Filling in the gaps!

Hey all
Well I certainly have been slacking with this blog bonanza - obviously because we are having such an action packed, fantastic time and there are far more interesting things to do than spend my precious moments updating a blog. Well, that's a far better reason than my sheer laziness.
Since the last entry (which, if my memory servies me correctly, was from Saigon) we have enjoyed visits to Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hue, with a definite mixed bag of weather but lots to see and do.
We took an overnight 'sleeper' bus to Nha Trang (about 10 hours) which was quite a novelty, albeit a not altogether comforable one. There are basically three rows of seats, each of which has both bottom and top seats (like bunk beds). The seats don't quite lie flat, but close enough, and your legs are lying flat so it's a lot easier to get some sleep than in a normal bus/airplane. Even monster-by-asian-standards Daryn managed to get some sleep, with his knees not quite grazing his ears. The drive is only a short distance but takes hours due to the poor quality of the roads, the amount of rain (in our case), and the psychotic driving style of the driver. after a while I stopped watching out the front windows as it's far too trying on the nerves to constantly see headlights fast approaching you head-on, and to see the drivers having to practically shake themselves awake. The last bit of the drive,a fter the sun had come up, was along a narrow road hugging the often rugged and very beautiful drive,and if you can push the images of the bus rolling down the cliff face into the sea from your mind, it's a very pretty drive.
We arrived in Nha Trang really early and found a hotel straight away to catch up on some sleep. Nha Trang is a coastal city (I think about 300,000 people) with a beautiful beach and a pretty cool nightlife. It's also, so Daryn was told repeatedly, and ultimately found out for himself, one of the more dangerous parts of Vietnam to roam the streets at night. I think he was quite enthralled with the tales of how the whole city is infested with a very active criminal underground, until he had his watch stolen by a gang of prostitutes while out alone one night. In his defence, he thought they were just being very friendly and giving him a hug, and only realised what had happened the next day.
It was Daryns birthday the day we arrived in Nha Trang, so I found a very Daryn-esque place to take him for lunch. We went to a spanish run Tapas place, which was absolutely amazing, one of the best meals either of us has ever had, and incredibly cheap. We then took a bus to the mud baths and thermal springs, which were a couple of km's away but a world away from the hotels and bars and prostitute-theives. WE soaked in a bath of mineral mud and then in a really not hot spring bath before having a swim in the beautiful mineral pools they have there. It was fantastic and, apparently, will cure you of all sorts of ailments like rheumatism. Handy.
We went out to a backpacker bar that night and had a fantastic night drinking long island ice tea buckets and talking to a whole bunch of interesting people. The next day we went on a boat tour, which took us to a few of the islands surrounding Nha Trang, where we could swim and jump off the top of the boat. The people taking the trip were fantastic, and after cooking us a wonderful seafood lunch they morphed into a band, complete with jerry-can drum kits and multilingual singers (they would ask which country each of us were from and then sing a song from that country, in the native language. I think he took a shine to Daryn [as a disconcerting number of asian men seem to] and pulled him up on the stage twice for a sing a long and a bit of a boogie. They then have a 'floating bar', where one of the staff sits on this little raft out in the sea, and you have to swim out to him if you want the free wine. We met loads of people on the trip and met up with them all later that night which was fantastic - even if we were suffering the next day from the excess.
The next two days in Nha Trang were a bit wet so we spent a lot of time eating and drinking, eating and drinking (Nha Trang has fantastic food). We then took another sleeper bus to Hoi An, which is a Unesco World Heritage town, and my definite favourite so far. The 'old town' runs along a river and is a fantastic place with crumbling colonial style buildings, pedestrian streets, covered bridges and dozens and dozens of tailors (which Hoi An is famous for). It's also only about 5km from a beautiful beach, and we were lucky enough to have fantastic weather for two of the days we were there,and rode bikes out to the beach and enjoyed the sun, sand and seafood (well, I did). We also both got a winter coat made, and Daryn had a pair of shoes tailor made for his giant feet. It's all so cheap, and it would be so tempting to spend hundreds of dollars there, but at this point in the trip we've had to be really careful with the $$ so we didn't get half as much as we would have liked. Hoi An really is a beautiful place, and I could easily have stayed there for weeks. We did get a few days of rain, but somehow even the flooded streets are picturesque. The food was fantastic, and Daryn really enjoyed the glasses of draught beer for about 20c a pop.
We arrived in Hue yesterday afternoon, and we have tried our best to do the sightseeing thing but the constant rain has been a bit of a hassle. We walked to the Imperial City today, which is an old fortified citadel inside the town's walls. I think on a fine day it would be a great place to wander around, but it was a bit of a mission today. We are leaving for Hanoi tonight (with the weather forecast promising no rain!) and will spend a couple of days there before heading up to Sapa to go hill-tribe trekking, and Halong Bay to spend a few days on a boat cruise. We are having a fantastic time, enjoying the wonderful food, the sights and sounds and especially the friendly Vietnamese people.
Hope you all are well
Hayley

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