Starlet Hotel Nha Trang

... horrible! Really really packed in a tiny space, i had to get help reversing and going through doors with my backpack on front and back- knocked a few old ladies round the head. The train itself was loads worse- it was filthy and it smelt, and ppl had been in the beds just before us. We decided to just play games until we were tired enough...until we spotted cockraches! Soon our corridoor was full up of the other girls screaming ...

... was from America. He then asked me to sing a song with him. Reluctantly I agreed. He choose the Star Spangled Banner. Great! I gave it my best and got through it. He knew every word of every verse.<br><br>When the song was over and the crowd applauded I walked away to a smiling Vietnamese girl. She laughed because I spoke Vietnamese and the Vietnamese guy spoke English. We talked, exchanged emails, and kept seeing each other till I had to leave a week later. Till then I had ...

... the boat.<br><br>Caught the minibus back to Hanoi and arrived back at Hotel about 4pm. Now been given room 401 at the top.- nice large room with all the usual trimmings including fresh fruit bowl (rambutans) and watermelon slices in the fridge. Sorted ourselves and luggage out ready for moving off tomorrow by train to Da Nang/Hoi An..<br><br>Had a walk out around the old district for a meal followed by a walk through the night market on the way back to the hotel. <br><br ...

... but it was actually quite interesting. Many years ago one of the elderly leaders of the village had promised his only daughter would marry a rich man from a neighbouring town. She was in love with a poor young man from their own village and begged her father to let her marry him instead. Her father promised that if she could find a chicken with five spurs she would be free to marry whoever she chose. She set off into the mountains to search for this chicken but never returned. The ...

... An turn out some absolutely beautiful stuff, at unbelievable prices. Custom shirts run $10-20, suits go for about $70, sandals for about $7. It's probably for the best that we weren't in town long enough to buy anything, but it was all quite spectacular.<br><br>The sleeper bus made for a surprisingly short overnight, and we arrived at daybreak in Nha Trang. School just let out for the summer, so the city was crawling with Vietnamese tourists as well as ...

... that I had to get out, after only one little shot glass of ****** wine.<br>Some people stayed in, including of course the Aussie who was like "No worries, just a bit a sea lice,<br> doesn't huuuut!" I wanted to take that little rats tail of his and.....nevermind.<br>Suddenly, through the crowd, I see the Canadian girl, Charlene is her name, looking at me triumphantly holding a bottle of wine. She was my hero that day. She cuts through the crowd and sits beside me.<br>This ...

... and doze off, even sleeping a little through the driver's constant blaring of the horn. Even if there's a fly 50 metres up the road hovering above the lane he'll toot to let it know we're coming through. One of the things I dislike about Asia is the blaring of the horn ~ pretty annoying sound. Past two days I've been on the beach just lounging aorund and reading my book. Quite nice to be in a beach place and not see any of the ...

... I thought better of it! It's days like these where you need a mate along for the ride, to pick up your spirits and drag you out!<br><br> Seeing as I couldn't sit in the sun I decided to go sightseeing, which took all of an hour, so ended up at the beach anyway. Its like 40 odd degrees here!!! First I headed out to the big buddah. Seems to be one in every town. Had a bit f a to-do with a taxi driver, wanted to charge me 100, 000 D!!! You've got to ...

... ting b*r time... suprise suprise there werent enough life j*ckets to go *round *nd its *ctu*lly very h*rd to st*y *flo*t in the middle of the se* drinking * gl*ss of wine whilst been stung by the m*ny teeny weeny jellyfish! Met * cute little boy in one of the b*rs one night who we ended up t*king for lunch the next d*y, he w*s working til *bout 11pm every night from school selling postc*rds *nd w*s *bout 8 ye*rs old. He ...

... the point where we couldn't be bothered to shop around in the heat for another multicoloured swap shop, so we settled begrudgingly for her offer, at least we'd have some new books to read. <br><br>It wasn't until an hour later in a bar that Katie realised that the "new" books we'd received ...