a similar way to how we graduate from sitting in the back seat to the front in cars at home, over here they move from either standing in between your parents legs or sitting between two adults or older kids to being old enough to sit on the back and hold on on your own!

After lunch the driver changed, and we headed inland.  For the next three hours we crawled up a mountainside.  It was really slow going, and the driver was going mental beeping the horn.  Our first driver had been good at remembering to slow down after every near-accident, but this guy couldn't actually go fast even if he had wanted to.  Even so, I was pretty happy when we arrived into Dalat at 3pm, a little deaf from the horn-blowing, to see Brad and Chelsi's smiling faces waiting for us!!