Hello hello hello mighty fine comrades!!

'Tis Debs, and I'm feeling damn fine this evening! Haven't been on the blog for a wee while because believe it or not…oh yes….I'VE BEEN BLOODY ILL AGAIN!!!! We actually cant believe it. God must have decided that my 1st weekend in Vietnam spent anxiously looking at the loo wasn't enough, so this weekend he hit me with it even harder! Turn away now if u don't want to know the details…………..had constipation (sorry!) AND minor food poisoning!!! Both rolled into one great big sparkly ball. It hurt! Please feel very sorry for me because this makes 2/6 weekends we've been away and the other 4 were probably spent on a bus. God damn my digestive system!

So that's what I've been doing since we landed in Nha Trang, and the place is lovely. Films galore, bed, toilet, yoghurt, fruit, antibiotics and lotsa sympathy off Chris (he yet again was the best nurse!) Obviously I let him play out on the beach some days without me and pop to the pub for a well deserved pint of booze.

However….along the way somehow we managed to have some fun! By Saturday Chris insisted we went to the docs, baring in mind Vietnam is sooooo different to England in every way, so we spent the whole day walking around in the blistering heat with me stopping every 5 minutes to curl over and die, asking locals for directions (who probably thought we were trying to buy some food off their stalls) scribbling down maps and street names until we learnt the word for 'doctor' - DUC! So we ended up down a backstreet quite happy that we were finally going to see a 'duc'. The guy spoke no English and we basically had to put on a theatrical show to explain to him that I couldn't go to the toilet and that I had stomach pains. He said he understood so lay me down on the bed and examined my stomach. Then, he used a computer-machine thingy with a picture of my stomach on the screen…..me and Chris started giggling and explained we weren't there for a baby. He laughed and said "no baby. I understand". So then we felt stupid and were impressed with the Vietnamese technology that G.P's have at their disposal. When he finished, we paid him 30,000 dong (a quid) and he handed us a piece of paper with his conclusion on it……. "Negative".I'D ONLY GONE AND HAD A SODDING ULTRASOUND!!!!! Mum, Dad, how bad is that?!Chris still laughs now at the thought of Mr Duc smiling and saying negative. Hehe!!!!

Anyhow, the next tale.We finally found a French doctor (very lucky) which was great stuff because I was starting to think I was doomed in this foreign country! She understood everything, and I thought she was lovely and happy, and a real character, perhaps slightly eccentric…but it turns out she was drunk!!! How can the world operate if it doesn't act like England?! Apparently she's renowned as an alcoholic. It was soooo funny, she was slurring her frenchy words, smiling at nothing, couldn't count her change out so let us off a few dollars (her diognosis costs us 240,000 dong - 7 quid - and she let us off 40,000 dong). At first I smelt it on her when she was feeling my stomach on the patients bed and I mimicked to Chris the Peter Kay 'want a drink' hand action….but I think it was obvious when she put us into a taxi and walked into a branch off a tree! HA!!!

Note to loved ones: we tried to seek a second opinion because this woman was obviously not trustworthy as she was intoxicated whilst dealing drug prescriptions, but Sunday was not a success; same streets, same frustration at the Vietnamese for not even understanding 'duc', a few tears from me....and we ended up at a skin clinic! So we sacked it off and double checked with the NHS direct.Turns out the French lass was correct and now I'm blimmin' fixed!

Okay, enough about me…..tale number three then. This one is very serious so I best stop blabbering rubbish!

Chris saved somebody's life today.

I'm not joking. He's a local hero! I'm very very very proud and I can't believe what a most excellent human being he really is. He was so brave and selfless and I'm so privileged to have him in my life.

Basically, we were just wrapping up our stuff at the beach at the end of the day and getting ready to go when we spotted a bit of trouble in the water. I'd been dubious of the waves all day and was too scared to stay in the water for long- it's nearly monsoon season and the winds picking up so the waves are like 12 foot high right on the shore - obviously Chris loved it and had fun diving in all day (see the pics). Anyway, there was this old-ish Vietnamese woman, her daughter, and the daughter's friend, just sat in the sand with their feet dipping into the tide. I'd already had a chat with them when they arrived on the beach because they wanted to leave their flip flops with me, they were in the best mood! But then it all went so wrong. The old lady, bless her, got dragged into the sea by a wave which came from nowhere and she couldn't get back to her feet and walk back to where she was sat. Me and Chris saw it happen and were a bit worried, but the daughter and her friend were laughing and walking into the sea to collect her because she was okay then. But in a matter of seconds it turned so serious it was scary. Can't remember exactly how it happened because it happened so fast, but the woman got sucked under by the blow of a wave and was trapped under the water by the stroke of another. It was definately a 999 reconstruction moment. I panicked and Chris looked at me all worried as well and I told him he'd have to dive in and get her. Can't remember how he did it, think he just did a bay watch number and dived in. I just stood there on the beach thinking of what to do, because there was no chance I was going in as well, it was well scary. By this point some other locals had spotted the trouble and ran down and were shouting. One Vietnamese woman tried to push me in the water to help, panicking for my own life I lied and said I couldn't swim (feel so bad for that but what do u do in these moments?!) so I shouted a westerner guy to help Chris, so he dived in and swam out - Chris was doing the whole life saving move and had the lady on her back by the neck and was trying to swim to shore - they were further out by now with all the waves, and even Chris was going under some of them even after his conquer of the waves all day. She was a big lady as well. It was so upsetting. The daughter had got caught up in the waves as well when she was screaming for her mum, so me and the westener guy's partner dragged the daughter out of the sea, whilst Chris and the guy finally got the woman to safety! Talk about dramatic. Loads of locals were here by now, the police and some other security men too, and they managed to drag the woman onto the beach. She was more or less half drowned and in complete shock. Chris was fine though, asked for a fag, checked that she was okay, accepted hugs from the daughter and the locals who witnessed it and asked me if we could leave because he didnn't like all of the glory! He's so stupidly modest…..he'd just saved someone's life for god's sake!!!! He said it was all in a day's work and has forgotten about it now. As if!!!So it ended well, and the women were okay, and im glad Chris is okay and I officially hate VIETNAM!!!!!! Only joking. Fair bad eh???!!!

So that's that. Tomorrow is our first tourist day now I'm back to full health, finally we can 'do' Vietnam, so we're going island hopping on a boat trip, with snorkeling in coral reefs, eating fruit at a village and such likes in the wonderful crazy world that is travelling.

Hope everyone at home is well and life back in England is good.

Will fill u in with the next few days activities near weekend

Lots of love

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Update 23rd Oct

'Ello everybody!

Feels so good to be able to do a blog and have good stuff to report instead of doom and gloom! Healthy, happy and back to the ol' tourism!!!!

So since the last report, we took ourselves to a Spa Centre one afternoon to wash away a hangover! It was well good! Tick another box…..had a mud bath (consequently had superbly smooth skin) - should be a pic in the Nha Trang album already from before, had a power MINERAL shower (nice and hot and salty-ish) and then swam in a pool until dusk that was 38 degrees! HA!!!! It was like being in a gigantic bath! Something everyone dreams of, to swim in the bath. Made us so dozy though, we had to keep getting out so we didn't fall asleep, and when we got back in it felt like heaven! Ahh.

What else have we done? Erm, we commiserated the England vs Russia game on Wednesday night (4 o'clock kick off ur time, 10pm our time - those of u at work didn't miss a thing unless u like watching Russia kick a ball around for 90 mins). Let's not talk about that. What else??! Oh, we went on a boat trip on Friday to visit 4 islands surrounding Nha Trang's coastline. We booked it for Wednesday (the first day I was better) but it's the start of the monsoon season now so we awoke to the rain, sod's law, and changed the ticket. Friday was a lot better, bit over cast but no rain. I was quite glad there was no sun really - boat trips usually entail sunburn I think. Was a really really really good day! Set off at 8am by bus to the harbour, then boarded fun boat 'Number 4' and set off listening to 'The Beatles' and chatting to the staff on the way to the first island, Mun Island. Here was coral reefs and fishies, Chris dived in (I now call him 'english fish' when talking to the locals cos he's always swimming!) and tried to beckon me in….but the wind was out and it looked a bit choppy, so I just took photo's from the boat! Someone's got to do it! Chris here - the coral was well smart - wasn't the best visability underwater but t'was good enough to see plenty of fish and stuff!!! Debs is a puff. Debs again, no I'm not. I don't do things by half, I'll catch the view at the great barrier reef in Aussie thanku v. much! Stupid English fish.

Anyway, 2nd island was Mot Island. We didn't actually go onto island 1 and 2, just stayed at shore, and here we had lunch on the boat (see the pics), we had fried shrimps, noodle, this meat stuff, spring rolls…mmm! All of it was prepared on the boat! Chris here - me and debs stopped eating when the Vietnamese bloke next to us was eating fish, and when the meat was gone, carried on eating it's HEAD, eyes and all!!! Then, 'boat number 4' had their band play songs, using upturned plastic barrels for drums, and were really good! karoke and dancing followed, see the pics!During this time I decided to join Chris and the Aussies and have a beer (they started at 10) which was just as well because by this point, the only way u could get a beer was by going to the floating bar! So into the water I went (was warmer and calmer now) and thus I'm afraid there are no photo's of us all sat in rubber rings with a drink in our hands in the middle of the South China Sea! Was great fun! The staff were brill too. Giving away free red wine and pineapple!

Next, we went to Tam Island. This was the first time we went on shore….and Chris decided (surprisingly) that we should go for a swim! So we did. Then, once we'd dried off, he decided we'd had enough time on land……….SO WE WENT ON A JET SKI!!!! Oh my god! Chris thought he was James Bond cos he was driving, and I was sandwiched in between him and the instructor guy, thank god! Both of them were laughing as we were zooming over waves whilst I was yelping at the top of my lungs!!!! Chris loved it, I on the other hand, only half loved it. Next time I think I'll drive, and we'll go at a nice, steady, not bumpy speed! Was a laugh though, and only cost 200,000 dong (6 quid) for 10mins.

After that we boarded the boat and had a fruit party whilst we traveled to the forth island, Meiu Island. Here there was a supposed fish farm (didn't see it) and an Aquarium. Unfortunately we spent up on the jet ski so we couldn't afford the 20,000 dong (70p) entry fee - bad I know! Don't think they have ATM machines on the beach though! So whilst we waited for the group to return to the boat….guess what we did….we went for a swim!!!! Check out the vid of Chris doing a back flip off the boat! Hehe! (Should be there soon if not there now as the website is being truly gay at the mo).

What a day though. We arrived back to Nha Trang at 5.30pm and slightly drunk (it WAS a boat trip afterall). We had some tea and went for a snooze and then went back on the booze till 8am the next morning! Our first full nighter! Was so good to skip out a night's sleep and watch the locals clean the beach first thing in the morning! Hehe! We then got breakfast, was so weird seeing the same stalls in action after seeing them 4/5 hours earlier setting up at 5am! Then we did the decent thing and took ourselves off to bed at 10am. Was a very funny, giggly night….and we owed it to ourselves after me being in bed for days! Real travelers!!!!!

The next day….well, the same day (Saturday), we rolled out of bed at 2pm and headed for the Aqua Park slightly hungover!!!!! This was the funniest! The place was dead. Literally. Think it was out of season….we were the only 2 people there!!!! It was a massive park with water slides, a huge lazy river, wave pools, zip-lines into pools (check out the vid of Chris doing it if it's worked). Only cost 30,000 dong (a quid) and we had a ball. Was funny to see 6 lifeguards jump every time we breathed because they were used to seeing tumbleweed floating through the grounds! Hehe!!! After that we went for a curry…..a vietnamese curry! Cheers Luke Butler for the advice. Let's say that the meal was…different. Green chutney, yoghurt and cucumber and onion dip, and a 'brown' korma. Think the main ingredient over here for Korma's instead of coconut and garlic is….well, 'brown'.

That night we planned to have a doze and get up at 1am and go and watch the England South Africa Rubgy final. Time difference is a wonderful thing so I ended up being all talk and no action and slept through the alarm leaving Chris to go for a beer on his own and to roll in at 5am drunk! Ha! Should've got up really, but we'd had a monster weekend and I was whacked!!! Not gunna let Chris say anything here cos he'll just call me a puff….but I'm not bothered cos by the sounds of things I didn't miss much because we lost at rugby as well!!! Yeah!

What an eventful weekend…finally!

Chris here now, we left Nha Trang FINALLY - I had a great time here although I did watch way too many films, but I think it was a bad omen for debs so headed for Saigon (or Ho Chi Min City)! Decided to get the day-bus because we couldn't face another all nighter. It was a 12 hour journey (nowt for us experienced folk) and we slept all the way! Hehe

In Saigon now and it's one busy place - damn good to be in a new place tho, were both really excitable again! As soon as we got off the coach we were hassled to death by locals to come to their guesthouse, or to use their motorbike! One of the many hasslers offered us a room for $7 which isn't too bad, so we gratefully accepted and headed down some seriously small back streets to get there!!! When we got to the guesthouse we were surprised because it's a nice clean place so were gunna stay there a while!

Got up today and went straight to the tourist office and booked ourselves loads of tours, including the Cu Chi Tunnels (The 200 km underground network of tunnels used in the war), a trip back up to Mui Ne, which is four hours back up north (we decided to do this as we drove through the place heading from Nha Trang to HCMC and it looked really nice), and finally the Mekong Delta boat trip which lasts 3 days and will eventually take us into Cambodia. Only have until the 1st November before our visa runs out so were gunna get things done and then get into Cambodia (plus the rainy season has well and truly started here whereas in Cambodia it has just ended)!!

Now we are going to hit the town in Ho Chi Min City - Should be damn good!! So bye for now, will update you on Saigon when we have left the place

Lots of love

Debs and Chris xxxxxxxx