Booze Cruise

Sunning on the roof of the boat from Number 4 Boat Tours on the island hopping booze cruise.
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Arrived in Nha Trang on another of TM Brothers buses, this time only an hour and a half late.  They conveniently forgot to tell us when we bought the tickets that there was no accomodation to be had in Nha Trang as it was full of Vietnamese families celebrating the New Year.  We arrived at 7pm and walked and rode around the city, asking every hotel for a room.  We gave up at 9pm and headed back to TM Bro's Cafe to sleep on the seats there.  We found 2 girls we met on the bus there, Kristy and Corrine from Canada, demanding the staff to find them accomodation.  We joined in on the request and we four and another Aussie couple ended up in a 6 bed dorm room at the Hotel O'Sin.  Headed down to Irish Murphys for beef and guiness pie and lots of beer to drown our stresses.

End of the day on the booze cruise.
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Next day found better lodging, one hotel had a room spare.  One hotel, one room.  We spent the next couple nights sharing the room with Kristy and Corrine, a double bed each and toilet that worked (Yay!).  Headed down to the beach, massive swell, most people were getting dumped.  Grabbed some deck chairs at Cafe Louisianne and downed some beers while watching the locals drown (I only got dumped once).  Some people would go to the edge of the water and chicken out, head back to their towels.  The waves were huge.  Had dinner with the girls at Crazy Kim's that night.  Crazy Kim has a lot of merchandise and advertising going to prevent child prostitution, so our meal and our disgusting cocktails actually paid for a good cause other than filling our tummys!  Found a pool table at a dodgy pub owned by and Irish guy covered in tatts, who played heavy metal music all night.

red wine from Dalat (absolutely rank stuff!)

An unfortunately blurry photo of Corrine and Kristy.
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Next day headed out on Number Four Tours to go island hopping.  Saw 4 islands.  The first one, we stopped and jumped off the roof of the boat.  Swam, snorkelled and sunbathed.  Then headed to another island where we anchored and had lunch.  The lunch was brought out very slowly.  The 40 people on our boat sat around the edges while the table (the boat seats folded down) filled up with different dishes.  James and I found ourselves way away from the table, not able to reach, and were thinking we would starve with all these hungry Vietnamese around.  But actually as soon as they said help yourself, they grabbed our bowls and filled them up for us.  Every time we paused (munching), they would put something else in our bowls.  So nice, but very unhygenic as they used the chopsticks they were putting in their mouths to put food in our bowls.  Ah well.  After lunch the crew of all four boats (we were tied together) got a band together and turned one of the tables into a dance floor.  James did the twist with some fat little Vietnamese girls to 'La Bamba' which they actually sang "Ra Ra Bamba!".  Everyone sang their own country's version of Frere Jacques (we didn't know the English version - Are you sleeping?) and then the band belted out a few of their own.  They were really good.  After the Chinese finished their karaoke, the Floating bar opened for business.  This was a man in the water with a ring of styrofoam around him.  He was loaded up with crates of red wine from Dalat (absolutely rank stuff!) and plastic shot glasses.  We swam up with our buoys and holding on with our feet, downed cup after cup of the rancid stuff.  The barman played a game with us, as it was Happy Hour, we weren't allowed to say 'no'.  He asked a CHinese girl if she was married, she said "No", she had to skull the rest of the bottle.  He said "Australia is a lovely place!".  I said "I know" and had to down the bottle!  He didn't understand when I tried to explain the difference.  Rocked up a bit jolly to the next island where we grabbed a ball and played some beach volleyball with the other drunkards.  One Chinese man was a little too excited about the whole thing.  Next island had fishing villages and little boats you could go in, but we took photos instead.  Headed back to shore to find that for the 120 people on the tour, they had one 9 seater minibus to take us back to town.  We hopped on the back of a couple mopeds and headed back ourselves.  Had dinner at the best restaurant ever, Cafe Cyclo. They bbq'd the prawns at the table and the Crab and Asparagus soup was so nice!  James loved his pizza too.

Next day went to post a parcel home.  We entered the Post Office and she said "No" and wrote a different post office down.  So we hopped into a cyclo (bicycle carriage thing) and showed him.  He cycled over to another guy and told us to get in.  This guy went to the other end of town, we asked him where he was going and he shrugged, "I don't know"!  We showed him the slip of paper and he took us to the Post Office.  We walked in with the parcel and she said "No" and then told us to go the post office we had just come from!  Meanwhile we were supposed to meet people!  After chucking just a little tantrum, we got our parcel off (it hasn't arrived yet, by the way) and got our driver to pedal fast back to town.  Just made it onto the minibus which took us, and a few others we met on the booze cruise, to the Hot Springs.  First we had to shower with all the other Vietnamese people, and then we got our own bath which they filled up with cold mud.  Shower again.  High pressure cold water jets.  Then High pressure hot water jets.  And then in a big bath again with extremely hot mineral water.  Then massage under the waterfall, and then leisurely swim in the tepid mineral pool.  Ah... what a life.

Next day... Hoi An.