Bao Dai's Villas Nha Trang

... with one of the waiters at the Ana Mandera - he wrote in Vietnamese what we had to say to the monk- we got the opportunity to meet the High Monk and recieved blessings from him directly. The next morning Carlushka cut dragron fruit, asian pears and oranges, made some vietnamese coffee and prepared a sunrise jacuzzi when Losha woke up. Losha wasn't cranky at all..hmmmm! We had a fancy hotel breakfast and meet our friend from the Ana Mandera ...

... we were left with a "Yellow dressed Monk" who rode with us all the way to Nha Trang, ( The yellow Monks are probably the " Fresh" monks...) We saw a lot of Orange monks in Cambodia. I thought it was the Dutch soccer team having a practice in the heat for the upcoming World Cup in South Africa. But no...the"yellow" monks are devinatly "fresh Monks". They study a lot and read a big Book. Pray at every bus stop and don´t drink or eat, let alone smoke and have a beer. But ...

Played a couple of games of tennis here, (Frenchy i need some coaching mate, Tin i was as good as i was at Christmas)
It was great to work out a bit - the first day we played at 7 in the morning and it was hot but payable the next day at 11 till 12 was just ridiculously hot (i was drinking water like a fish).
Lost both times to Jorge, but good fun and the jump into the pool afterwards...... bliss

... of water that tasted like a swimming pool! She wouldn't refund us so we bought another one from someone else and then she realised we were serious and she did give us our money back!!
We swam in the sea which was a nice temperature - pleasantly warm but still refreshing unlike Halong Bay which was too warm and bathlike!
The rain was pouring down in the evening as we went our for some food so Pete dashed off out of the hotel, I thought he was going to get a taxi ...

... there for a few days and send a few bits home before we go to Cambodia.

I bought quite a few items of clothes in Hoi An ( i had them tailored - ooh er!!) which need to be sent home and the aforementioned transformers need to go home!


Loving Vietnam as i have probably already mentioned.....  Lovely country.

Love lots

Charlise++

... but no sunrise – only cloud and torrential. The boat moved from its night spot and cruised around to another island where we got off, climbed up to view point and had a swim – all before breakfast.

After breakfast we had to pack and vacate the room before 9am. The boat cruised around to Cat Ba island to drop off and pick up passengers from the 2 night cruise/hotel package.

After that it was a slow cruise back to mainland and lunch on board before ...

... onto floaties and is poured red wine from a small foam boat, with the music still blaring. Really good atmosphere.

Hey, this is Jen now, I have to cut in here and write that the lady boy specifically picked Luke first to come and put his noodle-bowl boobies all over his face. Good Laugh. It was also funny to see Luke stand up on the make-shift dance floor grooving to Labamba only to have all the Vietnamese people ...

... i havd been bigging it up. Lunch was amazing.

Alice's day was a little more relaxed to say the least. got up late, had some breakfast. Spent the rest of the morning relaxing by the pool. being a good girl, it was in the shade. no more burning for me just yet! Went out for lunch and a bit of shopping

Afternoon was spent chilling by the pool in preparation for our next sleeper train jouney to Hoi An.

... Once settled into our room in the Kim Ngan hotel, we took a walk down the seafront, past a few lobster-red westerners and to Le Petit Bistro for lunch - foie de canard pate and french bread followed by pasta (yes we're still on western food). Nha Trang is a party town, popular with tourists and lots of the little cafe's hand out fliers with their special offers, a lot easier than the hard sell. We set out to see the sites, we ...

... the sailors bar, where we had a massive rave on the beach and drank buckets of cocktails all night. Got chatting to a few folk from Swansea and London, so when the music stopped there we headed off in search of more beer. We found some, after that we headed back to the hotel, was bout 4 by this point so we caught some z's. Next day we didn't end up getting up to gone 1, but had managed to sleep off the effects of the booze, so ...