Mountain passes, Pagoda spotting, and hotel room robbing!

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It's the first of the month which marks my 15 day countdown to jetting off on my final journey home. Been thinking about it A LOT recently and am gearing myself up for seeing everyone and catching up on 9 months of lost time!

Our last stop from the last blog was Nimh Bihn. This was more of a quick stop off on our way to Hoi An but turned out to be really lovely. We had some trouble on our way there with a really aggressive taxi driver and some men on the bus who couldn't seem to control their outrageous staring but we got there in the end. It's a pretty sleepy town with not much to do and not that many people around but true to form we rented our trusty bikes and went exploring. We did a little boat tour around these rice paddies with these cheeky vietnamese women making us laugh the whole way round. It had a likeness to Halong Bay in the sense of the massive mountaenous rocks that surrounded us but had more of a fresh water rivery feel rather than an ocean-esque scene. We then continued biking around visiting various little hidden pagodas in the mountain sides. At this point it had started to rain pretty heavily but we continued on to find tiny little sacred temples. After seeing about five we were definately pagoded out and made our way back to the town for our bus to Hoi An.

We had actually been to Hoi An before whilst we were waiting for Sonia to fly in but we had such a good time we had to go back. We stayed in the lovely Hoa's place once again where we met a large group of Colombians who then continued to travel down with us some more. Alice and I went and did 'The Pass' which apparently got made famous because top gear did it and said it was the best road they had ever driven on. Well we set off and did some sort of pass, whether it was 'the pass' we have no idea as we ended up in some monkey sanctuary. The scenery nonethless was worth it as we got to see Hoi An and Danang from the very top of the mountain. We managed to squeeze some beach time in as well which was another plus :-) Oh I also met yet another person attending Sussex Uni next year and hoping to stay in the same halls as me. I'm sure I will know half of Brighton by the time I get down there!

We then moved on to a place called Nha Trang - anothe beach side town but this time it had more of a city vibe to it because its quite big and bustling with clubs and bars stretching as far as the eye could see. It wasn't in a seedy way though as it also had quite a cosmopolitan feel to it with high street shops and elegant hotels etc. I can't quite beleive how much money there is in this country. Maybe because I had little to no idea what it was going to be like but its completely exceeded in my expectations in terms of wealth as literally everywhere we have been have got it going on not just with tourism but in big business. You can tell by the buildings and the people and of course there are people trying to rip you off every where you go but I don't know how to explain it just feels different. The beach in Nha Trang is as lovely as any other and stretches really really far. The night life is brilliant as every night there are parties on the beach and cool little quirky arty bars and cafes to pass the time. We went on a boat trip which is advertised everywhere but was utterly utterly ridiculous. It was jam packed full of people and the tour guides were moody pushy and a little aggressive. They took us to 'private beaches' where you couldn't see an ounce of sand due to the amount of people squashed onto it. Snorkelling with snorkells with cracks and would immediately fill with water once submerged. We were then forced to listen to the tours half hearted kareoke which you could tell he didn't want to do whilst being ordered around it was awful. We laugh about it now and have advised any one considering to do it to stay away. The next day alice and sonia went off scuba diving so I took this as prime oppertunity to have a beach day. That night whilst sleeping in our hotel room someone broke in (we think through our balcony window) and raided all our stuff. Luckily I sleep with my bag by my head but pretty much everything of ours went, from money to phones to cameras and cards. We were devistated and kind of freaked out at the thought that someone was in our room whilst we were sleeping. We then had to go to the police so the girls can claim on their insurance but they were sulky, aggressive and extremely un helpful. All of this along with the taxi driver, the men on the bus, the sour faced women who happily slap your lags and shout on the bus if a toe is out of place really gave us a bad feeling about the people here. Of course we are not totally put off but this is the only place we've felt un easy and let down by the people. I still think however that to every nasty person we meet we most definately meet two more who are so lovely and accomodating and genuine which puts it all into perspective.

We are now in a place called Mui Ne which is a lot quieter and chilled than Nha Trang. It's the last beachy place we are going so are taking our time to relax and bronze. To our luck the heavens have opened alas me taking this time to write the blog. There are these massive sand dunes here which you can explore right by the beach which stretch for miles. You can rent metal trays from the locals kids and whizz around them but you can't see through the rain at the moment and we're moving on tomorrow so we're hoping hoping hoping it will clear up as it would be such a shame not to see them.

We really feel like rushing chickens at the moment trying to push in everything we want to do right at the last minute which is kind of pressurising as we want to make sure we're seeing the best of every place. Its been raining quite often recently so we're hoping it will subside before we head home. I here its really good weather though at home? I think you guys are getting the better deal! Haha.

Anyway if I don't write it in my next blog I have really really enjoyed my time in Vietnam and again have met some amazing friends. So far on my tally perhaps I could push to say its my favourite country in south east asia due to the variation of places, people and sights. The food is great, the people I could learn to love and it definately has the best atmosphere compared to Laos and Thailand. A bigger sense of community I guess where everyone eats together, plays together, works together. It's nice. I'm excited to see Saigon.

Will update you for maybe my last time next week? Maybe I can squeeze in two.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Meg xxxx

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