Day 81 Saturday 28th November 2009

Stacey says

Arriving at 6am this morning, we got a taxi to the central area and picked up a guesthouse, with a palace of a room, 2 double beds, balcony, high ceiling and big bay windows for just 1.80p each per night!! Unbelievable! So we go a few hours sleep waking up around midday. Headed for some lunch and then made our way to the beach, it is much warmer here than further north. Ahhhh…. The beach was fairly nice, so we did an afternoon of sunbathing! Headed to a Mexican for dinner and on to a bar called Crazy Kims, there were loads of travellers in this bar, so we stayed and played some pool and got chatting to some randoms!

Day 82 Sunday 29th November 2009

Johno says

We definitely wanted a do nothing and chill out day today as the last few weeks had been so hectic for us cracking on through Vietnam. First of all we hit the beach again for a relaxing read as I am trying to get through Bill Bryson's 'Down Under' before we arrive in Melbourne next week! Then, after a few hours (or chapters) we made our way to the Thap Ba Hot Spring Centre for a full thermal mud bath! Then we relaxed in some mineral baths for a while and headed back to the hotel. Hard work!! The evening was nicely finished off with a curry and another visit to crazy kims to see some of the people we had met the previous night!!

Day 83 Monday 30th November 2009

Johno says
Absolutely way out of my comfort zone is Diving into the open water… so, we had an early morning appointment with a local dive centre for Stace to notch two dives on her new PADI card and for me to experience a try dive!! I couldn't believe that I was actually going to do it - my worse fear (apart from big bad ugly spiders that Australia has to offer!!). We were introduced to our wet suits and by 8.30 we were ready to dive into the drink - the South China Sea!! The instructor was very good, explaining in clear terms how each piece of equipments operates which was reassuring enough and what we needed to do to make it back to the surface of the water in one piece - basically, we had to remember to breathe and every now and then pop your ears!! Easy right?! Haha. I was really really nervous to begin with, not sure on the bubbles made from the regulator but the instructor said this was normal so I cracked on with lowering myself into the water… aaaarrrggh! It amazed me how different it was to snorkeling - a whole new world where I was trespassing amongst the sea of fish going about their daily business!! I remember a couple of brightly colored fish just looking at me with the 'what are you doing here?' expression on their faces!! Then all of a sudden, a turtle decided to glide along with me so the instructor and I managed to catch a snap and even a video of that!! It seemed like we were only in the water for 10 minutes but it was actually 33 minutes. I would definitely do it again now that I have conquered my fear but will probably need the instructor on hand for the foreseeable future! Stace cracked on with her two dives with her dive buddy and managed to pat the turtles head and bounce a friendly jelly fish like a basketball!! We then had a well earned sushi lunch and retired to the beach for some rest and relaxation.

Day 84 Tuesday 1st December 2009
Stacey says
Just a stroll around Nha Trang today, reading our books on the beach, and packing up our bags getting ready for our sleeper bus transfer to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Which was luckily the nicest bus of the 3 trips we had done so far, and we had pre-booked good seats/beds!