Well Nha Trang turned out to be one hell of a social time! Upon boarding the overnight bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang we bumped into a couple of people we had met on the Halong Bay cruise whilst in Hanoi, and they had picked up a bunch of new friends as well. So as per the backpackers tradition we exchange many stories and also learned a couple of interesting things...

We learnt that a couple of Irish girls (also from Halong Bay) had been very aggressively assaulted whilst in Hoi An - just beacuse they had told some friends to use a different tailor to the one recommended by the hotel owner. Upon overhearing this, the owner even dragged some of his friends into the verbal fight, some of whom aggressively suggested that they had guns, and had 'better not be taking business away from them'. Very scary. Not surprisingly the girls left town that night...A cautionary tale indeed. And it just confirms the somewhat uneasiness we felt at times whilst in Hoi An - the place is incredibly competitive so it pays to keep your guard up!

So upon arrival at 6am friday in Nha Trang (this overnight sleeper bus was somewhat better than the other one with longer leg space hellelulia) a group of us trouped around a found a sweet hotel for $6 a night! It just keeps getting better and better! We all ended up hitting the hay for the rest of the morning, then ventured out after lunch. Unfortunately the town was recovering from a typhoon and so the normally idyllic beach was strewn with rubbish and the water was very murky. The waves crashing onto shore were massive to the point that red flags were out...very out of season for the area apparently!

Anyways that didn't damper our moods so we sought out the infamous 'Sailing Club' for an afternoon quencher. There were also learnt of the numerous happy hour deals and started mentally preparing oursleves for the nights ahead haha. We then found another local 'bia hoi' (fresh beer) joint down the road that had the best prices we had seen yet: 14000 dong for a 2L bucket of beer (that's $1.40 NZ)! So for the next couple of nights we started it off at the Bia Hoi joint, then made our way to happy hour at the Sailing Club ($2.50 buckets + free shots + free cocktails = good times)! Over the next few nights we also were constantly meeting new people including a couple of feral kiwi lads. Very entertaining....

A point to note however is that Nha Trang has a somewhat dark reputation which was confirmed whilst we were there. The town is notorious for drinks being spiked as well as theft and the likes. Two people out of our group clearly became the victims of drink spiking...things turned messy very fast. Luckily the rest of us figured out what was going on, and so they both made it home safely. Another pom we met simply got so intoxicated that he ended up ripping the toilet off his bathroom floor (and cracking it!!) as well as putting his hand through a window....the cost of repair? NZ$100.....One of the kiwi lads lost his wallet when a local girl have him a 'hug' (though he was asking for it, walking home alone at the end of the night!) So there were a lot of entertaining stories going around that's for sure!!

For anyone about to hassle us for drinking too much....well in response there wasn't much else to do here! The town is well-known for scuba diving and boating around islands as well as the famous 'party boats' which supply an unlimited supply of floating bars...With the bad weather this was all out of bounds. Despite this, we did start to feel a little guilty and ended up having an action packed sunday:

First thing we headed out to the local thermal hot mud pools which were fantastic! You shower, then sit in a mud pool for 15mins, then bake in the sun, then shower again, then get hit by mineral hoses which leave marks all over you, then at last get to sit in a thermal hot spring bath. With each new group they drain the pool then fill it up with new fresh water all over again....Pure bliss! Feeling so relaxed we decided to up the amp and ended up getting 45min massages as well. These weren't your traditional massage, rather they were of the standing-on-you variety. Rubbing, hitting, whacking...you name it. Yet it was goooood!

Then we headed back to town and caught a 3km cable car ride from the mainland over to a nearby island. For a mere $25NZ we got unlimited use of the waterpark, themepark, and underwater world. It was awesome! A huge group of people ended up spending the day here, so it was a lot of fun...there were some crazy water slides, it was all very impressive! What's more, being low season we all pretty much had the entire park to ourselves...what more could you ask for!

So after this day we were b*****ed....early next morning (monday) aza and I caught the bus down to the beach resort of Mui Ne...with the rest of the group to follow the following day. Nha Trang sure was a lot of fun!