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Published: September 8th 2010
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After about 11 hours on the overnight bus we arrived at Nha Trang. We were exhausted as the 'sleeping' bus doesn't really allow for much sleep when the driver drives like a maniac, overtaking and beeping his horn ALL through the night and the beds are definately built for the rather slighter build of Vietnamese people! Regardless, we made it in one piece and arrived at our hotel at 6am. It was closed. So we sat and had 'Lipton tea' (a big favourite in these parts) at a cafe on the pavement and waited, while the girl from the hotel next door tried to get us to check in there over and over again, telling us that the hotel owner was 'no good' and lots of other things we really couldn't understand! We ended up staying there for the next 2 nights because we got such a good deal on the room-$8.50 a night and it was a great hotel.
We got checked in and were back in bed for around 8am for a few hours sleep before we hit the beach. We had a pretty relaxed afternoon there despite the fact that every street seller seemed to think we
were going to buy from them and we got all sorts of stories about all the hard working women and lazy men-seemed to be a bit of a theme! We haad a nice relaxed couple of days at Nha Trang, though the beach wasn't as nice as we had expected-Hoi An's was nicer and we didn't really feel that the town had loads to offer. However, we did enjoy a good few half price cocktails at Crazy Kim's where they had flags from all round the world, and even a Canuck's shirt and Man City flag-we had to sign that one! We also had an amazing Indian at Omar's though in hindsight, asking for the Chicken tikka masala extra spicy was perhaps not the best idea and we certainly paid for it! The rest of the time we spent on a couple of sunbeds on the beach where we stayed away from most of the street sellers, apart from the ones offering massage or threading for our legs-yes, Darren's too! They even said they would give him 'happy hour' price!
We set off for Mui Ne on the bus on Saturday morning, an intended one night stop off on
the way to Saigon-we couldn't face the idea of another 11 or 12 hours on the bus all at once! However, we got talking to a nice couple on the bus, one from Canada and one Kiwi and ended up spending a couple of days living it up with them! We stayed at the same hotel where there was a pool right beside the sea and it was a touch of luxury a $25 a night! It really felt like a holiday though, and we had a real laugh on Sunday zipping round Mui Ne trying to find the sand dunes. We did eventually, and they were amazing to see. It was quite funny when we saw a big new mercedes jeep stuck in the sand with about 10 people trying to work out how to get it out! They didn't manage while we were there! Both nights, we all ended up heading to an amazing fresh seafood place right by the sea. There was a bunch of seats outside and each night they basically set up a bbq and arrived with a bunch of freshly caught stuff! So we had prawns and squid cooked with chili and garlic and
it is some of the best seafood we've ever had-amazing! Both nights wemanaged a night cap, the first night at Joe's, a great little bar where a Filipino guy sang songs to us in every language-from the Beetles to some Russian, Chinese and Korean songs! The next night it was $1 mojitos right on the beach. Mui Ne was a little surprise and somewhere we would definately go back to, we had lots of fun!
We set off for Saigon on Monday morning. After the noise and madness of Hanoi, we weren't really looking forward to it, but we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. Although, we probably would have been happy to get anywhere after a bus journey where we knocked over a girl on her scooter and had to stop while the driver check she was okay, and then lost our exhaust when our driver decided to break suddenly and someone ran into the back of us! The driving is so crazy over here, it's scary! We managed to have a bit of a look around Saigon, but spent the afternoon sorting out our thai visas. We want to enter over land but found out that
at the border, they will only give us a 15 day visa but at the embassy, we got a 60 day one! Plus, it was free. So we were happy campers and spent an hour or so at the night market with Darren telling nearly every vendor that he would be ack in 5 minutes to buy the t-shirt! On Tuesday, we spent about an hour getting traveller's cheques sorted. We decided that 'efficiency' definately isn't the name of the game in banking here. We also managed to find a coffee shop that was as close to Starbuck's as we've found yet! So we had to treat ourselves! We were all on the 2pm bus across the border to Phnom Penh, so we set off, $20 each in hand, keeping our fingers crossed that we didn't get scammed at the border! We made it and are now chilling at a bar in Phnom Penh, Cambodia now. We'll update you of the events of today along with Siem Reap where we are headed tomorrow.
So we wave goodbye to our new friends, Kyle and Hui tomorrow as they head south for the beach and we go on towards the temples
of Angkor Wat. It has been great to meet up with a couple and have some company along the way, and seeing as they are about to go and live in Hawaii, we might just have to go visit them!!
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Glou
non-member comment
Nice to know
Nice to read your blog, we are on a similar trip but a bit behind and finding the hidden gems in advance is really useful. We may well check out Mui Ne after reading this. We'll follow with interest. Glou