Nha trang

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We got an overnight bus from Hoi An to Nha trang so arrived at 6am in the middle of town. The first thing that was noticeable was the amount of Russian signs and people that were around. There were hundreds of fat old men with gold chains round their necks and little budgie smuggling speedos. A very unforgettable sight for all the wrong reasons! The women were that much better, which shattered my view that all Russian women looked like Maria Sharapova. Our hostel was run by a group of very over the top friendly Vietnamese women. They would fuss over you like a group of mother hens, which was great for a short time but grew very tedious. Over the top friendly emotion is not one of my fortés. So it was time to have our free breakfast and spent the rest of the day on the beach, body surfing in the huge waves and turning my skin a beautiful shade of scarlet. The hostel was right in the centre of the nightlife so it was easy to find a great restaurant that served very fresh seafood Vietnamese style, followed by some beers in the booze cruise bar and the Arsenal annihilation of Aston Villa.



The next day was Superbowl day so it was up at 6am to go to the booze cruise bar and watch the game with loads of over excited Americans and Canadians. Early morning beers and a victory for the Patriots had the 2 American girls I was with very happy! Next stop was the cable car over the bay to the island of Vinapearl, which was a very dated theme park and water park. The theme park itself was a bit of a let down, the highlight being a roller coaster that you controlled your own descent. The water park more than made up for it, with lots of massive curling slides to go down on a doughnut ring and a wave pool with some epically large surf. An injury to my elbow on the very first slide and a braining on the ‘sinkhole’ slide were the only downsides to a very fun day, plus our first fast food burger of the trip as well! You could tell that it was set up to entertain thousands of people, but the fact we were in off peak season did give an eerie ghost town feeling to the place. no queues for any ride was a bonus though. Back to the nightlife section for some more Vietnamese food (same same but different) which was more average but filling and then collapse in bed.



I got a message the next morning for Amelia and Jonny, university friends, saying they had arrived in Nha trang and were keen for a few drinks in the evening. So we arranged that and spent the day visiting the huge Buddha pagoda,( not as good as the Bangkok recline Buddha) eating some horrible vegetarian beef balls noodles and visiting the famous mud baths. It was my first time in a spa so getting into a tub of mud and sitting there was a very surreal experience. The mud was so dense you could actually float on the top of it! The next part was a soak in some very hot mineralised water for half an hour and a relaxing swim in the hot and cold swimming pools that were available. It was a cool thing to do, but I felt no different and ,if anything, my skin was worse in the morning! Probably not something I will be repeating any time soon. We got back into Nha trang and I was craving a pizza. A few doors down was a pizzeria owned by an Italian guy so we tried it and he served us an authentic, doughy pizza that would have fit perfectly into prezzos menu. Thoroughly enjoyable! Feeling stuffed, we went and met up with Amelia and her tour group and hit the bars in they town. What followed was a very messy and great night that was made somewhat harder to remember by a friendly Vietnamese prick hitting me over the head with a beer bottle. Thanks buddy! The only definite I can take from that night is , when I woke up, I had definitely lost my phone. What followed was a really rushed morning of getting everything together, eating, showering and filing a police report before our scheduled bus at 1pm. Nha trang was great fun, slightly soured by the final morning, but was a very different Vietnam than previously experienced. The town was indistinguishable from a European coast town in my opinion!

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