Hai Yen Hotel Nha Trang

... shine. Big beach, nice water and not many bars or restaurants on it. So yes with a bit of sun it could be true. We opted for a road behind Nha Trang. Busy as hell of course and we looked a bit out of the blue as we were the only foreigners on a scooter. But we did alright,....as did the rain! Blondy stayed pretty dry as I got soaked like the Tuk-Tuk man from Ankor Wat. Stopped along the road for a coffee and sort of looked "Lost in Vietnam". But as always if you ...

... basically was everyone in the water with a life ring and a guy from the boat in a bigger floating device handing out cups of some type of tequila cocktail.
It was insane! The pics are up on Facebook if you want to have a nosey.
We all had a big night after the boat trip - drinking buckets of cocktails and dancing - so we had pretty sore heads the next morning!

Being very hungover today ...

... I had visited Nha Trang in 2006, we ended up staying for nearly a week and a half -- there's just something about the place that draws you in and makes you want to set down stakes. The magic would prove to be around for this trip too, starting with the hotel, of course. After luxuriating in the enormous bathtub, we hit the town in search of a favorite restaurant, Little Italy City Pizza, from our last trip. They weren't ...

... followed by a mud bath, then a hot spring jet wall, then a soak in a hot spring bath, followed by the hot spring waterfall, and a swim in the hot spring pool.... What a relaxing day!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... (the water was so hot - 38degrees!!)

Suddenly we realised that we had less time on our visa than ...

... a wander round the old quarter, What a change from Hanoi – much quieter, less traffic, more space, very pleasant and relaxing. Looked around the area and shops- Hoi An being famous for its shopping – especially tailor made clothing and shoes. When looking round one of the local small temples we heard another tune – Jingle bells which was being played by a wagon as its reversing alarm, a bit surreal especially in this heat and setting. Stopped for break – ...

... if that means that I will have to delay the visit to Chang Mai temples and the bridge over the Kwai river for another time (what a pity, ;-)!!!!). I have said these were some relaxing days, but these are as well some very active night-life days, as Nha Trang has the well deserved reputation among backpackers of being a wonderful place to party (even though if the same Michael Jackson's songs play each and every night).

We hopped on a bus from Mui Ne to Nha Trang... it was fairly uneventful until we hit a cow. With the loud crash and jolt that shuddered through the bus I was sure we had hit a motorcyclist. Strangely, Luc and I were the only two to hurry to the front to see if we could help while all the Vietnamese riders calmly sat in their seats. (Maybe the bsu driver had already said it was a cow) To my relief it was a cow... and not a person. I don't know very ...

... The beds were double-decker, with individual compartments for each person that stood alone. Unfortunately, the beds were made with a built-in reclining slant (kind of like a lounge chair at the pool that doesn’t go completely flat) and you had to be the right size for the beds in order to fit comfortably. The “right size” is a 5 foot 5 Asian person, which suited me fine, but Hanan had some problems. Furthermore, the bus driver turned off the lights at 6 ...

Just got back from our 'party' boat tour, it was a blast! There were about 20 people on board; Americans, Brits, Vietnamese, French, an Israeli and me the only Canadian. The Vietnamese guys who ran the tour were a laugh and constantly cracked jokes and goofed around for our benefit. They performed some songs using a drum kit made of metal pots and plastic barrels and then dragged people onstage to sing a song 'from their country'. For Brits it was 'Yellow ...

... we had a few vodka and 7up for freeee. Food was good, and I had a banana split, hooray! We went to Guava bar and played some free pool, got chatting to some Aussies and went to a backpacker bar, which was really busy and the music was really good. Met looooaddds of people, my favourite being Mick and Karen who were 53 and 48 and backpacking indefinatley, Mick was perhaps the funniest person I've ever met, I could have chatted to him forever! We ended up at the ...