So another early start and another early train, this time we were up and out waiting for a taxi at 0445hrs. We literally walked out of our hotel and flagged a taxi down, it was very Hollywood-Esk but without the awesome wolf whistle (I must learn how to do this). Once at the train station we had to wait, even though it was the first train to depart from the first station, somehow it was still 20 minutes late.... Only in Asia!

We had booked the cheapest tickets possible, described as hard seat and indeed they were, basically a carriage full of wooden park benches nailed to the ground. We joined the crowd of Vietnamese all heading to Nha Trang or somewhere between and got a real taste of what most locals do to travel the country, none of this luxury cabins and seats we are used to at home. Also due to everyone preparing for Tet, they were all carrying boxes and boxes of food provisions.

The journey was ok I guess, not bad for 7 hours on hard seats making the most of the lovely scenery as we passed. However the last 2 hours were very difficult as the cabin became very hot due to no air con and also the numb bottom was starting to complain about the journey so we began figgiting and getting restless. Anyway we arrived in Nha Trang the beach capital of Thailand, it was still very hot even though we had travelled 7hrs North, probably high twenties at 1430hrs. We caught a taxi to our hostel which by reviews has been described as one of the best in Asia so we were excited to see what the fuss was about.

We checked in and were shown to our room. The room layout was very efficient and modern, as you enter you had about 1m square of floor space which led into the ensuite. A staircase made out of cupboards then climbs up over the ensuite where the double bed is located on like a mezzanine floor..... Very cool. Once checked in we headed to the beach to catch the last of the sun, at this point we became aware that Nha Trang is heavily populated by Russians, probably about 75%, which is not surprising considering the communist power and strong allegiance to Russia with the old hammer and sickle flag displayed everywhere in Vietnam which was once used by the USSR.

The beach was lovely, similar to Thailand with the mountains scattered around but no where near as pretty or stunning. Still beautiful though but I guess we spoiled ourselves with Thailand and will probably have to wait until Australia before we see nicer beaches to rival that of Thailand. As the beach faces out to the east we decided to go back to the hostel and visit the rooftop in order to see the sunset. It was very pretty from here, about 8 floors up and looking down over Nha Trang could have been somewhere in Greece with the White buildings and rooftop living areas scattered around.

We freshend up and went out for dinner which was ok, to be honest since leaving Thailand we haven't really had an amazing meal. The food has been ok but nothing special compared to Thailand were most meals felt special. Definitely in Cambodia and so far in Veitnam you pay about £4 - £6 for a meal and it feels like your paying that but in Thailand that price gets you a meal you would be happy to pay £12 - £15 for at home. We headed off to bed with the plan of visiting a mud spa in the morning.

Monday 18th January 2016 - rudely awaken by a horrific noise at about 0630hrs, at first it sounded like an animal but turned out to be a horny Russian girl making love ( if that's what they could call it ) to her partner. Oh my god what a noise, so loud and uneccesary. Now I was aware that hostels could be like this but I imagined it to be the odd noise and ruffling of sheets if in a dorm room but the whole hostel would have heard this and possible the whole street. This went on for over 30 minutes so no chance of getting back to sleep. Isla also woke up complaining of bites and we thought that it was maybe sand flies from the beach as since leaving Thailand we haven't seen any Mosquitos.

We headed for breakfast before renting another moped in order to travel to the mud spa called I-Resort. Again the process of renting a moped in Vietnam just puts Thailand to shame, no contract, no examining for scratches, just pay the money and off you go. We reached the spa and paid 300'000 dong each which is £10pp to have a warm mud bath for 20 minutes and then to use the rest of the spa facilities for as long as we liked.

The mud bath was so cool. A big bath, big enough for us both to lie down in, the mud was warm and felt great. We played around in it like pigs and then got out and rinsed off using high pressure showers. The resort was really good, clean, staff very atentative and the quality was high. We then went into a warm bath next to a waterfall. We skipped between the warm baths and the cold waterfall pools just relaxing and enjoying the sun before we had some lunch, which was no more expensive then we had already been paying, which was just great as we are so used to the likes of sea world or places like that where once your in they have you trapped and force you to pay high prices.

After lunch we chilled in a larger warm bath before heading back to the beach. We had to book our next train journey to Hoi An so we headed to the train station and this time booked an overnight train and managed to get what they call hard sleeper beds which sound bad but appear to be ok. We then headed back to the hostel to freshen up and we found loads of little bugs on the mattress...... That explains Isla' bites and after her experience in India a few years ago, she was not looking forwards to bedtime. We headed out for dinner and stumbled across a busy night market which had some street food restaurants. One in particular was very busy so we took a seat and had some dinner which actually turned out to be the best meal we had eaten since Thailand, maybe the food is looking up in Vietnam. We looked around the market and spotted a few things we would plan to buy before we left.

We headed back to the hostel to sleep after the rude awakening but guess what..... 2300hrs the noisy Russian was at it again. So not looking at the best nights sleep with a porn show next door and bed bugs trying to eat you in your sleep. What on earth next.........