I like the way you move, Love you long time

Nha Trang - Vietnam ( down the coast from Hoi An)

Weds 20 June

I woke up at the crack of dawn (still on the sleeper bus here) to the bus doing a 20 point turn on a crappy dirt road (to get onto the main road – yea the roads aint the best here).  We arrived in Nha Trang around 6.30am, got off the bus, you are immediately hounded by touts trying to get you to come to their hotels you really just want to tell them to fuck off, but we haven’t yet.  So we put on our packs and headed toward the beach to find some accommodation, after about 30 mins of walking and checking out places we found one down a driveway that we checked into, but couldn’t get into our room until 8.30, so we headed off to get breakfast, and found a place that did eggs bene, I was so excited!  

just a little excited about eggs bene

One thing I now know that they don’t do a good eggs bene I was so disappointed – well it served me right for ordering western food in asia.

After snoozing we headed to the mall, it was so shiney and deliciously air conned with a nice view of the beach.

view from the food court in the mall

I love how the man is running in the sign

yea water those gardens

tribute to budda

many of the trees are shaped in this city, its neat

We headed to the markets for dinner, and had delish spring rolls, a batty drink, grilled fish and for the first time le crocodile, tasty kinda like chicken with a more squid like texture.

le croc

Thurs 21 June

The evil children staying next door were up at the crack of dawn, so that put me in a sweet mood to start the day with.  Anywho we got picked up to go out onto our “boat cruise” for the day, our host for the day was Jak, “ I like the way you move, Love you long long long long time” he was totes batty as in nuts it was great.  So there was us 4 kiwis ( 2 chicks from our hostel) and a Spanish couple on a boat with 34 asian tourists, mostly all dressed up.  

floating houses

the marine reserve

We went to the first island which was a marine reserve, unfortunately there was rubbish everywhere, people just don’t give a shit you see them just biff their rubbish over their shoulder like it was nothing, a real shame.  But we saw some fish while we were snorkelling (note the batty old school masks they were shit).  

saweet mask and facials

you see the 2 fishies here, this type mates for life

sweet outfit right?

After the island we had a feast for lunch on the boat as we made our way around to the second stop which was a platform we tied up to where you could jetski and parasail (for a price of course) and they put out the floating bar (a dude on a rubber ring with bottles of rice wine ready to pour out) so we jumped in and floated round with a bevvy – it was so strong worked a treat.  We also got treated to a show from the men on the boat, them singing a series of songs, accompanied by a dude on a plastic drum set and an electric guitar, it carry on a bit too long it was like jeese please stop after this song, but no luck many times.

The third stop was another beach, it was a bit shit, with a layer of rubbish floating out where you wanted to swim so we just bathed on the beach for an hour.  Ell seems to be the favoured here, he always gets touched my asian men, prime example was on this beach when I went to the toilet a guy came and sat right next to him had a chat then shook his hand while someone took a photo, and then another guy came up and shook his had.  Hes getting a bit creeped out by all the touching its hilarious.

Our last stop was an island with the aquarium on it, in the SHAPE OF A SHIP, I had very high hopes for it once I saw the exterior, but unfortunately the tanks were really boring for the poor fishies and co in them, they had nothing in them just the walls of glass and one batty textured wall, pretty stink really.

Hoi An you so pretty

Sat 16 June

We went back via tuktuk to Siem Reap's pretty pretty airport (still the prettiest to date), we flew Silk Air into Vietnam – it was sweet we got a water, an orange juice and cinnamon bun thing!  We had got an e-visa so we had to go to a hole in the wall at the Da nang airport just by immigration to get out special sticker in our passports, so we could get through – the guy doing the stamping was not the friendliest of chaps – they never seem to be.  From there we had a taxi ride into Hoi An, the taxi man had a bit of trouble finding our hotel that was a pain in the ass all I wanted to do was have a shower and feast.  Sunshine Hotel (cheese much) was the bomb, it was built this year and was well flash and had a pool, we were pretty stoked with it.

Sun 17 June

Jumped on our little bycicles and rode into town today. We perused the streets, saw an interesting site, a toddler came out onto the street pulled down her pants and went for a pee, it was hilarious.  People love to toot here, seriously all you hear it tooting whilst out near the roads. 

Hoi An is a beautiful place, in the center of town is the old French influenced buildings, it was so much fun checking everything out.

 

For lunch we had the 3 famous dishes famous in Hoi An, Fried Wontons, White Rose and Cau Lau – which is now my favourite asian dish – unfortunately we have not found it outside of Hoi An, cry.

fried wontons

white rose

partially destroyed cau lau

Being the city of tailors and shoe makers, we had to indulge, I got some shoes made for me.  There are so many shops around with all the clothes on display and all the shoes they can make, “Lady you want shoe?”

extreme biking

So the beach was 1km away according to the lady at the desk, sweet so we were off on the bikes, following her directions – either she meant to 10km or we missed the turn off,  we peddled for ages past heaps of paddy fields which was cool to see people working in them.  

Finally got to the beach and then we had to pay to park our bikes! What a gip. The beach was littered with batty palm tree umbrellas and loungers you could hire to sit on , and rubber rings (asians aren’t that flash at swimming).  

look at all the boobies

batty boats they use a special paddling technique

We went for a swim I got that darkest looks from these 2 asian teenage girls near us as I walked into the water in god forbid a bikini, then in turn they went swimming with their boyfriends fully clothes ( long sleeved tops and jeans) – and I’m the weirdo? Nuts.

this cow did not give a shit, cars just swerved around him

bought 3 of these bad boys

Mon 18 June

While we were waiting for me to have my shoe fitting, we cruised around and ell saw a jacket on display he liked, so we got that sized up, then oh I found a jacket I liked, got that sized up too, and then of course ell needed some jeans too.

Spent the rest of the day chilling out, then headed back into town to get our clothes fitted and then I had to order another jacket because the first one was so good…

Tues 19 June

the sneaky ladies that punked me

Today whilst tootling around waiting to pick up our clothes, I’m cycling along side the river, pausing to take some pics of a building when these 2 old ladies in canoes go to “ photo photo”, I’m thinking ok that’s strange they want a photo taken but ok, so took a picture, THEN they say “money money” oh those sneaky sneaky ladies totally punked me! However I just said no a peddled my ass away from them.

The Japanese Bridge

the houses are really slim in vietnam

We checked out and hung out by the pool until 5pm when we got a taxi to the bus station to get the sleeper bus (12 hours) to Nha Trang (south).  What an experience this was going to be, we got into the back of the bus and shared the back with 2 American chicks.  You have a chair that is on the floor that is capable of reclining.  It was ok but because I was sunburnt I had to keep peeling my carcuss off the seat was kinda gross.  I would describe the trip as hopping on the Goldrush ride at Rainbows end and thinking oh I’ll have a nap now!, it was a bumpy ride.

sunset leaving Hoi An on the sleeper bus