Good afternoon.

I am writing this blog after experiencing one of the best days I have had since travelling, not that there has been a bad one, but this ranks up there with Ha Long Bay and trekkiing in Chiang Mai, But I am afraid you are going to have to wait until you here about this day, as this blog is dedicated to our time in Nha Trang.

We arrived in Nha Trang at about 5am after a night bus from Hoi An lasting around 10 hours. The bus once again was pretty mental with people sleeping in the aisle, luckily me and Earl were able to manage to get a bed each although the beds aren't at all spacious especially when you have your hand luggage with you. So after a steady walk around town we found a reasonable family run hostel costing 4 USD a night, Earl was pretty tired so went straight to bed. I was full of adrenaline from arriving in a new place so went straight out to investigate. At 6am in the morning not much is open so I headed straight to the beach, and then treated myself to a big breakfast. Once I had this the adrenaline had worn off and I became pretty tired, so I opted to go back to the room and catch some z's. We must have both needed a good sleep as we didn't wake up til around 1pm. We headed straight down to reception and asked what we could do that afternoon. We decided to rent a moped and do a little tour of the town, visiting the cathedral, 25m high buddha and a pagoda tower. From the strat of our travelling I have been dead against getting a moped. Because, as most of you are aware my driving in a car leaves a lot to be desired and didn't think I would be any better on two wheels. So i placed my trust in a man with no driving license, no experience of moped driving, but who has rode a bicycle from John O'Grotes to Penazance. To be fair Earl was an awesome driver, and we only had a couple of hairy moments where it semt like we may fall, but overall he was brilliant. I think it has given him the urge to get a moped when he gets home.

The sights were pretty impressive, and when we were at the 25m Buddha we each sat in a massive bell which a monk then rang and chanted/sang a prayer, this apparently ment we would sleep better. The cathedral was pretty much just like a church back home but it was interesting too see a vietnemese mass take place. And the pagoda tower would have been more interesting if there were signs saying what everything was and the stroy behind this. But there was some pretty funky vientemse dancing taking place. After this we visited a restaurant called Do Boi which served fresh seafood. By fresh i mean they were still alive in tanks, and when you ordered they took these out of the tanks and but them straight on the grill. We shared three dishes prawns, river snake/Eel and crocodile. My favourite was the croc they tasted just like chewy chicken wings. I wasn't a big fan of the river snake / eel the texture was very slimey and it had a long bone running down the centre, but I ate it (not the bone that would be stupid) That night we went exploring and too see what the Nha Trang night life had to offer, it was a decent night out going the why not bar, oasis bar, where i won at pool, and Red Aplle Bar where we had some pretty strong cocktail buckets and the dutch staff were pretty generous in giving out free shots, this was also the case in Why Not bar. The only disapointment was that we couldn't find a kebab stand on the way home.

The next day our plan was to get the cable car to Vin Pearl island where there was a water park but we didn't wake up until around 1pm, the bell from the previous day must have worked as I had a brilliant night sleep. Because we only had half a day as we had already booked to go to Dalat the next morning we decided just to chill and catch some rays on the beach, I spent most of my time in the sea, which was pretty rough. And i was amazed to see how many of the locals ran into the sea fully clothed, this semt a little insane to me. After we finished at the beach we got ready and made our way to Gueva sports bar. As it was Easter Sunday we decided to treat ourselves to a sunday dinner, this was awesome, nearly but not quite as good as my parents sunday creations. I coould have easily have ordered a bowl of their gravy it was that good. And everyone knows Northern boys love gravy. We stayed here and watched Man Utd beat QPR 2-0. From here we went to the Red Apple Bar and then too oasis bar where they were again pretty generous with the free shots. We also watched Arsenal beat Man City here which made me a very happy man and prompted a mini celebration with a couple of beers. We did not stay out too late though as we had to be up at 6am the next day for our bus too Dalat, where I am currently writing this blog. We have one more night here and then go to Mu Nie for a night and hopefully do some quad biking over sand dunes.

Hope you are all enjoying the blog, the next one will be pretty interesting with stories of a connect 4 world champion, meeting up randomly with friends we met on the way and tales of canyoning.

I am also aware that photos have been lacking but the computers here are like they are from the 80's so it is pretty hard to upload. I will do this when I have chance.

So stay safe and take care

Speak soon

Adi

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