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I don't like the beach much, anyway!
Entry 7 of 115 | show all | print this entry |
Wednesday November 12th
Took the overnight bus down from Hoi An to Nha Trang, arriving at 7am in drizzling rain. It wasn't the most comfortable of journeys but despite the obligatory beeping and being lurched forward during emergency braking I did manage to get a couple of hours' sleep.
I even found a cheap hotel room with a sea view - well I could have seen the sea if not for the now torrential rain. After a quick sleep I was awoken by the wind and rain clattering against the window. No beach today, but luckily I've got satellite TV.
Once the rain relented I decided to go for a wander, only to be caught in a terrific storm. I ducked under a tarpaulin of a street vendor to put on my Viet Nam issue raincoat (a cheap, very thin plastic sheet with arms and a hood that everybody wears - and sells). Then a sudden gust of wind caught the tarp and blew it away, and Stupid Tourist Man was standing there like a lemon getting very wet: in his haste he had inadvertently ripped his coat while trying to put his head through an arm hole. I helped the Nammette move her food cart into an alley along with tables and chairs, but now I was ankle deep in water. I ran across the road to seek refuge (and food) in a cafe.
When Viet Nam was part of French Indochina (1884-1954 for all you history buffs) Nha Trang was a popular holiday destination, and French influences can be found in the architecture and menus all around the town (and there's lots of Italian restaurants as well for some reason). As I didn't fancy sauteed frog or tagliatelle, I went for good ol' Nammie chicken and rice.
I sat down only to be moved as the roof was leaking. The rain was still hammering down and by now the road was close to flooding. I sat back and ordered another beer and they asked me to choose a movie from their vast library of dodgy DVDs. I narrowed it down to either the Matrix Reloaded or Platoon, but for some reason I thought it would be better to watch Keanu shoot people rather than Charlie Sheen shoot people. (If I can't find a job when I get home then I think I'll become a subtitle editor for bootleg DVDs. Reading the English subtitles for what somebody thought was being said was almost as entertaining as watching Trinity do her thing.)
Six inches of water covered the road and every time a car went past the resulting wave swept into the cafe. As luck would have it I had stopped in a section of the road that dips, so this sort of thing was not that unusual for them, but I was stranded. By now I was the only person left in the cafe so I started to watch the rain - and the swimming rats.
Whilst watching the weather I taught the waiter some Cockney rhyming slang (he already knew 'lovely jubbly'). So if you're ever in Nha Trang and someone tries to get you into his restaurant by asking if you're Hank Marvin reply 'Too bloody right, me old china' and go in and order some frog. [For those of you not well-versed in Cockney feel free to email me with your best guesses and I'll reply with a translation. The best guess wins a Viet Nam rain coat - used once only.]
I waded home with the water coming half way up my shins, dodging driftwood and crazy cyclists, only to find that the rain had seeped under my door and had made the tiles extremely slippery. Did I fall over? What do you think?
Thursday November 13th
Woke up with a sore knee, for some reason. No beach today, but at least I've got satellite TV. It must have stopped raining overnight as the water had subsided. I decided to go for a walk, but the heavens opened and it soon turned into another wade. When I got back to my room The Deer Hunter happened to be on TV, which probably isn't the best film to watch out here. When I plucked up courage to go out I went to a bar called Crazy Kim's and met some people I came down on the bus with. The bar runs a charity for kids and so I signed up to volunteer to teach English for an hour on Friday, which should be fun. Got home safely, without having to play Russian roulette (watch the Deer Hunter if you don't know what that means).
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