One week to go until I'm in Singapore with Jo and Neil and am so excited to see some family and celebrate the big engagement as well!

Arriving in Nha Trang from Hoi An gives one of the biggest contrasting images Im likely to see while away. From the old city with the shophouses built 100+ years ago to a beach resort that would look more in place in Europe with ugly high-rise hotels lining the coast and of course an Irish pub! You can be assured there wasn't one of those in Hoi An! I have been staying in the nicest part of the city with some nice restaurants and bars and in close vacinity to the beach. Sadly though the beach has not played a big part in my time here due to the elusive sunny weather ... well, continue to elude me and instead be replaced by cloud and wind. I have at least managed to don a pair of shorts again and not be cold!

Unfortunately there is not a great deal to do here when the weather isn't too great so the planned scuba diving and boat trips were not to happen. Instead I just had 2 big nights out with all the different people I had met in the rest of Vietnam which was great fun with the Nha Trang Sailing Club being the place to be with the chilled out bar turning into more of a club come midnight. Another good bar was Crazy Kim's (just to be even more Western) where you can drink and feel good about yourself as they put loads of money into stopping child abuse. They even have a pink motorbike that they go around on with 'Crazy Kim - Paedophile Buster' imprinted on the sides! We did make a bit of an error when we all got tempted by a restaurant advertising Seafood Paella and all 5 of us ended up ordering it. To call it adequate would be generous as it was fairly awful but we had to just laugh with every single one of us ordering it and we just hoped that the fairly unfresh tasting seafood would have no ill effects the next day! We should have known better by the fact it was entirely empty and not long after we sat down the electricity went out and they had to send a guy from the hairdressers shop opposite the restaurant up a ladder up the electricity pylon to flick a switch. Not the safest thing maybe but it worked and they do live by a safety last motto here it seems!

Nha Trang has also been subject to some serious Russian investment on the island just offshore. They have built a huge 5* resort called Vinpearl and have renamed the island accordingly and even have a Hollywood style sign on the hill. They have also attempted their own theme park Vinpearl Land which you get to on a huge cable car over the sea and it is a bizarre place and not yet very busy. It's very smart there and they have given it a decent try but it is all just a bit wierd for some reason although the aquarium they have there was brilliant. Not sure that the moving floor went down too well with Lindsay though after the night out throwing up when she got back on to steady ground much to the amusement of the rest of us!

I imagine it would be nice to be in Nha Trang when the weather is great but it hasn't done it for me as a place. Have still had a great time with the people here and luckily most should be present in Saigon as well where I head later today. I've not heard the best reviews of Saigon compared to Hanoi so I may try and find some beaches and that elusive sunshine elsewhere!