Nha Trang

Still raining....but at least, as our bus pulled into the built-up seaside resort of Nha Trang, it was warm! Next big problem was finding accomodation - turns out despite the rain its still high season in Nha trang and it took us ages to find a reasonable priced Hotel/Guesthouse that wasn't full! But as usual it was worth taking our time, got a really nice proper Hotel room with cable TV - so that should keep us entertained whilst we wait for the storms to clear! Next day we woke to the sound of silence - at last no torrential rain beating down on the window! Still pretty overcast, not beach weather, so spent the day walking around the town, the market and the beach - not all that exciting until we stumbled across our favourite "Bia hoi" sign, this time the draft beer was a little bit more expensive (18p a litre) but this was no homebrew this was genuine "San Miguel" straight from the factory just outside of town....a very tasty drop, infact we ended up rather over indulging with sore heads in the morning! So the next day we had to drag ourselves out of bed in time for our 9am boat trip around the bay - we had taken a gamble with the weather and it had paid off, the sun was shining (a little at least - still slightly cloudy)! We had heard bad reports about this boat trip, but a $6 each including snorkel hire, lunch and free red wine we had to find out for ourselves! The boat was rather old and cramped, but it did have the biggest sound system...so to the sound of the Beatles belting out at full volume we chugged our way through the bay to explore the islands surrounding Nha Trang. The day was spent sunbathing (oh yes, bring back the tan - sorry Rosie!), swimming/snorkling (not much to see down there), eating (what a feast - stuffed full & all very tasty), drinking (check out the floating bar with unlimited free "Shit house Wine" - as our barman called it), and then to top it all off some Karaoke thanks to our on-board band! It was all very tacky, but at $6 each you couldn't not have fun!! And to celebrate our day it was back to our favourite "Bia Hoi" establishment - again far too much consumed....we might be getting our tans back but I'm not sure how well its going to cover the beer belly!

And the food just kep on coming...

The Floating Bar - "free Shit house wine, tastes like vinegar mixed with sugar" - but at 16% it did the job!

The barman becomes the lead singer in our on-board band!

At last some Sun in Vietnam!

Our last day in Nha Trang we decided to spoil ourselves (with the prospect of a hurrendous night bus journey coming up we felt we deserved it)...so we spent the afternoon lounging in mineral mud baths, soaking in hot mineral spas and then chilling out by the 38 degree heated swimming pool - it was all very relaxing, but did get a little bit too hot after a while! But at least our bodies are feeling revived and as ready as they'll ever be for what promises to be the worst night bus ever (they don't seem to do proper comfy coaches over here, just hard plastic coated seats which recline about 20 degrees)! So tomorrow we will wake in Hoi An....