Chilling with the locals

Alison: Nha Trang is the 4th largest city in Vietnam and it is the holiday destination for all the locals as well.  This meant that as our night bus drew into the city at 5.30am the beach was packed with locals playing volleyball, going for runs and generally doing what we would do at the slightly more humane hour of say 11am!  They certainly don't believe in staying in bed here.

I would like to say that we were dedicated tourists that made the most of all the sights that Nha Trang had to offer but that would be lying.  In the four days that we spent there three of them involved us lying on the beach (I even managed to get a vague tan - well - you could just about make out my bikini line if you looked really, really hard!)

We were also incredibly lucky to secure our second all expenses paid for dinner courtesy of a lovely couple called Lynn and Graham who are from Swindon.  We had lobster which was delicious and was even better because we got to pick it while it was still alive!  We have also managed to grab a bite of frog (yes- it tastes exactly like chicken).  There was snake on offer at the lobster restaurant but we turned it down - another day perhaps!

Our fourth day was spent on a very random 'party' boat trip which involved our guides getting out an electric guitar, tamborine and a drum kit made out of old plastic rice containers and then murdering Beatles songs and Hotel California.  To top it off the closest person to our age on the trip was a four year old girl called Lily who was cute but hardly a party animal!

We took yet another night bus to Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC) which was eventful as ever and involved us coming across 2 massive birds of prey in cages just outside the toilets in one of the petrol stations we stopped at... it took us totally by surprise as there was no reason on earth for them to be there - Vietnam doesn't half knock you sideways sometimes with its randomness!  Plus at the next toilet stop Gem and I got left behind until someone realised we weren't on the bus as we were chatting away to one of our friends who was on another bus... mental note for the future.... always keep one eye on your transport!