Cold, wet and oh so miserable.

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We are currently sitting at our rooftop bar of our hotel in Nha Trang where the outlook is of countless hotels with a mix of pain in the arse type rain. Rach and I left you at our last day and since then we have been on many 'interesting' adventures.

On Saturday we were picked up from our gorgeous little hotel and began our LONG drive to the Mekong Delta. The drive was nice but our company(tourists) was not. On the way we drove through various little towns and rice paddy fields. We arrived at Cai Be and hopped onto a motorised boat where we were taken up the river to look at the floating markets to see how the local people exchange various items such as fruit and vegetables. We were then taken ashore to some hand-made family business stores where we watched them make products such as the coconut candy mill, crispy rice popcorn, rice wine (we tasted this) and rice paper. We then made our way to a small honey farm where we tasted Honey Tea and Bee Pollen before climbing back aboard our boat and further onto a series of small canals. For lunch we stopped at a small family farm where we were served Lemongrass Chicken and Rice.

After our food had settled we decided to explore the small town by bike, cycling through streets and over small bridges. Was definetely an eyeopening experience. Our guide soon ushered us onto small row boats where our TINY little lady rowed us up a VERY small canal before once again boarding our boat. We arrived back at the mainland a short time later where we explored the local market where we sighted interesting delacacies. Not long after we hopped back onto the bus for the tedious ride home.

After our drive home we needed a little time to relax so we decided to go to our favourite beauty salon and were given a manicure and pedicure for a grand total of $4 each. Defintely worth the wait.



We decided to start the next day a little later with a "half" (8:00-3:00) day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Our tour guide, Po, was great. On the way to the tunnels we visited a handicapped artist workshop. Where they made all these amazing items such as bowls, paintings, vases and much much more!! While on the bus Po gave us a little background knowledge on the Tunnels. Soon after we arrived at the Tunnels we were given a 'lesson' on the location and use of the tunnels. We were shown the various traps that were used to capture animals, Americans and opposing soldiers. As well as recycled materials used. Rach then tried her luck at squeezing down a VERY narrow hole which lead to a tunnel. Soon after we had a short break where people were given the opportunity to shoot rifles and various other guns for $1 a bullet. We decided to pass and have lunch instead. The noise was enough to put you off. After lunch we were FINALLY given the opportunity to crawl through 100m of one of the many tunnels that they used during the time of war. We were told that the tunnels have sinced been made twice as wide for us FAT white people. Soon after we departed and made our way back to Ho Chi Minh City.

After packing our bags and checking out of our hotel, in preparation for our night train ride to Nha Trang, we decided to head back to the craziness of Ben Thah Markets to purchase a very more things that we had seen during our previous visit as well as exploring further down town.


We made it back to our hotel at about 8:30pm and awaited our transfer to the train station. While waiting we met a family from Brisbane who filled us in on some fantastic tips for travel ahead.

Finally we made it onto the train where we staying in a 4 berth cabin with another Brazillian couple. Neither Rach or Katie got much sleep but before long (8 hrs) we had made it to Nha Trang. As we hopped off the train we were haggeled by taxi drivers for transfers to our hotel. We finally agreed on one man who wanted us to pay 1USD or 50,000 Dong (1USD equals 20,000 Dong), we don't think he had much idea of the exchange rate so we opted for the 1USD option. We were able to check into our hotel when we arrived (6am) so we decided to catch up on some sleep before having some brekky.

As the day was overcast and quite windy we decided to cancel our snorkelling trip and opted for a visit to the Mud Baths. Great choice as we relaxed for a couple of hours in the mud and mineral pools, feeling completely revitalised. Once we got back to our hotel we went for a walk along the main road in search for a place for dinner which had been recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide. Big mistake, the food was bland and many of the items on the menu were not available. We slowly walked back to our hotel in the rain before getting some delicious Fanny Icecream to replace our dissapointing dinner and slept soundly for many hours.

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Comments

[Bev]

You sure write a good story Katie. Should teach English class!!!