Nha Trang

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Luckily the mode of transport down to the coast was more comfortable than on the way up and we arrived at Nha Trang by early afternoon and checked into a guesthouse complete with air-con, sky tv and minifridge - pretty luxurious compared to most places we've stayed at so far.

Nha Trang is a pretty busy and extremely commercialised beach resort which is popular with both foreign and Vietnamese tourists, but does have a really nice beach which is where I spent most of the first full day in the town. Although popular, the beach is long enough so that it's still far from crowded.

As a tourist destination it was extremely easy to find a decent place to watch the England v Paraguay match in the company of a fair number of English people as well as a few locals supporting our boys. Vietnam is football crazy and the streets are full every evening with people watching the games on portable tvs dragged out onto the pavement as well as in the many bars.

The following day I took a boat tour around some of the islands in the area. First stop was for some decent snorkelling with a really good variety of fish (including plenty that I hadn't seen in Thailand) and coral. We then had a really good buffet dinner onboard the boat, followed by a floating bar a.k.a getting drunk on dodgy wine while sat in rubber rings. We then made a stop on one of the islands with a pretty average and very stony beach, before a final stop at the local aquarium. The day entertainment of the day was added to by an all-singing, all-dancing crew of exhibitionists who literally made a song and dance about everything including an interesting (!) version of "Yellow Submarine" for the one English person on board.

We finished off our stay in Nha Trang with another relaxing day on the beach, and with some good book-swapping action, before embarking on an overnight bus journey up the coast.

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