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Published: March 24th 2011
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The bus to Nha Trang was only a few hours but for some reason seemed longer, maybe because the mountain roads were so windey and made me feel sick (I saw at least two other people actually throwing up). The main thing about Nha Trang is that it's a beach place and the weather was a bit shit. The night we got there we went to an ice bar. The set-up was weird, most people drank downstairs in the normal bar but if you bought a drink from the expensive menu you could go up into the -9c ice room which was empty. Not exactly a Viatnemese experience but hey. After a few we bought our 2 quid beers and went in with an exceptionally drunk Finnish guy we met in the downstairs bar and his pilled up Irish mate. The Finnish guy was shouting the whole time and had clearly had a few buckets before we met him but we had some funny conversations. The next day we went to a spa where we had a mud bath as well as soaking in and getting sprayed with mineral water from hot springs. There was also a nice swimming pool which
used the hot spring water and a mini waterfall to give you a neck massage. Not bad for 3 quid each. The next day we booked on a boat trip to go around several islands which are just off the shore. As I mentioned, the weather was shit and this was probably the worst day for a boat trip. When we got on the boat we realised that we we were in a mainly Vietnamese holiday tour with only a few western faces around. The guy giving the tour was enthusiastic and started off by making an Australian girl go to the front while he held her and sang the Titanic song, but there was more to come. The first stop was an island with an aquarium. The fish and turtles they had were absolutely massive but it only took 10 mins to look around. The next stop was supposed to be for snorkelling, jet skiing etc but with it now pissing down people weren't that up for it and most just stayed on the boat. Me and a Czech girl were the only ones who went snorkelling and there wasn't much we could see but it was better than
sitting around. Next we had lunch which was a bit uncomfortable as we all had to squeeze on the lower deck as it was raining. It wasn't as uncomfortable as the next part though. We moored at a platform near a different island where it really was pissing it down and the rain was coming in at the sides. Then they started dragging in speakers, a guitar and drums and we were treated to some live music with or tour guide dressed as a woman as the singer. It lasted a good hour. It was pretty funny and he did get us up dancing but when your sitting there shivering in the pissing rain watching a Vietnamese ladyboy sing La Bamba you do think, what the fuck are we doing. The free wine being passed around contributed to some confident Vietnamese from another boat trying some karaoke before 'happy hour' eventually finished. We then went to a private beach and sheltered from the rain whilst chatting to the Aussie and Czech girl and one of the tour guides. Overall it felt a bit more like Butlins than Vietnam but it was funny and would've been a lot better if it
was sunny. That night we met the Aussie and Czech girl in a bar and chatted with some English, Spanish and Dutch people and had some mint shisha and I tried out some of my Spanish. We got sweet potato from an old woman on the street instead of a kebab on the way home. The next day we did some shopping and I got my haircut for a dollar which was just as good as any haircut I've had at home. We checked out of our hotel where they spoke absolutely no English. The guy the day before had seemed to say we could check out at 7pm but this different guy tried to charge us for 4 nights. We tried to explain but still ended up paying for a half a night extra. Since they take your passport here we didn't have much choice. We then got on the 12 hour sleeper bus to Hoi An.
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