Firstly allow me to apologise for the lack of blogs over the last week or so. We've been kept fairly busy in the South of Vietnam and 5 days ago we crossed the border into Cambodia.

Nah Trang is a very developed coastal city about 9 hours from Hoh Chi Minh. It's all centred around the beautiful beach which is where 80% of Moscow has decided to take a holiday. As beautiful as it is, it's still hard to feel like you're seeing a piece of Vietnam which is beautiful and un-spoilt. We recently discovered that a direct flight route from Moscow to Nah Trang was opened, thus causing the influx of tourists. However we still had a pretty awesome time despite it being very busy. It's also where we enjoyed the new year celebrations.

Our first day in Nah Trang was spent chilling out on the beach, eating fresh mangoes and swimming amongst some of the biggest shore break we've come across thus far. We spent hours watching sunburnt Russians being tumbled upside down by the huge waves. Some would emerge with only half a bikini left, not a pleasant sight, and some without any skin on their knees. The sea here was fairly rough but good fun if you could swim properly. We tried extremely hard to learn Russian but could only belt out "yeshka mesh" which doesn't even mean anything.

Our hotel was fairly basic and consisted of the usual double bed with hot water and aircon however, when you wanted to shower you had to call reception and ask them to turn on your hot water. It would take about 20 minutes to warm up by which stage it would have been turned off again due to time limits. This process went back and forth all day. If you left your fan running it was like you'd committed a crime not to mention forgetting to turn off any lights. How did they know, they checked everything! That night was the New Years celebrations! We found a bar/restaurant and started the night fairly early not really knowing what we were in for. The night quickly gathered momentum and before we knew it many jam jars and cocktails had slipped down and it was party on! Locals, tourists and Boris &co partied into the night until about five to twelve when everybody just disappeared. Suddenly we were standing alone on the dance floor with nobody around us except a few clumsy tourists. We popped our heads outside and saw a massive stream of people making their way down to the beach. We followed suit and when we stepped onto the sand a boat which was anchored about 100m out in the water started the spectacle. Hundreds of fireworks erupted into the sky casting beautiful shades of colour onto the glassy ocean. We stood there completely mesmerised and in awe. After about ten minutes it was back to the bar where a certain cocktail housed in a coconut became the last of the evening. Vietnamese new year........Wow!

The next day had a very slow start, must have been something we ate................
We spent most of the day on the beach sunning ourselves and swimming in the crazy waves. That night we felt like something different so it was off to the local Indian joint! A couple of curries later and we had both sweated enough to raise the ocean by one metre. An early night was definitely on the cards after the last nights on-goings.

In the morning we hopped in a cab and drove the 30km to Bai Dai beach. It's a popular spot for eating amazing seafood and surfing. There are many little wooden restaurants which are built right on the sand and most of them keep all their seafood alive in massive plastic containers. We hired a surfboard and spent the entire day trying to master the art, confirm not much success but a lot of fun was had. Every time I nose dived I could see Dora having a good chuckle on the beach. After some lunch and more surfing we flagged a cab back to Nah Trang feeling very satisfied. That evening was spent sampling some of the cities restaurant and bar life as well as the many convenience stores which Dora has a complete addiction to. There's something about being able to browse through a thousand different types of snacks all branded in Vietnamese, that Dora cannot resist. It's actually really funny to watch. If I try talking to her during a "browse" she'll plain and simply ignore me!

Our last day in Nah Tang was spent organising bus tickets and trying to figure out our approach to the capital, Ho Chi Minh. If it was going to be anything like Hanoi then we needed to be a little bit more prepared than before. Of course we enjoyed a bit more of the beach and said our final goodbyes to all of Moscow.

Our bus departed around 9pm the next day. We had decided to take a bus as the trains had been a complete nightmare thus far in Vietnam. Well the bus turned out to be just as bad. Our first toilet stop was 7 hours into the journey. Please take a moment to try and comprehend how Kate was feeling by this stage not to mention half the passengers on the bus. Many people complained but where shut down by this tyrant of a Vietnamese woman who only stood 2 feet tall but was super vicious. A Russian man, who we nicknamed the "KGB" tried his luck by raising his voice and getting physically upset but the little midget tore into him with no remorse. Within 1 minute he was seated again and didn't speak for the rest of the journey. It was like being in prison. 9 hour over night bus to Ho Chi Minh with angry small person.........not cool! Please let Ho Chi Minh be nice..........Same Same