Last day in the 'Nam

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So.. Nha Trang was the last place we were I think… So after my last blog we went to a bar and it started POURING with rain, never seen anything like it, within 30 mins the street was knee high with water.. no joke! We hd to walk 20 mins to catch our bus so decided to leave before it got any worse. We collected our bags and walked, practically thigh high in water, but only for 5 mins or so till we made it slightly up the hill to more puddle depth than lake, and then to our final sleeping bus.

We got to Saigon the following morning and set about looking for a hotel, found a pretty cheapish and kind of gross hotel so stayed there for the night. Went to the war remnants museum which was very interesting but pretty miserable! We went out for a couple of drinks for Jay’s last night, didn’t feel much of a celebratory occasion…

Next morning was Jay’s last day, Izzy ran away to the art museum and ‘notre dame’ cathedral so Jay and I had the day to ourselves. We didn’t do much, just chilled out, chatted, played some MORE pool and all to quickly it was time for the airport. Which was fun…

Izzy and I made our way back to Saigon, had some munch and then went back to the hotel to watch movies J next day we went to this coffee bar and found out they played FREE MOVIES so we watched… a few…

Next day was reunification palace and market, then a sit in the park, till it started raining again so we headed back for a wander round some more shops (enjoying the lack of Jay’s ‘come ooooon’) and bought our ticket for the next day.

The trip to Mui Ne was about four hours and on the lonely planet map it looks pretty small, so arriving at the bus stop in the blistering heat we decided to walk to our hotel of choice… about half an hour later we bumped into 2 other tourists heading in the opposite direction, also looking for the ‘centre of mui ne’ which was reassuring.. not. Eventually we gave up and stumbled into the nearest guest house which gave us a pretty little bungalow right on the sea front. Crazy noisey waves and a very pretty little place. We just chillaxed that afternoon, enjoying being out of the crazyness that is Saigon, when hunger crept over us we wandered to find somewhere to eat, a beach bar with a seafood bbq, what more could we want. So that was tasty, the drink not so, for some reason we thought the beer, apple juice vodka cocktail would be a good idea, and realised some drinks are cheap for a reason!! A free shot of some weird pink thing from the french man behind the bar and then off to bed.

Back to the bungalow (too lazy to walk this time so commandered 2 motobikes to take us there) and sleeeep.

Next day we found a café run by an english man, clearly designed for the homesick western tourist so we had cheesy jacket potatoes for breakfast and then went on a tour to the surrounding sand dunes. First stop was a fishing village, though it was early afternoon so no actual fishing was going on, fair enough as they have a 3am start!! Next stop white sand dunes, which were stunning and HUGE. Our guide didn’t speak good enough english to explain to us why they were there but they were and they were pretty so that was good enough for us J next stop yellow sand dunes for the ‘sunset’ though we were whisked off before the sun actually set… they were stunning though, and died our legs a strange shade of orange so it looked as though we had pretty bad fake tans.. fun day though.

Next morning was off to Da Lat, in the rain. Of course. Arrived about 4 I think and made our way to our hotel, never have been more harassed by people trying to sell us tours, especially by one guy who followed us to the hotel we were going to, we went in, it was full, so we came back out and he was like, wow wht a surprise to see you again… we were like.. hmm really. Eventually we went to his hotel of choice, it was one of the cheapest anyway, though apparently he doesn’t work on commision. So we went upstairs and chilled out, as you do. About 2 hours later came down to explore a bit of Da Lat’s thumping night life and he was there! Jeeeeez, ‘would you like a tour tomorrow’ NO! thing is we actually did but not from someone who was going to bug us forever. We wandered up to a cheap food place but it was full of easy rider (the motobike tourist guides) people so we ran away and went somewhere else, even for food everyone was jumping on us to come into their restaurants, was kind of scary. Went to the bar next door afterwards to the ‘basement bar’ which was a room, down stairs, with a bar, not very excitin but we should have expected that. We got chatting to this american who taught us a three way version of pool, and then beat us but he was a nice enough guy to chat to.

Next day we eventually agreed to do a tour with one of the easy riders and spent the afternoon on the back of a motobike visiting pagodas, a big buddha, a lake, waterfall, a cable car over scenic Da Lat and the temple of meditation. It was a really good day actually, the guides were very nice and chatty, but then tried to get us to pay an extra 40,000 Dong on what we had agreed (about 1 pound 30 pence..) but we didn’t so it was all good. Then booked our tickets for back to Saigon the next day, meandered through the market and got some Pho (noodle soup) for din dins.

Our 7 hour journey to Saigon today turned into a 10 hour one but it was ok, done a fair bit of money spending tonight as is our last night in Vietnam, we’re off to Cambodia tomorrow for a week then Laos for 10 days and then home. Can’t quite believe it’s coming up so fast!!

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