Since Sihanoukville I dont think I've managed to lose too much more stuff, just my memory card which I'm really mad about but its only the photos since we left Bangkok, so not as bad as it might have been, at least I can steal other peoples photos! Lydia is now my official photographer until I can buy a new camera in Bangkok. So we left Sihanoukville to cross the border into Vietnam and Chau Doc.. not a particularly nice place but we were only there one night and the hotel was actually quite nice. We arrived at about lunchtime so spent the afternoon on a boat trip before going on motorbikes up this mountain to see the sunset. So far on this trip I have feared for my life a lot, but I've never held on as tight to anything as I did to that bike! My driver was absolutely bonkers, and I think he thought it was hilarious that my helmet didnt fit properly so I was torn between holding on to the bike and holding on to the helmet! I was more relaxed on the journey back however, and think that maybe I would like a motorbike, its got to be cheaper than a car and if all these people here can ride them it can't be that hard, right? It was worth going up for sunset though, beautiful views over Cambodia on one side and Vietnam on the other, but i have no pictures so I will have to remember to steal others!
We headed to Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday and didn't really do much, except go out for Pascals birthday which meant we all got some pretty decent cake which was good! Friday we went to the Cu Chi tunnels used by the Viet Kong guys to fight the Americans. It was worth going to but I don't really know anything about the war in Vietnam and the only information really was a propaganda video on how evil the American devils were and what villagers had to do to get the award for american killer (??) possibly one of the strangest videos I've ever seen. The tunnels were tiny though and the boys went down this stupidly small hole.. Pascal then took a wrong turn in the dark and got lost for a minute or so and they both came out looking a bit worse for wear. Me and Lydia went down a bigger tunnel (no crawling, just stooping) for 15m.. I did not enjoy it and I'm not really sure why I listened to the guide who said we had to go down! Also at the tunnels they had a small firing range and we bought 10 bullets for the AK47 and all fired a couple of shots.. it seems like a long time since I shot one of those in Kenya! The others all went to a museum in the afternoon but I was tired and apparently its kinda creepy with mutated foetus's in jars.. not something i had a massive desire to see so I chilled by the pool instead before the night train to Nha Trang. First impression of the train were good, really clean and nice and unlike China had a door and a soft mattress (not so much like a prison train) then I cam face to face with the creature of death! Lying on my bottom bunk reading my book and I noticed movement out the corner of my eye turned to look and there was a dirty great mouse sat on Jo's backpack next to my head. I, of course, started freaking out so it ran off and I didnt see where it went, so we got torches out and tried to find it. No luck. The boys next door pretended to be asleep so we were left alone, it appeared a couple of more times and after an hour or so we gave up and went to sleep. But on the next train I would have happily taken a mouse in our cabin instead of what were sharing with but I'll get to that later.
Saturday was the first of 2 beautiful days in Nha Trang. Sun, sea, and and mud baths.. what more could you want! The mud bath place was actually really nice. We got a mud bath for 6 people, 2 mineral water hot spas and full body massages before we went and relaxed in the mineral pools with waterfalls. Definately wo9rth doing I think! In the evening we headed to the Sailing CLub Restaurant.. quite expensive for Vietnam but beautiful (Western) food! Mmmmm, if you've seen the Top Gear Vietnam episode its also meant to eb the place where James got given the massive boat. Really nice restaurant and we went back there the next night as well, just for a little bit of luxury! Apart from dinner we spent most of Sunday by the pool before the night train from hell. It was one of the longest nights of my life! The whole train was infested by these mini cockroach type things that climbed walls and just seemed to be everywhere, we killed a lot of bugs that night and slept with the light on, luckily I onlyt really had to deal with one, but it just wouldn't die! So I trapped it but it escaped and long story short, Lydia got woken up to remove it after it had fell from my bed on to the bunk below. Poor Lydia got some really bad bites on that train too, and my bde was dirty before I swaped the sheets with an empty bunk next door. Disgusting. But the good news is our last night train has been cancelled due to flooding of the tracks between Hue and Hanoi, hurray! So in a couple of days we are getting an unscheduled flight but I dont think anyone is complaining!
So that just leaves Hoi An, its a very nice town but I would have liked longer there because I wasn't well and missed out on these very nice pain au chocolat. So I (again) spent most of the day by the pool feeling sorry for myself. I had wanted to get a dress tailored but I just couldn't be bothered to go back and I figured I probably won't be the same size as when I get back so it would be a bit pointless! I think now I was feeling a bit rough from not drinking enough water, so hopefully I'll be better from now on. We had planned to go to the beahc in the afternoon but it had started to rain again so that plan was off and instead we went to see some historical places in Hoi An. The only really interesting one we found by accident, I think it was called something to do with handicrafts, but you got to see the silk worms at different stages and how they get the silk, which I never knew and there was these women sat embroiding (I think thats what it's called) pictures but they were so so detailed and vivid, if I had more money I definately would have bought one, but I only could have afforded a little one and they weren't nearly as striking. i did buy a lamp though .. not entirely sure how its getting home yet but I like it and it was only $6, I'm sure I can work something out with my lovely cousin when she flies home in a couple of weeks! We went around the market for a while after but I started feeling rough again so I went back to bed for a couple of hours before we had dinner followed by a few drinks but we left Hoi An at 9 this morning so it wasn't a really late one.
We're on our way now to Hue, I'm not really sure whats there but I'm sure we'll soon find out. We just stopped for an hour at some Marble Mountain (again not sure of the name) it had some nice views but a lot of steps, not something that I really wanted to do in flip-flops and I nearly had another disaster but managed to save myself this time. But right now we're on a bus on some really twisty road heading over a mountain, again beautiful views I'm just glad I don't get motion sick! xx