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Last proper update left off with us wondering what to
do next with a huge typhoon about to hit the south
coast. As soon as I sent the email we found out that
it had ALREADY hit the mainland and in an area where
we had been visiting that same day! I think the death
toll stands at something like 83 people and caused
$200 million of damage, which is pretty rough given
that it is unlikely that anyone has an insurance
policy to fall back on. And you can forget the
communist government helping out either.
Well, we hoped that given the storm had passed we
should head on up the coast to the seaside city of Nha
Trang. We spent one more day in Saigon to soak up the
great atmosphere and arrange transport and on Friday
night we caught the overnight bus (11 hours -
$5/75,000 Vietnamese Dong each). The journey was
painful. Trying to sleep on a bus is bad enough but
the driving was BAD, suicidal even by asian standards!
Still, we arrived at a reasonable hour at 6.30am and
after a half hour or so of butching out the hard sell
by the bus company to stay in the hotel they would get
commission from we finally got to the town centre.
Really don't begrudge the men trying to get us to stay
in a "recommended" hotel. The bus fare is so crazy
cheap that it is the only way they can make some extra
money, so it's fair enough. We donned our increasingly
streamlined bags and marched off to get some breakfast
and find a cheap hotel, which is easily said than done
because there a billions of 3* hotels by the sea front
at $25 a night and not much else, which in any other
circumstance would be cheap as chips but we must be
strict after out blow out on wine and French food in
Saigon!!! Besides, there wasn't much incentive for a
view because it was still moodily overcast and the
waves were angry and the sea a dark purple. Clearly we
wen't going to be snorkelling or diving or bumming on
the beach (which was strewn with rubbish) here as
planned...
Nevertheless we amused ourselves as we could and got
more and more frustrated with the CONSTANT hassle of
the locals trying to scam you or flog you something or
the vulnerable used to elicit some sympathy money. In
Saigon it didn't seem so obvious. Ok, so there was a
constant stream of people selling books, bracelets,
etc if you sat in one of the bars or restaurants but
it didn't take long for that to become part of the
landscape. Here, in Nha Trang, with fewer tourists
than usual there was an added edge or urgency which
just became very, very tiring. It really got us down
and we were very negative - about the people and the
weather and the food (which, although I am in the
process of revising through concerted effort, is none
too special after the gastronomy and variety of Thai
cuisine!). Having searched through the book, I
suggested we head to somewhere quieter, another beach
further north called Dai Lanh which had zero tourism,
just ramshakle bungalows on the beach and a whole lot
of nothing but lovely beach. Surely the bloody touts
couldn't get us there, eh?
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