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Published: October 16th 2006
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Nha Trang
Nunny dons the snorkelling gear We leave the mountains and head back to the coast. The next stop on our "Open Ticket" (allowing us to travel on buses up and down the country) is Nha Trang.
Many backpackers seem to get stuck here for a fair while - god knows why. We have noticed though that most of these people seem to come from the colder climates of the UK, and Nordic nations and one can only assume they've not encountered a decent beach yet. That or they just get swept up in the whole mini-gold coast feel of overpriced water sports and a thousand diving companies all trying to get business out of the small foreign market.
Yes, admittedly I seem to be giving Nha Trang a bit of a ribbing, but the mainland itself did not grab our attention; the surrounding islands mind you are another story altogether.
So we arrive and check into the nearest hotel (after the dodgy one that the bus driver drops you at that is obviously giving commission to the bus company) and as it is pretty hot we 'hit the beach'.
The water is expectantly flat and due to the typhoon (we're assuming) there
Nha Trang
The tourist go snorkelling was a plethera of rubbish floating in the water for us to play with. We ended up choosing a rubber thong to throw at one another while we waited for the hawkers on the sand to go away. Alas there patience is greater than ours and we shortly got bored of the thong game and exited the watery sanctuary to be offered everything from fresh lobster to pedicures and hair removal.
Safe in the knowledge though that we literally had no money on us - safety precaution from all the theft stories we heard occurring in this area - we could look them straight in the eye and claim: "Sorry, no money."
We skipped the visit to the hot mud springs and opted for a local foot massage instead which was in a respectable establishment that just seemed to have countless private rooms and women in very short skirts. hmmmm. It was satistfying enough. As you can imagine they were very impressed with Andrew's BIG FEET and gave me a number of knowing winks and giggles. They weren't so impressed with the miniscule tip they had to haggle out of us. Good thing we had some kip from
Nha Trang
The spread for lunch on the boat Loas still on us - pity it's essentially worthless.
DAY TWO - 7th October
Today we hit the islands on an entertaining boat tour that visits 4 islands and plays loud music and has karaoke all day. I have to say, it was pretty fun.
Our boat load was chockas with ourselves and two english birds (disguising themselves as being Welsh!!??) being 4 of the only 8 western visitors (NZ, Canada and Brazil) while the other 30 were crazy Koreans. chinese and Vietnamese who were all letting their hair down in celebration of their respective National holidays. Absolutely hilarious.
The first island, Tan Mut (pronounced muutt) we stopped for some good ol' fashioned snorkelling and I have to say we were all super impressed by the amount of fish and coral here. SOOOOO much better than what we've seen in Thailand, and easily competes with the parts of the Great Barrier we've seen also.
The usual shenanigans followed; people jumping from the top of the boat then progressed into fancy dives, pikes and backflips; others just wallowed in the water with safety devices on; while the remaining danced away to the mix tape provided by the
Nha Trang
Ricko the crowd pleaser boat company - a mixture of Vietnamese dance tracks and Dire Straits.
We board again to visit another island where we enjoy a massive feast of seafood and salads, accompanied by the selection that the onboard bar had to offer. Following lunch was a heavy session of live music brought to you by the crew where they sang all time favourites like "No. 4 boat trip" (the name of the boat) and yellow submarine etc. After a rousing performance that had many of us on the makeshift dancefloor (formerlyu our dinner table, they fired up some karaoke (where were you Mont?) where Andrew took the boat by storm with a fairly tuneless rendition of "Land Down Under" where he could only remember 1 verse before singing the chorus repeatedly. (Editors note: the back up band were a few keys flat, and a couple of beers had been consumed, ) Despite this he did receive a hat for his troubles and a raptuous applause.
After the crowd had settled down, they launched a "floating bar" (basically a life saving ring with a milk crate full of Dalat Red Mulberry Wine (a cross between goon and
Nha Trang
The floating bar kicks off sherry) while we all dived off the side of the boat to flock around it for plastic cups (and laybacks for the ladies) of this sickly sweet red. MMM...
Back on board after a bit more diving off the boat and we were back on the water so to speak. Chugging our way onto the next island - the names of which I'd given up on by now. Here we docked and clambered onshore for a host of activities including parasailing, sunbaking, and beach volleyball (which we opted for). The brave welsh (Oxford) girls took off into the skies but alas our budget didn't allow for it.
Back on the boat again and we moved on to the next island, heckling other boats as we passed on the sound system - funnily they'd given us the mike... mwahahahaha. The island hosted an aquarium full of massive fish sharks, turtles, eels and rays. Nunny got her picture as the little mermaid. While Richards was the resident photographer for her and a host of Vietnamese families.
Back to Nha Trang port and we were zipped into town in just enough time to scoff some pizza with the Welsh girls
Nha Trang
A big fish before jumping on the bus. Nha Trang - Short but sweet.
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Uncle Chop Chop
Monty King
Where was I indeed?
A tuneless rendition of Down Under? how unaustralian!!!! And just to keep you interested Chucka, I'm off to your spiritual home today!!!! Hope to see a leprechaun or 3!