Train trip to Nah Trang

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Our next stop is Nha Trang, a seaside town waiting to be explored and on our journey North through Vietnam. We are undecided about whether to take the bus or the train, we are advised by some other travellers to take the night train, this appeals to Shenton, as now he keeps chanting 'Night Train' he thinks he is James Brown I hear knubnuts the clown. There are beds on thie train, when we try to book our hotel receptionist trys to convince us to take the bus. She tells us it only takes 6 hours by bus or train, in the end we settle on getting the train and leave in the afternoon, on the local train without beds, as we now believe the journey will be 6hrs, no need for beds then.

We get to the station, and as the train pulls in, the heavens open up, at first we think our receptionist has booked us on the hard seats, which are bascially wooden benches, but thankfully she hasn't and we get the soft seats which are comfortable. The train soon fills up and after a couple of stops we are surrounded by locals, a local train for local people, we are seated within the middle of one family, all ages, more than 15 of them. They have enough food to feed an army and we realise they are going to be on the train for a long time. More than 6hrs then? We have a bag of crisps, 3 beers, a bottle of water and some pastries that really are hit and miss when it comes to taste as we have no clue what they consist of, well it does proves an interesting way to eat.

We hit 6 hours on the train and no one speaks English so we can't get an answer about what time we will arrive at Nah Trang, we believed we would be there by 7pm but a guard is tells us 11pm, I didn't think this was right but it was dark and every time the train stopped we search for a sign for where we are, but nothing gives it away. Some food turns up and Shenton decideds this must be free so he says he will have some. The porters dish out the food, which does not look appertizing Shenton then realises it is not free and has to pay for it. He takes a bite and his face is a picture, this is meat he has never eaten before and we believe it is either dog, rat or snake, yum yum. After he tries to finish the food (as there is nowhere to throw it away) his stomach starts to turn, I then start barking, hissing and squeeking at him and his faces turns green. In the end the train takes over 10 hours and we end up arriving at the hotel at midnight, we were meant to be there by 8pm to guarantee our room. Thankfully they kept our room and so after a quick drink on the rooftop bar we have a good nights sleep.

Nah Trang is on the beach, with plenty to see, we decide to hire a bike for our time there. It is nowhere near as busy as Ho Chi Minh but the drivers are still as crazy and use the horn all the time. The first day we head off to find the hot springs and mud baths which we were not going to bother with but a couple we met said it was well worth it. It took a while to find and in the end, after driving up and down the same road looking for the turning, we end up doing what the locals do and head in the wrong direction back up the street to get to the correct turning. Once we made it there, it was truely worth it. First of all we were taken to a bath which was promplty filled with cool mud, we sat in this for 15 mnutes covering ourselves. Shenton decided he would put his head under the mud and completely submerge himself which was not a great idea as he has been fishing out green muddy gunk from all areas of his anatomy since. Once this was done we moved over to an area in the sun where we were told to sun bake ourselves. The mud is very silky and not thick so it kind of dries up your skin, but not in a horrid way.Next step is the high pressure showers to become "really clean" then onto more jaccuzi sytle pools which are filled with fresh hot spring water, there are then numerous pools of differing tempertaures to have a swim in and chairs to lounge around on. We only spend a few minutes doing this as we find out that we can have a massage for about $6. This we do, and is a great decision as the massage proves to be the best one of the whole trip so far (and we have had loads) The masseuse girls are fantastic, and we find out what the bar on the ceiling is for, as they walk along our backs and use their toes to massage away all the tension. Brilliant, I am so glad we decided to do this.
We also visit the local Pagoda with the sitting Buddha,a huge white Buddha seated on a lotus blossom and visible from all over the city. Around the statue's base, are fire-ringed relief busts of Thich Quang Duc and six other Buddhist monks who died in self-immolations in 1963. The platform around the 14m-high figure has great views of Nha Trang and nearby rural areas. As you approach the pagoda from the street, there are 152 stone steps up the hill to the Buddha and he is sitting there in a very big way. At the pagoda we talk to a few of the older children that live there. The monks look after numerous orphans, most are left at the pagoda as babies and grow up there, all their immediate needs are taken care of, on a practical level all appears good, on the emotive side we have our own feelings.

We have an early dinner as we missed lunch and I get a bit tipsy on half a bottle of wine so I go back to the hotel while Shenton goes out for a drink. He comes back a little agitated and tells me that he has been hit on by 2 Vietnamese men, strangely it seems everyone thinks he looks like David Beckham and even when I am around they are all trying to touch him and seem to be chatting him up. He has found a place where he is found attractive, even if it is only by the boys :-) There are not many optitions here though :-)

Our last day in Nah Trang is spent on a boat trip where we seem to be surrounded by Vietnamese people, we arrive at the dock and it is mayhem, there are large numbers of boats all heading off in the same direction as us. We soon realise that apart from two other girls we are the only westerners on the boat. It starts off well as we head out into the bay, then we make a random stop at an aquarium, we deicde not to bother and just have a chat with the two girls on the boat. When everyone is back on board we are off to do some snorkeling, the reef is lovely (if a little small) and it doesn't take too long to see all it has to offer. I get stung by a jelly fish which is not nice.

The seats on the boat are turned into a table and lunch is served, the food is not fantastic but it is edible and we only pay $7 for the whole trip so no complaints. Then the fun begins, as the plates are cleared away a drum kit and guitar appear and it is party time. We are entertained by loads of Vietnamese songs and anyone can get up and sing. Of course I am itching to have a go and as soon as he turns towards us I am up and singing a weird version of "stand by me" they didn't seem to know any country and western but I couldnt miss the chance for such a great audience. I think they liked it :-)

We all got up and danced on the boat and it was a lot of fun. The guide then said we were going to a floating bar, sounds good, he then threw a polestyrene float into the water and numerous life rings, he dives in after it and tells us he has the one drink "f...ing mingy red wine' We all dived in and got into rings to have a floating drink. I was enjoying floating off but Shenton insisted I was drifting to far away, and as he was to busy taking pictures he got one of the boat crew to jump in and rescue me. As far as I was concerened I didn't need rescuing but it was nice being pushed along anyway. The last part of the trip was a bit strange as we were taken to a concrete wharf and told we could pay to sit at this place where rows of deckchairs were laid out! Needless to say we didn't bother with this part and sat around chatting by the boat instead. This was a weekend and the locals seemed to love it, the local proverbial tourist trap, vietnamese skegness, just grand my lad.

We were meant to be leaving on the overnight train to Hue the following day but the hotel made a mistake and booked us on it for that night at 2am so our trip to Nah Trang was cut short and we didn't even set foot on the beach.

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Photos

Supplies for our train trip
1 bottle of water and three beers!

Happy English speaking Guard
Later we realise he is the only person who speaks English and we don't see him again...