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Nha Trang's Gold Coast
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Continuing our run of eventful bus journeys, our next installment from Da Lat to Nha Trang was truly a joke. As the minivan delivered us to our buses we soon see that the bus bound for Saigon is a massive luxury liner with 6 people on board and our bus to Nha Trang was a dilapidated old heap, packed to the brim with sweaty travellers. Further to this as we wedged ourselves into our seats all of the baggage was beginning to get loaded down the aisles. In the end the bags where three high all the way down and the heat on this journey added to what was the most miserable experience we've had in a long while.

A traditional fishing village on an outlying island
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Nethertheless we arrived in Nha Trang which was an instant breath of fresh air. The sight of the South China Sea lifted our spirits again as we were about to slip back albeit briefly into the beach lifestyle again. The next morning we had organised ourselves on an island hopping tour. Fears that this would be an Ibiza like booze cruise weren't swayed as the crew lugged on a couple of crates of Tiger Beer and even more crates of an unknown red wine. A group of 6 latter-aged Aussies helped restore the balance but once a young English lad and his mate made it fairly vocal that it was his 24th birthday, and at 9am, promptly cracked into the first beers, we new we were in for a long day. The trip organisers obviously knew this was a common scenario so the trip itinerary wisely had the snorkelling and swimming first. Emma and I waited for that to pass before starting on the alcoholism ourselves.

The TM Brothers band about to kick into Hotel California
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By 11am the boat was in reasonable banter as we all tucked into a top rate smorgasbord seafood affair. The captain joked that the pork was dog but many believed it was a double bluff on his part and we were truly chowing into Fido. The crew beated out a few old classics on the makeshift band equipment and once the birthday boy had skolled his free bottle of red wine it signified the opening of happy hour. Safely letting our lunch digest first we all fell, dived, bellyflopped into the water and grabbed a life ring and then swished our way out to an old mate who was dishing out cheap, nasty Vietnamese wine to anybody silly enough to drink it. Luckily we were all silly enough and the group had soon polished off the case of red which was so bad it must've been clogging up space in somebody's back room.

The Happy Hour begins
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The rest of the afternoon was a blur, more beers were interrupted with unnecessary sightseeing and an aquarium visit. Being half cut I think was a requirement to enter the aquarium so you feel like what you saw was worth paying to get in for. However trying to feed giant hawksbilled turtles when tipsy was a challenge. The tour as they all do ended tamely and we retreated to the local Sailing Club for a slap up meal on the beachside.

The next morning was slow and we were out of ideas as to what to do to fill the day in before our overnight bus to Hoi An. I took Emma on a hot and uneventful stroll to the city centre which left me in the bad books as it failed to unravel anything worth seeing or more importantly anything worth eating. In the end we opted to relax on the beach with ice creams and Sprites. The only interesting part of the day was watching a turf war unravel between the local lobster vendors as one stole anothers customer. God knows what they were saying but it did require the customary yell of Jerry!, Jerry! for all you Jerry Springer fans out there.

Young fella looking for fish, or some handouts
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By the time I have written this we are in Hoi An and did survive the first overnight bus expedition of the trip. It was fantastic, I recommend it to anyone!!