Vietnam part 2 - Buses, suits and buckets...

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The bus actually arrived in Mui Ne although an hour late and we boarded it to head to Nha Trang, although Mully wasn't allowed on untill he cleaned his feet with a bottle of water. This was our first experience of a sleeper bus which is exactly what it says on the tin. A bus with three row across the middle of it with a number of beds. We had been advised to get onto the back seats as there was more room which was true, what we hadn't counted on (nor the est of the bus for that matter) was a group of English gentlemen and another either french or dutch guy with them who wouldn't shut up for the majority of the journey and were laddish twats. Having spent the last night sleeping in what can best be described as a fishing net, I was less than agreeable, so it was ipod in and ignore the rest of the bus and hoped to fall asleep, Mully followed suit.

We arrived in Nha Trang, which had been described to us as a party town, and set about finding a hostel. This was easy enough and another $8 a night room for the two of us near the beach and we set out for tea and to check out the town. Tonight was going to be a blurry one as we had decided if we could we would watch the Ireland game and pray for a miracle that they'd win in a blaze of glory. We headed to the recommended Sailing club, trying to pick up a beer from a street vendor on the way and haggling to get a discount only to find we got nothing instead, then arriveing at the sailing club and paying twice as much for the drinks. However, as Mully ordered he discovered that the place did buckets! This phrase hadn't been uttered since Thailand and as you can imagine my first thought was fill her up, Mully less excited settled for a beer. We sat down in the bar to discover that it was a bit more up market, and an older crowd than we expected (although I don't know what we thought as it was called the Sailing club) and as we sat and drank a couple on the beach meters away decided it was time for them to go into the sea...not the best idea ever as the sea had one of the strongest currents I have ever seen and the waves were huge right at the shore line. The girl and guy headed towards the water and the guy went into his knees and the girl got dragged out to sea and after 5 or 6 security guards running down to her to wave her in it became apparent that she was unable. It ended up with some guy swimming in to get her and fighting his way back in to shore with her, her boyfriend still standing up to his knees like a hero.

After all that drama, Mully and I met an Irish fellow dressed in an Irish strip called Kevin and his brother who chatted for a while and then told us to watch the Irish match in a bar up the road. So we got a few buckets in and headed up the road where we met a couple of swedish girls and realised you had to pay into the bar. Mully went to take a leek and headed back intending to pay for the two Swedish girls and himself (so he says) and realised he'd been robbed by the hookers across the road where he'd went to piss. 1 million dong (bout 50 quid) taken from his wallet, so I paid everyone in and as soon as the doors opened the two girls had disappeared but it didn't matter because Ireland had kicked off and to my amazement where all over the French. A bucket was put in front of me and then another from Mully, and there it was the Irish goal in Paris!! Unreal celebrations went down, me hugging everyone round me, so much so that the bouncer threatened to turn off the game because of the noise. That would be the last memory until the following day.

I awoke several hours later in a daze and still in the bar which had been locked up and no one was in it. I got up and found a way out in a drunken stumble and handed the card from the hostel to a random motorbike driver and got a lift back. Got into the reception at about 8 am and the staff, all a bit in shock, asked where I stayed to which I told them "I don't know" and headed upstairs to the room where Mully was lying sleeping. Got into bed and slept off the drunkeness. Awoke later to find out that Mully had headed home thinking I'd left later on said that he'd treated himself to a box of pringles on the way home and then KO'd. We got up and headed for food, both of us not remembering the Ireland match or result, and having to check the net to find out Henry is a cheating bastard.

That night in Nha Trang we took it easy and had planned to get the bus the following evening to Hoi An. After a day of waiting and hanging about not doing much we got on the bus meeting a couple of single travellers called Andre and Holly, both canadians. Holly was raging as the bus attendant had asked her if she was pregnant when she got on, and the same guy had informed me of charging me an extra seat for my guitar, to which I replied "you can keep it". We chatted for a while and after a stop in a dodgy petrol station in pissing rain for a toilet stop we all piled ono the bus again and slept till we arrived in the small town of Hoi An. It was a nice town and was renouned for it's tailors and clothes markets and after we checked into a hotel Andre and Holly deciding to share a room, Mully and I went a dander down into the centre of town. There we were greeted by loads of shoe and suit stores all trying to get our business and after avoiding it all day we got dragged into one last tailor where I was convinced into buying a suit and Mully, who thought they were trying to rip us off went next door, and purchased a tailor made shirt. After getting measured up and everything else I went to a shop on down a bit and got a pair of shoes made as well and then we headed up towards the hotel again. On the way back Mully bought a pair of "Nike" shoes that can only be described as "beezer", strangely enough that was his opinion. These shoes will live down in infamy as they are indescrible and he won't ever wear them in public.

Getting back to our hotel we laid down for a while and agreed to go for tea with Holly and Andre down the market direction. We headed down, having met another Scottish guy called Ryan, and picked up a bottle of vodka/paintstripper on the way sat down to a meal. We were meant to go get our suits etc at 7 and went for tea first meaning our arrival at the tailor was not only late but the place had shut up shop for the night. So after banging on the door for a while we got in and got our suits/shirts/shoes and headed for the nearest bar with the promise of free rum and coke until 12.30. This offer seemingly too good to be true turned out to be right and we were given free drink until 12.30. After that and Mully paying because he felt badwe followed a couple to another bar and myself, Mully and Ryan (Andre had gone to bed and Holly had disappeared to another bar) met Holly again and went in search of a beach bar that stayed open all night. Arguing with a few taxi motorbikers we got a cheap price and me and Ryan jumped onto one and went to the bar which was miles out of the town. Mully and Holly didn't turn up and Ryan and me stayed in the bar till 5 and then headed home finding that the door of the room was locked and Mully wasn't answering. After about 20 minutes I went down to recpetion where my key was waiting on me and the two receptionists where asleep on the floor.

Our bus was arriving at 7 the next morning and I was awoke by Mully shouting and throwing things at me then laughing as I refused to get up. Great craic! It turned out that the night previous Mully had done what I had and hadn't asked for the key at reception and ended up staying with Holly and Andre. We got onto the bus and made our way to the city of Hue a short trip away which I slept. I had aquired a lot of blue permanent marker all over both my arms and was given the strangest looks by the two receptionists called Who (spelt phonetically) and Trang (pronounced Tra - I think) and we went up to the room to leave ff our stuff and then off looking for grub. We got bullied into a tour of the city the fllowing day and though it would be interesting enough of the old imperial city and some tombs of emperiors and a river boat tour. It was a bit boring and ovepriced as the tour didn't include any entranace fees to the sites so after that we headed back to the hotel, booked our bus for the following evening with Xuan (pronounced Song) and hit the hay. After sleeping for what felt like 18 hours we got up and checked out and randomly met Andre again. So we headed over to the markets and supermarket to get food for the bus and to learn a bit of Vietnamese from Andre includeing hello and no, for the markets.

We spent the rest of the day killing time and eating before an epic 12/13 hour bus trip to Hanoi. We jumped on another sleeper and met two crazy New Zealand girls called Tina and Kate who offered us beer and chatted for a while. Mully and I got the back seat but where aslo joined by two three other Vietnamese men which was uncomforable to say the least. We sat and watched Billy connelly on my Ipod and then tried to sleep. A bit of a long night with Mully almost killing a guy by standing on him who had got onto the bus with a backhander, along with a few others, and was sleeping on the floor below us.

We arrived this morning into Hanoi and again met Holly and Andre but not for long and headed to a hostel situated in Old Quarters in the city. We set about organising a tour of Halong Bay which will be 3 days and two nights leaving tomorrow morning. It was a cheaper tour because we couldn't afford the 125 quid one that some people where trying to sell us. But anyways thats us as up to date as possible - apologies to everyone for the lack of communication but Facebook is band in Vietnam - so I've been told - and so you can't access it very easily so only here for another few days and I should be able to get on it again in Malaysia in the airport. Think tonight might involve a city drink or two...I'll keep you all updated

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