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Published: July 26th 2006
This trip is shaping up to be very strange indeed!
Arrived in Nha Trang at about 8.30pm. The journey was slow going but the bus was quite empty so it was a reasonably comfortable ride. We immediately set about finding a room, but due to there being a Vietnamese national holiday on everywhere was fully booked. After traipsing around for about an hour we finally found a place.
Nha Trang is a lot larger than I was expecting. It is a very busy seaside town and is very popular among Westerners and Vietnamese alike. Because of this it is very touristy and to be honest not my kind of place. The beach itself is lovely, but unfortunately the sea is very cold so we didn’t do much swimming ( I know, what a pansy!). In fact, we didn’t really do anything at all except enjoy the nightlife - which is one thing Nha Trang does do well.
We knew that Sim, Jens, Eleanor and Doireann were here somewhere so we set about trying to find them. We drank half a bottle of vodka in the room and made what at the time seemed like a failsafe plan for
splitting up, finding the Belgians and the ladies, then meeting up again afterwards. We synchronised wathces and arranged to meet at the girls' hotel in around 15 minutes. 2 hours, lots of running around like a headless chicken and numerous notes left at various hotels later, I had the Belgians, the girls, but no James!! He eventually arrived after being cornered in a bar by a crazy girl from Coral Bungalows.
Spent the night in a bar called Crazy Kims that is supposed to be a lively night time haunt. They give out silly hats to all their customers so we felt quite at home with our Nemos on! Also, to our delight we found out that you can buy buckets here in Vietnam (waheeeey!!!). We got very drunk, watched what was probably the worst wet t-shirt competition I have ever seen, then finally made our way back to the hotel at about 3am. On the way home we had a bit of a scare. A moped with 3 girls on pulled up beside us, the girls got off and started walking along surrounding me, one hand on my tackle and the other trying to get in my pocket
to fish for money! All this time they were motioning their hands to their mouths and saying “I suck you! I suck you!” I felt raped! They didn’t manage to get anything from us, but if we were any more drunk we may not have been so lucky! The most worrying thing was however that I spoke to Deano the next day who told me that it had happened to him and they were lady boys! I thought they were women! Could have been dangerous!
Woke up and went down to the beach to see who was around. Bumped into Deano and had a chat about what there is to do in Nha Trang. One thing that comes highly recommended is a boat trip around the surrounding islands. The problem with this is that it is basically a booze cruise and we had done far too much drinking already! A guy walked by while we were discussing it, overheard and began to talk to us about the deal that he could offer. It started off as a basic boat trip around the islands for a day. As it progressed, he offered a free taxi to the harbour, then free
Group
Left to right: Mr. Hiep, Me, Mysterious Tash-Wielding Friendsnorkeling gear then free beer. We took it so far that the guy ended up also offering all the girls boyfriends and the guys girlfriends for the day! It is unbelievable what your money can buy you over here!
Whilst on the beach Deano showed us a flyer for a bar called the Zippo Bar later that evening. The star attraction (and I quote) was:
"Vinh - one armed guitar player playing like nobody else" (!!!).
We just couldn't pass that up! We made our way down there and this guy was an absolute legend! He played by using his first finger to strum whilst forming the chords with his 2nd - 4th fingers. Amazing to watch, and genuinely good music too! Afterwards we moved on to a full moon party at a place called the sailing club. By this time I was happily drunk due to the free top-ups of vodka the barman was giving me to celebrate his birthday, so the rest of the night was a bit of a blur!
The next couple of days were pretty much wasted due to a bastard of a hangover and general laziness. We woke up on
the morning of the 17th, found out what the date was and shat ourselves as we realised that we only had 10 days left to travel the rest of the coast! The luxuries of air conditioning and cable TV are a death trap if you're on a tight schedule.
Annoyed that we wasted so much time here doing nothing, we decided to book up a bike tour around the surrounding countryside with the 'Easy Riders'. The Easy Riders have become quite well renowned along the coast of Vietnam. They are a group of freelance Vietnamese guides on motorbikes who offer tours to the surrounding countryside of the towns they cover. They generally stick to their own area, but many of them also offer to take you all the way up the coast, staying with friends of their family overnight and taking you to remote places along the way. We would have loved to do this as it is the most genuine experience of Vietnam, but they ask for about $50 a day so well out of our budget unfortunately.
We met our drivers the next morning - Mr. Hiep and his Mysterious Tash-Wielding Friend. We set off at
10am through the town then out onto the open road. We traveled through rice paddies, remote villages, through valleys banked with mountains that were lined with banana trees. It really was the best way to see the countryside. Breathing the air, hearing the sounds, the wind blowing through what little hair I have!
After an exciting, but safe journey we arrived at Yangbay Waterfall and stopped for a snack. We had noticed by this point that both riders seemed to be swigging out of a suspicious looking plastic bottle containing a yellow liquid. Hmmmmm. Yangbay was a very beautiful place, and due to the hot weather and a serious case of sweaty arse, we donned our swimming trunks and went for a dip. The water was pretty damn cold, but seriously refreshing. At this point Mr. Hiep's Tash-Wielding Friend wanted to show us a rock that we could jump off. He climbed to the top (about 3 metres high) and proceeded to dive in. Unfortunately his diving wasn't quite international standard and ended in one of the most exquisite belly-flops that I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing - hilarious!
We then moved on to a bear
Tash Wielding Friend
(with suspicious looking drink) enclosure. Unfortunately the bears were not out and about, they were all locked up in their cages. I'm not sure how long they are left in there but it looked horrible. There was barely enough room for them to move! I think that it was just for a short while in order for the staff to perform maintenance. The crazy thing was that the cages were right on the roadside and there was no fence, or in fact anything at all to stop you sticking your fingers though the cage and having them bitten off! Health and safety really isn't top of the priority list over here!
Just round the corner from the bears was a crocodile farm. There were literally thousands of crocs here, ranging from babies all the way up to 2 metre big bastards! I was walking along the path, with nothing but a rather flimsy looking wire fence separating me from some large crocodiles and all of a sudden one of them jumped out of its pool and ran directly for me! Needless to say that I needed a change of underwear after that little incident!
After a bit of a white knuckle ride
that involved weaving in and out of traffic, overtaking on the inside and narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic and roaming livestock we arrived at the Sitting Buddha and Reclining Buddha. Quite interesting, but only really stayed to take a couple of snaps. We've seen so many Buddhas over the past 3 months!
Last stop was the Cham Towers. These towers were originally built between the 7th and 12th centuries and serve as a Holy See in honour of Yang Ino Po Nagar. She was the goddess worshipped by the Dua (Liu) Clan who ruled the southern past of the Cham Kingdom. It was a very interesting site with a lot of heritage and it also offers great views of the harbour.
Said our goodbyes to our easy (and judging by the fact that the mysterious bottle was empty, probably a bit wobbly) riding friends and caught our bus to Hoi An.
I really would recommend the Easy Riders Tours. It's a great way to take in the surroundings, the riders are really knowledgable, not to mention very entertaining! The tour for the day cost $10 which is more than what you would pay for a bus tour, but
your paying for the one-on-one service. For example, if you want to stop to take a picture, all you need to do is tap your guy on the shoulder. Or if there is a certain place you would like to go, just let him know and he will happily take you there.
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mum
non-member comment
Sounds great - as ever - love the baby crocs!!! xxxxxxmum