The Beach 3

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I met Nick again at the Bo Bo Cafe - he's just got back from Ha Noi and even he nearly got ripped off by the taxi drivers and they knew he could speak Vietnamese! We talk about jacking our respective jobs in the UK in - he was Civil Service and found it very constricting. He's developed more, done more and achierved far more in Vietnam. He told me about a British guy who started at the bottom in one of the big hotels and made General Manager of te hotel in 4 years without having to do all the qualifications and the degree course that you would in the West. There's opportunities here for anyone who wants get on. We shake hands and he gives me his card - he reckons that I would stand a good chance of getting a job in Saigon in IT as it's the main Business centre as opposed to Ha Noi which is Government and Administration, and I'm 'in country' already. I'll bear this in mind when I get to KL and Singapore. He gives me his card and we part.

It's still really sunny so I flag a taxi down and off to An Ban beach - this is the quieter 'locals' beach with lots of fishermen. I get out of the cab and run the gauntlet down to the beach and escape half a mile down the beach. The beaches here are spotlessly clean - no rubbish, glass, suspicious looking piles - that said I managed to step in a patch of oil when wading out into te water. Yes, Nige in his speedos - gruesome sight I'll admit but I'm the only person for half a mile in either direction so no one is likely to be offended. The water is great - no sharp intake of breath as it reaches your middle as it was very warm. The surf is great and the tide was coming in so I had a bit of a job getting out ny appreciable distance. The next 3 hours were spent sunbathing however it had clouded over a lot but was still very warm. I still managed to miss bits with the sun block and get sunburnt!

At about 2pm I decide to give myself up loke a lanb to the slaughter and have something to eat - the various beach cafe owners were actually arguing over me and trying to shout each other down - just to sell a can of coke and a bowl of noodles for about 1.00GBP. The taxi is on time again and back for a shower before having a knockout Spicy Seafood soup and baked Sea Bass with tomato and coriander at Gustavs finishing with a double helping of his passion fruit ice cream - no wonder I've only lost 5lbs since I got here!

Off to Saigon tomorrow so an early night beckons - been getting a lot of those since I decided not to drink at all. Safer that way and won't do me any harm.

Bye for now folks

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