Hoi An to Jungle Beach
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2007
1
29
74
Trip End
Jun 27, 2008
Nha Trang,
Vietnam
Friday, September 21, 2007
This journey was another overnight 12 hour long ride and should have left Hoi An at 6pm and arriving in Nha Trang at 6 the following morning. Our next location, Jungle Beach was an hour north of Nha Trang so all in all we had one pig of a night / day ahead of us.
It didn't start well. The bus was scheduled to leave at 6pm but didn't arrive until 8pm. Then when it did turn up it was packed. We were to be crammed in right at the back of the bus over the engine where it was hot. As I cannot sleep on buses I normally pass the time reading. Not this time - mine was the only seat with no light. No problem, I'll just while away the hours listening to some tunes on my mp3 player. D'oh!! Done so much travelling that I forgot to charge it. So I knew I was in for a long old night. At 4am, when I was awake and bored, thinking this journey couldn't get any worse....it did. On the back row, with Nic and I, there were two girls and another guy. I glanced up only to see the guy and one of the girls having a good old tongue wrestle. YUK!!!! There is a time and a place and this wasn't either. So I did what any English man would do and tutted. Loudly.
At 8am we arrived in Nha Trang. As you can imagine I was a right barrel of laughs that morning. We sorted out a cab and headed up to Jungle Beach. We had heard a lot about Jungle Beach and we desperately hoped it would be everything we had built it up to be. And we were not to be disappointed.
Jungle Beach is run by a semi-eccentric Canadian guy called Syl. He has established this great little resort on a stretch of beach, about 500m long, that is perfect for the budget traveller. For $20 a night you get a very basic beach hut, three home cooked beautifully delicious meals (obviously not as good as mums), all the water you can drink (may not sound much but when you are limited to bottled water, most places charge you the earth. Plus with this place being out of the way, he could charge way over the normal price), free lemon juice, and to top it off, in the afternoon they bring you a plate of fresh fruit to your place on the beach. PERFECT!!
So following our brief tour of the place, there was only one thing for it. Beach and sleep. I had gotten myself into a better frame of mind by this point and the bus journey was soon a distant memory. Before long we were both out cold, fast asleep in the morning sun.
Meals at Jungle Beach are at set times, which is a great idea as you get to sit and chat to all the other guests there. We soon learnt that there were only about ten people staying which was plenty enough for us. Several were leaving but one girl, Canadian Jess, was staying and we were glad as she was great fun. She also told us that Miriam and Victoria (the NZ girls) had only left the previous day so we were catching them up.
Rest of the afternoon spent horizontal in the sun, then after dinner it was time for a fire on the beach. Gets even better. There were an English threesome travelling together and the five of us built a beautiful fire on the beach, got a couple of cold beers and sat and had a right good giggle. This was everything I had dreamed off - there is something amazing about beaches at night and this was perfect.
Next, night swimming. We all got our cozzies on and ran into the sea. It was beautiful. The moon shone down on us, and then we saw the plankton swimming around us, lighting up like little electrical charges. It really was a fantastic experience to be in this location, swimming at night with these little lights all around my body. Plus, I was exhausted, half drunk and probably delusional.
Not too late and it was bed time and we went to bed feeling very relaxed and very happy. A good night's sleep was definitely ahead of us.
Day two at Jungle Beach was a lot like the first. Reading, relaxing and more sleeping on the beach. Kirsten, one of the English girls, had a frisbee so we did some exercise just to make sure we didn't turn into sand sloths.
Jungle Beach is a very very low key place and you get zero hassle from anyone so it is the perfect place to recharge batteries. Plus there is some beautiful nature around you. Geckos, huge butterflies and best of all, monkeys in the mountains behind you. Syl has become a bit of a monkey expert and he is more than happy to tell you all about the new breed he has discovered in the area. Apparently he has had monkey experts from all over the world come and confirm his suspicions, and yes, there is a new breed, or model or whatever the hell you call monkey types, living at Jungle Beach. There have even been TV crews there and recently he was being filmed for a documentary all about him (which apparently Miriam and Victoria both got to star in). We had the privilege to see, through a telescope, the monkeys up on the mountain swinging around having fun. Probably taunting the other monkeys, boasting how unique and special they are.
And we also stumbled across a snake. When I say stumbled, I mean one crawled across Kirsten's foot. Luckily it was only little but even still, a snake on your foot. Yuk. Nic being the nature lover decided to poke at it. I warned her that it might be poisonous, and then Nic came out with a line only Nic would come out. 'How can it be poisonous? It's only a snake'. Oh yes, silly me. As everyone knows, snakes are not known for being poisonous or the slightest bit dangerous are they? In fact, think of a snake and you think of cute little animals. This didn't stop her from investigating (poking) it further.
Rob (another one of the English contingent) and I spent the rest of the afternoon building a fire that only men know how to build. It was a beauty and we looked forward to lighting it later that evening. During the day, more people came (mainly English and Irish) so that evening we had a good group of people all sat around the fire enjoying the evening and marveling at mine and Rob's fire building skills (the other men were clearly jealous and you could hear the strain in their voices, struggling to compliment us).
Nic then decided it was time for some 'Baby Shark' action. For those of you that don't know, Baby Shark is a song Nic learnt with the kids when teaching and it is great. It basically involves lots of verses and lots of actions. It went down a treat. You had ten adults all stood round the fire, in the dark, singing ' baby shark, do do do do do do, baby shark, do do do' etc etc.
It was then time for some more night swimming and I decided to challenge Jess to a 'holding your breath underwater' competition. We would count to three then under we would go. Last one up wins. Simple right? Well yes,except every time we got to three I would pretend to go under and then not. Jess would be under there for ages and as soon as I saw her coming up for air, I would go under the water only to pop up seconds later as the victor. Cruel? Not really. Everyone else was in on this little scam so they are as guilty as me. So one nil to me. Jess being competitive, and determined, wanted a second round. So, one, two three, and under. Well only Jess again. And so this continued. Two nil to me, Three nil, Four nil. Again, everyone was in on the scam and again Jess was determined to win. I did let her win one at 9-1 so that she didn't get too demoralised (or suspicious). At 11-1 Jess was absolutely exhausted and I surprisingly had lots of energy. Nic had walked off at this point as she thought I was mean and refused to take any further part. To make Jess feel a bit better I did tell her that she was up against the Yorkshire Underwater Champion (YUC).
Next morning and a slow start for me (must have been all that underwater breath holding). Nic headed off with the others to see a waterfall that apparently was a waste of time. They returned for lunch and then the afternoon turned out to be quite energetic by our lazy standards
First it was beach volleyball then it was football. Both of these didn't last long as they were far too energetic and we were rubbish (there were girls on the team, what did you expect?). Then I had the bright idea of getting the little wooden boat that was on the beach and dragging into the sea. This boat, and I am sure there is a proper name for it, was basically a round boat that looked like a nut cut in half. The wind was getting up and the sea was getting choppier which was a perfect recipe for lots of fun, and the inevitable injury. Three guesses who got the injury. Yes, yours truly. We started off by one person getting in the boat and riding the waves, then it was two people, then it was all the girls in the boat, then all the boys and finally, everyone in the boat. All the time the waves were getting bigger and we were getting more and more tired. As the boat got more and more hammer, it started to fall apart and before long a rusty nail was protruding into the bottom of the boat. Thankfully, health and safety expert me noticed and warned everyone. Shame I didn't take notice of my own advice. In what turned out to be the final maneuver of the day, I decided to take on a huge wave, standing up in the boat as though on a surfboard. So in I climbed, avoiding the nail, stood up and waited for the wave. It came, and it was a biggie. I went up and apparently got some good air before I came crashing down on the sea, foot straight onto the rusty nail. Ow - pain!! Then more pain as I was thrown from the boat by another wave and then found the boat smacking me on the head. Rusty nail right in my big toe. Lots of blood - fun over. At least I can say I got a shrapnel wound in 'Nam. Oh, and all the girls said it looked dead impressive and that I was rad.
That evening, foot heavily bandaged and in a sling, was again spent on the beach, with a fire. For Nic and I it was a much much quieter evening as we had a 5am start and yet another 12 hour bus journey. This time to Saigon. Fingers crossed it would be a better journey than the last one.
Comments
Meany Patty
Sounds like you deserved the injury for being such a meany ;-)
Hope you are both doing well (sounds as though you are) and sorry we have not been in touch. We were sunning ourselves on hols instead!!! Miss you loads and will shortly be able to send piccies of the new house (WITH furniture!)
Mwah mwah
Cx
Sounds great.
This has obviously been a 'good time' place to be and the photos capture it well. Can just imagine all the big kids doing the 'shark song', makes me think of New Year.