Nha trang - from phnom penh
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2008
1
39
117
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Sunday, November 23, 2008
wednesday 5th november
so we arrive in nha trang at about 6.30am, and my whole body is killing me. my neck is aching. i feel totally twisted up. i didn't sleep a wink, i swear. sean looked at me 'daggers' last night because i kept tearing my pillow up off the 'bed' to readjust it so having to pull apart the velcro strips each and every time, which apparently was loud enough to wake up half the bus! anyway, i didn't sleep, but it seems like half of vietnam must have slept like babies because they're all out and about already, swimming in the sea, running or power walking along the beach, playng badminton, practicing tai chi. all of them. alive and kicking. and here's our bus. half of us having forgotten what 6am even looks like. so the bus pulls up within the gates of a hotel where there really seems to be very few touts waiting for us, which is perfect especially since i believe actually none of us would have been awake enough to stand any of their lip this morning! we collect up our belongings and march off, away from the screaming touts and motorbike drivers to seek out a hotel. we stop and check out several with brid and cole - the irish couple we've been spending most of vietnam bumping into - before we run off around the corner to find another called the mai huy hotel. here, the lady can see that we're on our last legs and so she explains that the room that will be ours won't be ready until check out at midday, but that she has another, reserved for a couple turning up that afternoon, that we can use to get more some sleep just for the next few hours, so back to bed it is! and never has a bed felt better than now. well actually the hilton's beds - perk of a job - are pretty damn fantastic, but for the money we've been spending on accommodation out here, the beds we've had haven't been half bad. anyway, so bed for a couple of hours in room 102, before it's down for breakfast in a restaurant down the road, which is showing coverage of obama's victory - good work and thank god for no snipers in the crowd as he gave that speech in chicago! anyway, back to the hotel to climb hundreds of stairs to change to room 301. and finally, just as we're starting to actually get ready for the day, it starts to properly chuck it down with rain again. after a while, we brave it and take a walk out to find out about the booze boat trips, and a bakery to try yet more food that we don't really need at all, before walking almost all of town to get to the giant buddha sitting on a lotus flower, on the top of a hill, which we've read can be seen from all around town, though it takes us until we're nearly at the foot of the hill and standing infront of the pagoda below the statue to see that it's there! at the pagoda, we see a man on a motorbike transporting two massive porcelain jugs, strapped to the back of the bike. jesus, you should see what some people can carry on their bikes! not just tourists lugging their entire year's supply of clothes, medical equipment etc on the back of a bike, BUT flat screened tvs, bunches of empty bottles, cages of dogs, goats, pigs, you name it! we enter the pagoda, where a buddhist monk gives me a look like i've done something wrong AGAIN, and i start taking photos of candles that look like something you'd get in ann summers (!), and buddhas with four heads and six sets of arms and legs etc, etc. behind the pagoda, we avoid the swarms of beggars to climb the steps up to the reclining buddha, where i start laughing about something or other and get told to ssh! we are ushered on as the pagoda is due to close and so take a walk up to see this buddha on a lotus, which is absolutely ginormous! afterwards, we flag down a taxi to take us over the over bumpy road to the mud baths. here we bump into brid and cole again, who have just finished bathing in the mud. we take a dip in the swimming pool that's as hot as a bath and then wander, through the now darkness, to the mud. here, a lady stops us and asks for our entry ticket, which is back at the locker so it's another trapse to get that to prove ourselves before they can switch on the mud for us. in the tub, they start pumping masses of mud and mineral water, which is warm and runny like melted chocolate. if only it had been! after about 15 minutes bobbing about in the mud, we take a shower to wash it away, during which time it decides to rain again. so we're standing under a metal shower while a storm of thunder and lightning passes over us! health and safety would surely have a thing to say about this! after, we wander through a hydrotherapy shower, before getting into a bath filled with hot mineral water. i'm not entirely sure if all this mud and mineral water did make my skin baby soft, but it was nice to keep getting in and out of hot water and soaking for ages. i think we must have both turned into prunes by the time we were finished. by this time, it was getting late, it was dark, and we were the only people left in the complex. the rain was still going, the thunder and lightning was still threatening to kill us with all this water around and so we decided to give the attendant a break and we walked down, through the rain, to the changing rooms, where we did our best to dry off! we picked up a taxi and drove home, before going out for pizza and pasta at a taverna. we finished the night around the corner at another cheap bia hoi bar, where sean believes the beer was actually stale san miguel that they rebottled to get rid! who knows?
thursday 6th november
this morning we got up late and walked to le petite bistro for as much of an english breakfast as we were going to get. brid and cole had been sat outside the restaurant the night before and had recommended we eat there, so here we were. the breakfast was good, though overpriced, and though they had good ketchup, i'm still not convinced that the heinz baked beans are really up to scratch out here! after breakfast, sean braved the barber around the corner, who apparently did not know what he was doing. sean described him as working like someone who'd seen hairdressers work in the past, and had got to thinking that it was easy and that maybe they'd like to give it a try one day! as it happened, sean came out with a very short hair cut and with the line of the cut coming up extremely high around his ears! i think he might have been embarassed because despite paying the guy, straight away he said he would have to find another hairdresser right away. while sat waiting for sean in the barber, i watched as a gay looking older gentleman had a manicure and pedicure done, and felt sorry for the poor girl who had to touch those feet! urgh! next door to our hotel, sean ducked into another hairdressers and explained to the lady inside what disaster had just happened, to which the lady straightened it up for him. afterwards sean had to shave because a man with hair as short as that on top should not be seen with a forest around his chin! after getting ready, we picked up a taxi to take us to the cable car terminal across town, which we hoped would take us to the vinpearl resort, including a water park, an aquarium, rides, an amusement arcade, restaurants etc. when we arrived as late as we did, however, it turned out that today might have to be a no go. it turned out that due to the low season, the park carried out maintenance, meaning that certain rides were closed all day and others were opened and closed at different intervals of the day. so it seemed like it would be a total waste going across today, and so another taxi it was to take us back to the hotel. what a waste! here, we changed into our swimming gear and tried to rescue the day by walking down to the beach, taking only a towel so not to get anything stolen if left on the beach. the sea was lovely, but nothing like that of the water in hoi an. for one, the waves were meak in comparison! the beach wasn't as sandy as that of hoi an either, and where there had only been palm trees, huts and deck chairs in hoi an; here in nha trang, the skyline was littered with high rise hotels and neon lighting. none the less, it was nice to see the sea and not get our clothes stolen by a suspicious looking character hanging about the beach! that evening, we decided to treat ourselves to tea in le petite bistro, including a bottle of wine. here, we got to speaking to a couple of older english and swiss travelling couples, whose children had been through uni and now they were rediscovering life?! we talked to them about our trip and about where we were staying and our budget, which all turned out to be meagre in comparison to the three or four star resorts that they were able to afford! afterwards, we went to the why not? bar, where we'd arranged to meet joe and len, if they were still in nha trang, and brid and cole. when we got there, late as always, neither couple was there and we thought we might have screwed it up again, but soon enough brid and cole came to join us. shortly after, a german couple of girls they'd met arrived and so the six of us sat around talking until one of the bar promoters invited us to play killer pool, with the other hundreds of tourists at the bar that night. i'm not sure if any of us stood a chance and being rubbish, i stood back and drank cheap cocktail buckets, on what was ladies night, and let the rest take their goes around the table. what a mistake! before long me and brid were dancing around, with her finally being taught how to dance by some black dude, and me running back to sean to say i was knackered and could we go home. we didn't go home straight away however as next thing i know, i've got one of the german girls and brid running into the toilet to find me being sick! nice! this is a vague memory and i believe i might have been spiked again! well that's the story i'm going with anyway! sean seems to think that i might have just drank too many buckets and not enough water! finally he dragged me home - as i'd lost the ability in my legs by this stage - having to negotiate his way around swarms of motorbike drivers asking if he wanted a ride, as well as having to wake up the hotel 'security' man for that night to let us in, and hauling my sad ass up the mountain of stairs! - i have no memory of this, but apparently it was all some feat! the next day we would be told how brid and cole got drunk too and on the way home, a motorbike driver would try his luck and yank the chain away from cole's neck, only for cole to understand the sentiment behind the chain and enable his instincts to take over quick enough to stop the biker and get his property back! he says he wanted to 'kill' the dude, but decided against it seeing as hundreds of other vietnamese motorbike owners were gathered around and so probably could have done more damage to him that he would have ever done to this one guy! good night then!
