Nha Trang

Hi eveyone - Dave here this time. We've loved reading all your comments on our blog. It's been a few days since we have had reliable internet access, so I'll update you now on what's been happening.

On the last day in Hoi An, we went to a travel agent on the outskirts of town - called Mr Tung - to book our train tickets from here to Nha Trang, then Mui Ne beach, then back to Saigon to fly out. All the ATM's were down in Hoi An, so we couldn't pay the bloke. He happily lent us $20 US and said we could pay his driver in the morning when he took us to the train station. That was enough to pick up the clothes we had bought and buy dinner! Thanks Mr Tung!

Next morning we left Hoi An, and where driven back to Danang where we caught the train to Nha Trang. We were in a 4 berth sleeper with two other locals. One of them spoke (barely) recognisable English and we had a chat with him. He was a Christian, which is rare here, and said that he had been jailed before for his beliefs. Mr Tung, the travel agent, had told us that the train should take 8 hours. It actually took 13 hours, but we saw the most amazing scenery we have seen yet. Hills, mountains, palm and banana trees, bright green rice fields and rivers. Pity our camera memory was full! We also saw a beatiful bright red sunset, followed by a bright red full moon on the other window. The other thing we saw was the effects of Agent Orange, which are still apparent. Large blotches of countryside are still bare - 30 years later.

We finally got to Nha Trang at 11:30pm and checked into our room, which had a great balcony view of the beach, but a very hard bed and pillows.

We had heard reports Nha Trang wasn't that great, but we really loved it. The ocean is bright blue, the beach is great, lots of palm trees, and there are lots of islands nestled around the bay and good bars and restaurants.

We hired another motorbike (look out Gary and Jo - we're hardcore bikers now!) and cruised around town where we fortunately found some more memory for the camera. I'm getting pretty good at bargaining now. You basically have to take the price the Vietnamese offer you and divide that by about 4 or 5 and then reach an agreement from there. Lorelle is leaving the bargaining to me - she says, "I'll just get my husband" and 'Dave the negotiater' steps in.

Nha Trang is a little like a mini surfers paradise, and you can see by all the development happening that in about 5 years it will be exactly like Surfers Paradise. Glad we got in now.

There's lots to do in Nha Trang, such as windsurfing, snorkelling, diving and parasailing, and we didn't do any of it! We decided to relax at a nice beachside bar called The Nha Trang Sailing Club (they don't have any boats though) and eat and drink Tiger beers. We ended up meeting an older Canadian couple called Janice & Bill, and went bar hopping with them and didn't get home until 1:30am. We weren't in the best shape when we had to get up at 5:30 am to catch our train to Mui Nei beach!