Nha Trang

Old Train outside Da Nang Station
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After the small town of Hoi An we got the train from Danang to the monstrosity  that was Nha Trang.

We got in the train early in the morning after a taxi to danang and a 2 hour wait.

Nha Trang Stuff

We shared the 4 bed train compartment with a vietnamese bloke, his wife and his daughter who would stare at the strange white people all through the journey.

Your family can be saved by preying to the friendly aids ghost
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We arrived at Nha Trang station tired and irritable and in no mood for the inevitable battle with taxi drivers and hotel sellers.  We had only a rough idea of where the beach front was and no hotle booking and it was 11 at night.

A motorbike taxi driver approached "Hotel cheap cheap"

"I don't like the name of it"

"Nice Hotel Cheap Cheap"

Blurry T78 Hotel
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"Have you got some kind of bird tourettes?"

"Cheap Cheap"

We managed to get rid of him but others would just idle by you reapeating the same questions "where are you from?", 'how long are you staying" and inevitably "do you need a hotel and a lift there?".

After stumblng further with our bags we eventually succumbed to a push bike with a chair on the front of it.  Our bags were precariously loaded, i sat on a wooden bar and ruth sat in between my legs on a seat below. We both clung on for dear life as we headed towards the beach with busses and cars flying past inches from us.  The driver told us he was not allowed to go on the beach road so we were thrown off and walked to the hotel that we wanted.

We arrived looking like we had sparred several rounds with tyson, covered in sweat, exhausted and beat up.  We placed our bags on the floor and with releif asked them for a room...oh you haven't got any rooms! marvelous.

So we trudged down the street and into some inn.  "have you got any..oh you haven't excellent...thanks" ......Nope, no rooms anywhere...

As we got out on the road i noticed a bright star and wondered upon it as 3 shepherds went past on motorbikes.

We crossed the road, this is not an easy task in Vietnam.  We did the usual slow walk while preying that nothing will flatten you, impale you or in any way introduce itself at high speed to your person.

We got outside what looked like an old French colonial building.  We were apprached by yet another motorbike guy who told us there was no point heading where we were as everywhere in the world was full besides the old building we were next to.  We were fed up, we went in.

We walked over the grounds and in through a massive door into a high-ceilinged corridor "surely this is some kind of government building i thought".  I looked around and there in the hall was a vietnamese bloke wearing a string vest which he had very kindly pulled up so everyone could marvel at his pot belly.

He noticed us, scratched his arse and walked over.  We asked him if he had a spare room...he stared at us for an eternity and then looked at a book. He nodded that he had, it was too much effort to speak obviously.  I asked how much the room was, he stared at me in disgust as if i had just asked to have a go on his missus.  He sighed and said "$25"...I asked to see the room.  The look i got then was as if i was actually riding his missus round the reception shouting "ye haa".. Just utter disbelief....How dare we come into his hotel and have the audacity to ask for a room.

He took us to it sighing as he went.  It was vast with wooden shutters over big windows a corridor to the bathroom! and our own pet lizard on the wall in the hall.

We accepted and then slumped on the bed.  The hotel was called T78 which the lonely planet reckons sounds more like the name of a chemical compound than a hotel.

We had yet to eat so after huge effort we headed off around midnight for something .  After a 10 minute walk we got to a place with trees with lights all around them, the sound of music coming from within and a stream of supermodels and model boyfriends entering the place.  We were looking less than model-like.  We entered the Nha Tran Sailing Club and sat looking at the sailing club's beach where they had built a log fire and placed blankets around.  You could see the lights at the other end of the bay, and occasionally the sound of the surf over the music. A few models sat on the wall in front of our table wearing the most ill-fitting of jeans.  It was basically a row of models arses.  I lit up a fag, drank some of my beer as ruth was saying something or other, life was good   I couldn't quite hear Ruth through the sound of the foam my mouth was producing.

We stayed a while, more models went past...we looked at them as we ate our hotdog and chips and i spilt sauce on my top.  I am so not the fonz.  I was getting a nagging feeling i didn't belong.

The days after we spent going to the beach.  This was pointless as there was no sun.  We got offered crabs in a basket, drying fresh fish with all the flies you can eat, countless people selling books which they would carry in one tall stack over their shoulder, all of them dodgy reprints.  In the evening outside our hotel was a huge stage, at around 7 the vietnamese entertainment would start.  The place was packed with motorbikes crammed onto the beach front and the sidewalk opposite the main road.  The entertainment was incomprehensible to me, lots of strange dance numbers with people with fans, the occasional vietnamese opera singer and all around were stalls selling stuff from food to inflatables and kites.

The rats were ever-present on the street.  Rubbish was generally just piled up next to one of the street cafes so you would be walking along and out of the huge open drains a thing the size of a cat would fly out, past your feet and then do a back-flip into the rubbish pile...all while everyone carried on eating, not batting an eye-lid.  Insects would molest you constantly as would little kids selling postcards, books, general tat.  While walking down the street you would be apprached by a motorbike who would ask you wee you were from, how long you had been in nha trang and when are you leaving.  The last question being the most pertinent as they were trying to convince you to go on a 4 day tour of the hills or 1 day around the city, 2 of us on his motorbike with backpacks on...not really what we are after.  I got stopped 7 times by motor bike tour blokes in one 10 minute walk to the atm...it was so annoying.

Nha Trang certainly wasn't anything special...i did like their vegas/blackpool-like lights over the road though....most showing the hammer and sickle...see communism can be pretty and fun!  Now over to shoot the capitalist stall...win a fish!