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Published: March 8th 2007
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Christmas was fast approaching and after experiencing so much rain in Vietnam we were determined to have a bit of sun over the festive period and left Hoi Ann and headed south for Nha Trang. We splashed out on another flight (yey!!!) to save ourselves the torture of another 12 hour bus journey during the night.
We'd heard good reports from other travellers about Nha Trang, the opinion was that it was a nice beach resort and a good place to spend xmas as their was some decent nightlife to be found here (no mean feat in Vietnam!). They were certainly right on every account. Nha Trang turned out to be a really nice place, it reminded me of a mediteranean beach resort and best of all there was no more rain, the weather was nice!
We spent xmas eve at a mud bath and mineral spa and had a good old soak in the mud and hot baths and had a bit of a sunbathe by the pool too....nice way to spend xmas eve, eh! One of the funniest things about Asia is their use of English on signs, food, posters, etc, as usually it makes no sense!
For example, the mud baths we visited were "Funny and integrating as soaking collective mud!". That's clear as mud then!!!!
We woke up nice and early on xmas day and got down to business, opening our pressies! In the absence of xmas stockings Tina hand decorated plastic bags with our names and stuck cotton wool on in the stylee of a snow scene! Obviously we couldn't afford to buy lots of presents for each other so we agreed that we would buy each other one joke and one nice present each, because it wouldn't have been Christmas if we didn't have pressies to open! After the hilarious present opening it was time for brekky. We'd treated ourselves to a 'big xmas' shop and bought loads of goodies. Breakfast consisted of champagne, Special K (a TOTAL luxury in Vietnam), all sorts of cheeses, ham, crisps, crackers, chocolate and FERRERO ROCHE's!! After eating as much as humanly possible we headed to the beach, still wearing our Santa hats of course, and chilled out for a few hours drinking champers and listening to tunes. After a few hours on the beach we headed back to our pad to get ready to go
out and find some traditional xmas dinner. I have to admit that I wasn't holding out much hope that it would be any good but it turned out to be absolutley yummy! Turkey, stubbing, chipolata's, mashed potatoe and veggies, it wasn't as good as mammy Corcoran's (that would take some doing) but it wasn't at all bad and certainly done the job! After dinner it was time to party and we hit the bars. After a few vodka's it was time for the event we'd all been waiting for................. a silly string fight! We were each armed with a can of silly string and basically had to spray as much as possible on everyone else whilst avoiding being 'stringed' ourselves! Oh, hours of fun was had by all! We partied the night away in the local night spot, The Sailing Club, and when that closed we headed off to the beach and carried on the party. Xmas day blurred into boxing day and it all got a bit messy. It certainly was a memorable Christmas and I had an awesome time and as Cilla says, a lorra laughs!!!
We had decided to spend New Year in Ho Chi Minh
City (Saigon) and we still had a lot of distance to cover so we hit the road again and spent a few days in Mui Ne between Xmas and New Year. Mui Ne is renowned for it's beautiful beaches and a coast line which stretches for miles. We arrived during low season so it was very quiet but the beaches were beautiful and the weather was great and we stayed in a small beach hut right on the beach, literally! You could step straight onto the beach as soon as you opened your door.....nice! We spent a few days here doing nothing more strenuous than sunbathing and then it was time to leave for Saigon, the capital of Vietnam, for NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!
We arrived in Saigon by bus (quelle surprise!) and arrived in the evening the day before New Years Eve. So far on our travels we have never booked accomodation in advance. We just turned up in a city and checked out what was available and had never had any problems but Saigon was a bit of a different story. It turned out that all the main backpacker places were fully booked as it was New Years (perhaps
we should have thought of that?!?!) and after much fruitless searching our accomodation prospects weren't looking good. Luck was on our side though and after about 2 hours we found a place about a 10 minute walk away from the main bar area so all turned out well in the end!
Saigon turned out to be my favourite Asian city. It was very western with many upscale hotels, bars, restaurants and great shops but it was still very much Vietnam, with street vendors, little cafes, mopeheads and all that Asian jazz! We spent New Years Eve exploring the city and then headed back to get ready for the evenings festivities. Despite our best intentions we didn't actually make it out till about 9, well, what can you really expect when 4 girls are trying to get ready in one room whilst trying to down a bottle of vodka?!?! We headed into town, stopping off at a streetside cafe for some food to line the old stomach before the binge drinking began! There was a great New Years Eve atmosphere all around the city and after stopping along the way to chat and drink with locals and have a few
pictures taken, we made it to the bar and were in high spirits indeed. We bumped into lots of travelelrs that we'd met previously and the partying began in earnest. We went to a street party for midnight and after 12 o clock struck we spent at least an hour shaking everyone's hand and wishing them Happy New Year, and when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE!!! It was great fun. After numerous drunken phonecalls home, with everyone speaking to each others parents, boyfriends, dogs, we proceeded onto the next bar, picking up some new local best friends along the way and starting the Conga off in the bar when we arrived! The night continued and before we knew it it was daylight and where else would we go at 6am in the morning but an all night bar!!! I'm afraid I can't remember much after this point apart from the fact I got home about 8pm on New Years. Despite my mysterious amnesia I'm pretty sure we had a FABULOUS time!!
After we'd recovered from the craziness of the festive period we got down to some serious sightseeing, with Emily and I staying an extra day in the
city whilst Tina and Lucy travelled on to Cambodia, where we would meet them later.
Whilst in Saigon I visited the War Remnants Musuem which as you can imagine was very sad and pretty thought provoking. I also visited the Re-unification Palace which was really interesting as everything has been left untouched since the Peace treaty was signed to end the Vietnamese war and we also took a cyclo ride around the city and managed to fit in the zoo as well.
Sadly it was soon time to say Sianara and move onto our next country.....................Cambodia!
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