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Hey hey people! Sorry sorry sorry for the extreme lack of blogs! We have now come to the end of our stay in Nha Trang and tomorrow we finally move on. However, none of us want to and we are all very sad :( We have been having the most amazing time, one that none of us will ever forget, and we have met some of the nicest, kindest, funniest people you could ever hope to meet. This place has become our second home and we are all already planning our return trip in the near future! We have done so much over the last few weeks that it will take about 6 thousand years to write about, so we shall just write the best of the bunch and then when we return home you can listen to the rest of our ramblings about the most wonderful place on earth!
We flew in from Hoi An about a month ago, laden down with all our new clothes and settled in to life and work at Phil's place, Highland Inn. It is a small guesthouse on top of his office but there are not really any guests... just all his employees. Each day we'd wake up around late morning and at 2pm we would go to the beach and tell people all about Red Apple and why they should go there that evening. Then at about 4pm everyone would jump into the Jeep and Phil would drive us to the harbour where all the boats would be returning from the boat trips, full to the brim with drunken Westerners. There we would again tell them all about Red Apple and that it is the perfect place for them to carry on their partying! The we would return to Highland Inn, mess around for a bit or go to the beach and at 8pm we would arrive at the bar ready for some serious partying! And for doing this small amount of work we got free accommodation and free drinks! What more could you want! It really was perfect!
On June 2nd it was Phil's birthday so a HUGE celebration was required. We decided that there really should be a fancy dress theme so all of us made a trip to the local market to get costumes. Us three decided to go as cavegirls as you may have seen by the pictures. We got fabric with a leapord print design and wrapped that around us and ta-da - one cavegirl outfit! Tom and Andy went as Samurai warriors and to help with the ethnic look we applied eyeliner... which didn't really go to plan but they still looked good! And Phil went as an old man. He wore a suit and purchased a walking stick, some glasses and a pipe and put talcum powder in his hair. He kept up the act of a bumbling, old fool all night! At about 6pm we went for a meal and there were about 40 people there, all of Phil's family and friends so we felt extremely priviliged to be there. We had a delicious feast of wild boar and oysters! At about 8pm we left for Red Apple ready to work! There was a special promotion that night in aid of Phil's birthday and we were doing a free barbecue, so it was already quite busy. We partied the night away and at 2am we went to the local club Why Not? for a bit of a boogie. We were all getting pretty tired having been busy all day and night but the celebrations did not stop there. After Why Not? shut at 4 we all jumped on a bus which took us to a serene beach about half an hour away. We got there just in time to see the sunrise over the mountains and it was so amazingly beautiful. Not just the scenery, but the whole situation. Being there with all of our friends was just such an experience. We all ran into the sea, beer in hand and lazed around all morning. We also saw loads of jellyfish! It was a bit scary as they were floating right past us but nothing could deter us from the most amazing morning ever! We got back to Highland Inn at about 10.30am, completely knackered, and all just fell into bed!
One of the tourist attractions in Nha Trang is the boat trips. Basically you hop on a boat that takes you to the four islands surroudning Nha Trang and you get ploughed with beer all day whilst splashing around in the sea! A few of Bin and Phil’s friends who visited Nha Trang last year had returned for a girlie holiday so we all decided to do a boat trip. We got up ridiculously early and went to the harbour to begin a day of fun and frolics! Our boat guide was Funky Monkey… an absolute legend! He does the same trip every single day but somehow he just didn’t seem bored of doing it! After our first beer at 9am we jumped into the sea and luckily one of our friends, Jason, had an underwater camera. So that amused us for a good half an hour! At the next destination we stopped and had some lunch and our group was given the VIP treatment. We got to go and sit on the roof of the boat whilsts everyone else was packed like sardines down below! And we got given about 3 times more food between 13 of us, than the 40 people downstairs had! After lunch we jumped back into the sea to take advantage of the free floating bar! A floating bar is literally a bar that floats! After this we moved on to the next destination… a rather pleasant beach. We all hired jet skis and went wild! Nyima was driving Laura and the walrus screams could be heard in the next town! Martha was with Bin and after Bin lost control several times trying to do some stunts sending both Martha and himself flying, Martha decided she had better drive. Not that she was much better! After this, and about 8 beers later, it was time to head back to the harbour and an early night was very much needed!
Another day trip we did was to go fishing with the Red Apple crew. We set of at 6am (!!!) after a heavy night - which was not a good idea! But we had a fabulous day none-the-less. We let the anchor down and fished for our breakfast. A few hours later we had caught a few fish, none really any bigger than a hand, and a sumptuous feast was cooked up. When we weren't getting much success with the fish the driver of the boat jumped into the jellyfish infested waters and dived down to try and catch some fish with his bare hands! And he actually caught one! Never mind that it was already dead and had been lying on the bottom of the sea bed for a few days with its eyes eaten out! Needless to say we did not sample the delights of that one!
Another mouth watering treat we have sampled is.... DOG! Yes you read correctly! Bin took us to try this Vietnamese delicacy in a tiny little restaurant. Unfortunately Laura could not bring herself to try the dog but Nyima bravely nibbled at the dog curry. Martha, on the other hand, ate an entire meal consisting of dog curry, steamed dog meat and barbecued dog leg! And, scarily, she actually ẹnoyed it!
Phil also recently took us for a meal at the nicest restaurant. It was about a 20 minute drive along the sea front and when we got there, Phil being who he is, managed to get us a VIP on the edge of the restaurant floor overlooking the entire sea front and city of Nha Trang. It was amazing! And the meal was equally delightful. Wine, mango and anchovy salad, crab, lobster and... sea shells! You know the ones you get as souvenirs when you go on a beach holiday?? Well we ate the slimy, squidgy things from inside! Yum yum! And this meal was our most expensive yet reaching a HUGE total of 10 pounds each!
One morning Phil came into our room and woke us all up and told us to get ready quickly. So we did and he took us to his families house out in the countryside. His mum, completely unperturbed by the arrival of 8 guests, cooked up a delightful feast for us which was mouth-wateringly sensational!
A few nights ago we were at the Red Apple and Phil invited us to have some drinks with him and his VERY important friends. Mr. Tung is the chief of the police in Nha Trang and he is a powerful man. And 'Papa' is Phil's work father - a necessary connection for Phil on the business side of things. After a few drinks we decided to head to Number 1, the local Vietnamese club. Number 1 is the most fantastic club! We have been a few times before with Phil and as he is a well known man we get to go behind the DJ stand and dance on the stage and get the best seating in the whole club! The music is so incredibly loud and thudding that you just can't help but dance! And we always get free drinks, namely Martells - possibly the best brandy in the entire world! And when we went with Phil, Mr. Tung and Papa it was no different. Except there was some kind of freak show going on on the stage. When we walked in a man had a spike through his neck attached to a bit of wire that was holding up a big clay urn. Hmmm. And then he proceeded to eat hot coals and put a huge pair of scissors down his throat and then open them. We had a bit of a boogie and sipped our free Martells and then went back to Red Apple, where for some strange reason we decided to go to Dalat, a town about 3 hours down the coast from Nha Trang. Don't ask why, just read the blog for Dalat and it should explain all about this very queer road trip adventure!
Another big attraction in Nha Trang is a 6 star resort on an island a short cable car journey away from the mainland. It is called VinPearl and this is written in big, white, illuminated letters on the side of a mountain on the island, just like the Hollywood sign. Phil kept promising he would take us there and then one day just as we were about to start work he suddenly said we could take the day off and go with him and his friends to VinPearl. His friends needed to go over there as he had some sort of meeting and Phil was tagging along. Unfortunatly for us though the cable cars were having repairs done on them that specific day. But no fear! We just hailed a speedboat to take us! Instead of a boring 20 minute cabel car journey, we reached VinPearl in 2 minutes! But to be honest it wasn't really that exciting. As it is a brand new resort it still has work being done on it and so the mini theme park and water park were closed. And it was such a hot day that even just standing still was unbearable. We didn't stay long but at least we got the chance to see it - and we didn't have to work that day!
That's about all we can write really, we have done so much stuff and this is just a small handful of our adventures. We really love this place and are so traumatised to be leaving. Last night we were walking to Red Apple and we saw the sweetest thing. A man was sitting on the curb with two little boys in his lap and they were staring into a shop. We couldn't work out why but then we realised they were watching a tiny little television screen that was on in the shop. Its so sad that in England we take for granted that we have a huge TV in our front rooms, but here the closest the man and the two boys could get to watching a TV was to sit on the side of the road and hope the shop owner doesn't see them secretly watching. Anyways, tomorrow we move on up to Hanoi and then in a few days we leave Asia behind us. But there is absolutely no doubt that we will be back very soon! Adios amigos!
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