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Published: November 29th 2015
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The bus ride from Da Lat to Nha Trang was pleasant. It was 5 hours, there were 5 people on a relatively big bus, and the views were gorgeous. We would through mountains with waterfalls coming within inches of the road. I read my book (The Stand by Stephen King), listened to podcasts, and stared out the window. When we arrived in Nha Trang, it was nightfall, and I walked a few blocks to my hostel where I was enthusiastically greeted by the entire staff!
Tintin is my favorite hostel staff member of all time. He spent the whole two days calling me "sista" and going out of his way to be helpful. I got settled into my four-bedroom door (under the bed lockers!!!) and hung out in the lobby for a bit. When Sylvan arrived we got some street food (something that looked like an empanada and was filled with some kind of meat) and sat on the beach to eat. After dinner we walked down to a craft beer place where I had passion fruit witbier. Yaaasssss. Then I went back to my hostel and slept.
The next morning, Sylvan met me at the hostel at 8:30
because we had signed up for a booze cruise. It was pouring rain. We waited, and waited, and waited, in typical Vietnam fashion for our transport to arrive. When the van came an hour later, it was full of middle-aged Chinese people. Now, I don't know how you picture a four-island booze cruise in Vietnam, but we sort of had this idea of it being sunny and full of travelers in their 20s. So when we got to the harbor, we took a taxi back to the hostel. We got coffee and hung out at the hostel for a bit. Once it stopped raining, my new roommates (2 swedish girls and an English guy), some other girls who the English guy had met on the train from Saigon, Sylvan, and I went back to the craft beer place. It was the afternoon, so we got bahn mi on the way for lunch and then had some beers and swam in the pool. The English guy (Lee) and I went in the ocean, but the waves were insane, and I was a bit afraid of the rip tide. We went back to the hostel to shower and change before going out.
I went down to the common room, which was full of guys who were all traveling by motorbike, most in pairs, but now as a group. They were 18-21 and German, Dutch, English, and Swiss. They taught me the card game they were playing, so I hung out with them for a while. TURNS OUT the 18-year-old Swiss guy went to high school in New Hampshire about 3 years ago and spent a weekend on Block Island and we have a mutual friend out there. IT'S THE SMALLEST WORLD. Some coconut wine got passed around, and drinks were had by all. We went out to the Why Not Bar and danced for a while. I was exhausted, so I went home about an hour earlier than everyone else.
I woke up the next morning around 10, but Tintin, being the best, made sure I had some breakfast. I went for a walk and got some passion fruit juice (words cannot describe how much I love passion fruit) and then sat on the beach for a while watching all the Russians get sunburns. When I got back to the hostel, Sylvan had showed up, so he and I went
with our new friends Yorick and Yan (German and Kiwi/English) to the beach. As soon as we got there, it started pouring rain. Woof. We found a beach club thing with really nice sofas and hung out for a while. When there was a break in the weather I tried to go lay out on the beach but got shooed away by the resort man. Then it started to rain again. When that storm had passed, we were set. Yorick, Yan, and I lay on the beach for a few hours trying to figure out how they could talk to Russian girls:
Yorick: How do you say hello in Russian?
Yan: Umm...AK-47?
It didn't go so well. Around 4:30 we went out for dinner (pho) and then went back to the hostel. I was getting picked up at 6:30 for my night bus to Hoi An.
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