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Published: March 28th 2014
Hi All!
Apologies for the delay, we have been too busy/lazy to write the next blog installment but here it is!
We last wrote that we had arrived in Hoi An, Vietnam. We loved the little town! It was a maze of wooden shops, restaurants and cafes lining both sides of the river. There were lanterns all over the town and in the evening they would light smaller paper lanterns for tourists to buy for "good luck" and send them down the river. It was idyllic. Naturally I had to buy a lantern as a souvenir and now its a challenge to not tear or damage it. Its going to be a long 3 months trying to keep it safe!
While in Hoi An we did nothing. It was so relaxing! Kev found beer for 9pence a glass, that's right 9 Pennies!! Needless to say he had a few of them! We enjoyed some of the best food here which was even cheaper than anywhere else! We think we are going to struggle with the prices in Britain when we come back!
After 4 days of relaxing and wondering around a quaint little town it was time
to hit the beach! Which meant we were going to Nha Trang. It was another night train to Nha Trang but it turned out a massive disappointment after the luxury of the first one. The other people in our cabin had been using our bed, pillow and duvet before we got on it so everything was already hot! The train noise was so much louder and the door to the cabin didn't even shut! Not a good nights sleep! Well not for me anyway, Kev got some sleep as usual.
Anyway, we arrived safely albeit very tired at 9am to 25°C heat and wandered down towards our guesthouse. We arrived very hot and sweaty, showered and fell asleep. Eventually we wandered down to the beach and it was suprising very nice even though its the main tourist beach in Vietnam. I had been looking forward to a beach for a while, mostly because a couple of work colleagues (Lisa and Louise!) had spent the last 10 months emailing me photos of beaches! So the next day we got dressed and headed down to what should have been a fun few hours on the beach. But Kev wanted to go
to the ATM first and get some money out. Bad idea. The man before us had left his bank card in the machine and naturally Kev had picked the only ATM with the main bank being a 2 hours walk away. So off we went. Midday heat carrying a bank card for 2 hours. It was horrible and not how I'd planned to spend the first day on a beach. We arrived and there were no Thank You banners, no card, no reward. Nothing. Not even a free pen. I was very disappointed. Next time we are just leaving the card where we find it.
The next day was much better. Mostly because I decided we were going straight to the beach and nowhere else! We got a couple of sun loungers and spent the next 4 hours chilling under an umbrella and swimming in the sea! although in the shade we got really quite burnt and spent the next 4 hours putting after sun on!
From Nha Trang we got a bus to Mui Ne, another beach location but less touristy. The beach itself was a disappointment. The people of South East Asia throw litter everywhere and
it seemed that most of it had congregated on this beach. Even on the areas where there was no litter there was too many broken shells to enjoy a nice stroll or even sit down. So instead we hired some bicycles and cycled the coastline instead. Much better. Although we were even more sunburnt hot and sweaty afterwards it was good. The roads are also quite bumpy and the bicycles have no suspension so we had sore bums when we got off!
Next stop Ho Chi Minh City!
Carly and Kev
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