Mui Ne to Nha Trang

Our last morning at Mui Ne and we were sad to say goodby e to the peace and relaxaton but glad to be moving on. One last dip in the pool and a couple if Pascals cakes later we were on a sleeper bus to Nha Trang, finally arriving at 2.15 (only an hour and 15 mins late!) The usual karaoke videos were blarring out of course though and the constant beeping from the driver meant that a sleeper bus in Vietnam can never actually serve as a bus to sleep on!

We arrived in Nha Trang at about 7.15pm so it was really dark and we got the usual hastle from locals trying to get us to go to their hotels. Even if they were luxury 5 star hotels for $5 a night we would still say 'no thank you' as they can be so pushy and all you want to be able to do after a long bus ride is get off and get your bearings. We had a place in mind that we wanted to stay and headed there on foot. The Nhi Hang Hotel was down a tiny little alley facing the beach and the staff were so friendly we immediately thought they must be compensating for the state of the rooms! But we were pleasently suprised as we got TV, hot water, 2 huge double beds, a fridge and free internet for $8 a night so we were happy.

We stumbled across a little restaurant called Cylco Bar for dinner where I ordered a chicken surry and it came in a whole coconut set on fire before heading to a bar called Shorty's for a few games of pool. Understandably, Lee seems to be going off backgammon and needs a few games of pool to feel better himself again!

Nha Trang

After a welcome lie in we wandered out in our beach wear, wondering why the old lady on reception was laughing at us on our way out. We soon realised why as it was pouring down with rain and cold! We ran back to get changed with the old lady laughing laughing even harder and ventured back out. The weater was misreable put the beach gave us brilliant views of the islands thaht people come here to go and visit and everywhere seemed really clean and nice. After all the horror stories we had heard about Nha Trang's picpockets, rubbish and prostitutes we were pleasently suprised (although the bad weather could just be keeping everything away)! IT was a shame the weather was so bad and there seems to be a lot to do here but we just hopped from shop to shop until lunch time and then bar hopped to 'Crazy Kims' for some pool.

As much as we would love to stay and hope the weather picks up enough to do one of the boat trips to the nearby islands, we made the decision to move on again so booked the bus to Hoi An for tomorrow at 7.30pm. We're holding out for a sleeper bus necuase we have had them on all our short journeys so far so fingers crossed!

Pho Cali for dinner, where we got a great set menu for 30,000 VND (about $2 each) with fresh fish, stir fried vegetables, shrimp soup and spicy rice. Went to a few more bars as there is nothing else to do in Nha Trang when the weather is bad where Lee sat in a dark corner rubbing a stain off his beige pants over his crotch for ages before realising that all the bar staff and people opposite were pointing at him!

Last day in Nha Trang

We set the alarm early to get up and see if the weather had improved enough to slip in a boat trip before we leave. Instead we slept through the alarm until 10.30, our latest lie in yet! we were glad though because once we were finally up and about it was raining really hard and was generally miserable. After breakfast and some more aimless wandering and pool we headed back to make use of the free internet. The whole place was like a ghost town and after about 30 mintues there was a power cut so we headed out again for an early dinner and grab some nibbles for our epic 13 hour bus journey to Hoi An. Lee was not happy when his seafood rice turned out to be rice with the odd tentacle here and there but he still ate it!

Our bus turned up and shock horror, it was only 10 minutes late! It wasn't a sleeper bus though and we spent the next hour trying to convince ourselves that this was just the bus that picked everyone up before transferring us to a sleeper bus... dream on!