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Little Kirsty Ventures to Pastures New
As expected, time is flying by here in Vietnam. Can't believe we've been here 5 days already. Arrived safely in Na Trang- found an awesome place to stay with free internet, so gona make the most of it and try to write up my blog!
Last night we all piled onto the bus to leave HCMC and head for our next destination, Na Trang. Stocked up on a pack of cookies and some water to last the 10 hour journey. Needless to say I finished the cookies before the bus even left the stop but ah well. Journey wasn't too bad, didn't sleep much though- the stars were too pretty outside to miss. We stopped off for a snack half way and Chez told us how while we were all sleeping, the bus had stopped due to a really bad road accident and she saw a guy come off his bike and end up under a lorry- nasty. We were all starting to think how many biking accidents there are here. There must be so many brain injuries due to the lack of helmets. The only protection we've seen is people wearing builder's hard hats, which I'm sure wouldn't do the trick! Watched the sun rise over a nice set of hills so took some snaps.
Arrived pretty knackered in Na Trang at 6am and set out straight away to find some accommodation. Every step we took we were bombarded by people wanting us to stay at their guest houses etc- the last thing we wanted when we were lugging loads of heavy bags at 6am and it was already boiling hot! These guys were determined to get us and our bags on the back of their bikes and take us to their accommodation- they didn't understand the word "no", to the extent that they grabbed Annie's bag and took it onto his bike and we had to fight for it back. After checking out a few different guest houses, we decided to head one street closer to the beach and very luckily stumbled across a perfect little hotel with chilled out design. Free internet and breakfast and a really nice little restaurant. Tis fab- and only $4 a night each. So we dumped our stuff, grabbed our free breakfast, which was fantastic- freshly baked baguettes with eggs, sautéed tomatoes-mm. Then we hit the beach straight after. Lapped it up on the long stretch of beach for most of today. It's 6km long and about 200m walk from our room, which is amazing. We hired wooden sun beds under palm tree umbrellas and a rubber ring to chill out in the water with. All was very relaxed and peaceful until suddenly a commotion erupted behind us. Turned out, some local Vietnamese women were having a full on fist blowing, hair pulling fight and soon wooden sticks were involved as well. Various family members (so we think) or other Vietnamese on lookers decided to join in, so there was a full on beach brawl going on-sand flying everywhere and major screeching. Security soon broke it up with their own batons- twas nasty. The beach is full of Vietnamese families having pick nicks and selling fruits. There are fruit sellers, masseuses, book sellers and little kids selling various things, assigned to diff parts of the beach. So we're thinking, some of the sellers were working on someone else's turf. Not too sure though. So after the disturbers of the peace were separated, the beach went back to basic sanity. The masseuses would just not leave us alone. They got their oil out and started massaging our shoulders without even asking- to try to persuade us to ask for more. I was having none of it but Chez gave in and had a full body massage. 2 little girls tried to sell Sarah and I post cards and I was like no, no, but the little girl had amazing English and was so persuasive. Hate not giving money to them but as Sarah says, we can't give to absolutely everyone, but I don't really know what to do. Sarah, Annie and I went back to the hotel for lunch, food was ab fab and cheap, then headed back to the beach. When we arrived, it seemed perfectly peaceful but within 10 mins a totally crazy fight broke out. This time with pots being thrown and cracked on women's heads and baseball bats hurled about. Was a teeny bit mental. There weren't that many westerners on the beach but those that were, were intelligent enough to keep back, but the Vietnamese were all going crazy and a huge brawl broke out. Armed police arrived and I was crappin myself they'd bring out guns. But they just buttoned the offenders (who were all women) and pulled them away by their hair. Exciting stuff but a bit shocking. Chilled on the beach until late afternoon, then headed back for showers and after sun (I'm a teeny bit lobsterfied!). The beach was quite nice. A bit dirty cause it was a bit touristy but all right.
Been invited to some "half year party" tonight, so might check it out. Gona go bikini shopping as well cause we're all looking a bit bubbly. Feeling like we've only really seen the touristy areas of Vietnam (except from the places I saw out the bus), so I'm looking forward to traveling to the more rural places to get a better feel for the country.
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