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We ended the last blog with us heading out for a night out in Nha Trang. It turned into a really fun night, mainly helped by the insanely strong cocktail buckets and glasses of vodka with a tiny amount of Pepsi on top. We met lots of random people and played pool increasingly badly. It was fun though and very cheap, the happy ‘hour’ ran from 4 till 11! Ended up being quite a drunken and late night and somehow managed to stumble back to the hotel. The next day we went to the beach (a little bit hungover) and relaxed in the sun and sea. The beach is Nha Trang’s main attraction and is very nice with lovely clear water spanning more than the whole length of the town. This is however pretty much all there is to do in Nha Trang, it lacks any sort of character and atmosphere that we have loved about every other place in Vietnam. It could be anywhere else in the world when you are drunk in a bar or lying on the beach.
We had another day planned for Nha Trang so trying to make the most of it we booked a
boat trip - there was nothing else to do. The trip promised many things but failed to deliver on most. It was sold as a nice trip around four islands seeing local sights including snorkelling on a coral reef, visiting a fishing village, a private beach and a aquarium. We were told the snorkelling wasn’t very good (I didn’t do it) and the area where we were swimming was horribly polluted. We never saw a fishing village, the private beach was horrible and by far the worst beach we have seen on the trip and we didn’t bother with the aquarium as everything else was so bad and it was expensive. It was a bit of a booze cruise though, the man in charge called himself Funky Monkey and attempted us to part with as much money as possible for beer. In the middle of the day after a nice meal was the most bizarre few hours we have encountered on the trip. Funky Monkey and the kitchen staff bought out a guitar and homemade drums and started the Funky Monkey boyband, playing cheesy songs from different countries. They dragged passengers up to do duets (thankfully not us) and then
turned all the seats into a dance floor. It was so unbelievably random but actually a lot of fun. We then got told it was Happy Hour where all Funky Monkey cocktails were free at the floating bar. I envisioned sitting on a bar floating in the sea sipping a pina colada but actually turned out to be a man who called himself homosexual sat in a rubber ring in the sea serving possibly the most disgusting and most alcoholic drink ever. We all sat in rubber rings trying to hold on to the “bar” to avoid floating away by the current and attempting to drink but mostly ending up with a mouthful of sea water. Was actually really funny and we were with a good group of people so had a lot of fun. In the evening we visited the Louisiana Brew House which brewed its own beer on site. It was a bit pricy so just tried a taster of a few of the beers which were all very tasty - not as good as decent real ale though. We had another great meal and went back for an early night as we had an early morning bus
to Dalat.
For the first time we were happy to leave and very excited about Dalat. The bus journey was breathtaking as we made our way inland through the mountains. The weather wasn’t great but this added to the views as we drove up through the clouds looking out across huge valleys and the beautiful landscapes. We arrived in heavy rain but found a great hotel very quickly, the room is huge and has two double beds. It was very refreshing for it to be raining and quite chilly, after all the scorching hot weather we have had it was lovely to be somewhere cool. When there was a break in the weather we set out for a wander around the town. It started to rain again so we dived into the first café we saw. It turned out to be a great few hours. The owner was great and kept topping up our free green tea whilst getting very excited about ‘the worst crashes ever’ or something like that being shown on the TV. Then the café got very busy and everyone started playing bingo! It was brilliant, they used old bits of sweet corn as markers and
seemed to be betting big bucks on each game. Was very random to be on the other side of the world but still see something so familiar to home.
The next day we booked a tour of the surrounding area. There isn’t many sights in the city centre and the terrain makes it difficult to walk too far. The tour turned out great and we got to see lots of things. We visited a flower farm, coffee plantation, rice wine distillery and a silkworm factory. We then went to the elephant waterfall which we walked down a very wet and dangerous path to the bottom before visiting the pagoda with a huge happy Buddha. Before lunch we went to a cricket farm, it was a bit odd but we got to eat crickets which are very nice especially with a bit of chilli sauce, even Claire tried one! After lunch we visited the crazy house. It was exactly as it says in the tin - crazy. It looks like its coming out of the ground like a huge tree. The walls curve and go off at odd angles, stairways appear from nowhere and wind through and round the bizarre
building and the rooms (which can be hired for the night) are full of bizarre creatures and cubby holes. Its all together a very strange place and a brilliant peace of architecture. The trip ended with a visit to an embroidery centre which was impressive but also very dull. It was a very busy day but also very interesting and good value for money and I’ll definitely be having crickets again!
On our last day in Dalat we rented a bike and headed off to see even more sights. These were a bit closer than the previous day but still too far to walk or bicycle. The roads were harder to drive and not as much fun as previous bike trips where we drove down smooth, wide, sweeping roads. We did however see lots. We went to another (not as impressive) waterfall, a nice lake and the old railway station. The last place was perhaps the strangest but also the most fun. It is called the valley of love and set out over a beautiful valley with a lake at the bottom. Unfortunately they have decided to cover the landscape with random tacky hearts and statues but was pretty
funny. Also ‘Cowboys’ try and sell you a romantic horse trip and just added to the strange nature of the place. Very, very odd but we had fun taking some cheesy photos.
Dalat was very different to any other place we had visited in Vietnam but not in a bad way. The climate was much more bearable even though we didn’t have too much rain after the first day and the surrounding countryside was breathtaking. The steep hills and valleys were covered in untouched forests and the air much cleaner and fresher than in the cities. It was a bigger town than we expected but that didn’t take anything away from it. There was a busy market which ran all day and long into the night selling all sorts off different foods most of which we had know idea what they were. We will miss it here but we both looked forward to relaxing on the beach in Mui Ne.
We arrived in Mui Ne yesterday, it is awesome but will write all about it in the next blog. We are having a unbelievable time and determined to make the most of our last week in Vietnam. Thanks
for all the lovely comments, we are missing you all loads!! Lots of love xxx
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Ali
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Hi, hope you are both well, its been great reading your blogs. it looks like you are having a fantastic time!! Keep them up!! Have a great relaxing time at the beach, look forward to reading all about it. Take care Ali, Ray, Liv , Jack and Will xxx