Nha Trang & Hoi An

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26th Feb

The overnight train was really good. We had a cabin shared with the 2 Norwegian girls on our trip, Karoline and Stine. The cabin had a flat screen t.v. and really comfortable beds, it were great.
We arrived in a little bit late, at 6am and once we were at the hotel our rooms weren't ready so we set out for breakfast. The weather was amazing, really hot so we sat by the pool well Kim did, i messed about in the pool as i didn't want to get burnt like i did in Sihanoukville. Once our rooms were ready it was nearly lunch so we got showered. After lunch we sat on the beach and sunbathed a little bit more.

That night was one of the best experiences iv'e ever had, Dara took us to a BBQ restaurant with a difference, you got your own little coal stove and cooked your food on the table in front of you. there was tonnes of food too, chicken, beef, fish and massive prawns, all with vegetables and rice. We also tried eel with glass noodles, it was nice yet different.

Later we went to a beach party and drank fishbowls till the early hours, our guide thought it was a good idea to sneak down the beach and try to get in for free, there were security guards everywhere so we had to go to the front door in the end. We were let in for free anyway. We stumbled into bed at 3am.

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27th Feb

Our check out was at 12 but we weren't leaving until 9:30 so we decided to go to the mud baths. To begin with you showered in warm mineral water then jumped into your own private mud bath for a 15 minute soak. The mud was really watery and not what we were expecting, but it was great fun. Once our time was up we had to walk down a corridor that sprayed mineral water at you from all directions, washing all the mud off. Finally was a mineral water bath that had been heated to 40 degrees, it was almost too hot to sit in but we got used to it eventually and it was very relaxing.
Now that our treatment was over we got to spend time in the warm mineral water swimming pool and waterfall.

On the way back we got the driver to stop at the giant Buddha that looks over the town. It is 24 meters high and its 150 steps up to it, i got pestered all the way around it by fan sellers but it was ok in the end as the wafted me all the way around.

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28th Feb

To get to Hoi An we had to take another overnight train, Dara warned us that it wasn't going to be as nice as the previous one but he didn't prepare us enough for what was to come.
The train had already had passengers in it so our sheets had already been used by someone before we even got into them, luckily we had sleeping bags. To make it even worse the cabins were full of cockroaches, they were everywhere, on the beds, up the walls. It were minging. I was sharing we 3 girls so i spent most of the night killing them with my flip flops and Kim even went as far as putting earplugs in so none would go in her ears. Stine woke up with one sat on her face!!

Luckily it arrived on time so we didn't have to spend any longer than we had to.

Hoi An was amazing though, we spent most of the day wandering around the old town looking in all the tailor shops who offered overnight services making anything you wanted. It reminded us of a little French town, we went to the Japanese covered bridge. The story is that after a series of earthquakes, the people believed there was a mysterious beast that has its head in Japan, its tail in Indian and its heart in Hoi An. The bridge was a metaphorical sword that ripped through its heart and killed the beast.

That night we took a cooking class, to begin with we went to the market and bought the produce that we were going to be cooking with, Hanh our chef taught us how to spot good pineapples and papayas. We learnt hoe to make spring rolls, sweet and sour chicken soup, green papaya salad and fish in banana leaf. All of it tasted unbelievable. As usual our night ended up in a bar.

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1st March

Today we rented bikes and cycled to the beach through the local villages. However Dara must of been a bit confused as we had to turn around at quite a few dead ends, these stops soon got dubbed Kodak moments.
Once at the beach we relaxed for the afternoon, as it started to cloud up we cycled back to town to get some lunch. We got a mix of things but the best buy was 3000 dong beers (10 pence) and after a few of them we cycled back to the hotel.

That night after tea we walked past a load of lantern shops that were all lit up and they looked really beautiful and colorful.

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Comments

[Darren]

It sounds so boring - not!!
Sun, sea, sand, booze, food, scenery - you must be having a nightmare time? Kim cooking now thats one of the wonders of the world I need to see.