Hello readers,

I hope you are all well! We are just catching up on the blog - so we're posting two entries today, starting where we last left off in Hoi An...

We left Hoi An on an overnight bus heading for Nha Trang. This time we got our seats on the bottom of the bus at the back so we had a bit more room. Half way through the journey they picked up a few locals who slept in the aisles, so it was a bit awkward for Christina who was in the middle of the bus with two Vietnamese men sleeping either side of her! We were woken up at 5.30am by the bus driver pumping some really loud 80s music. As we drove along the coast we noticed that all of the locals were already up and on the beach - so we went for a restaurant breakfast at 6am. Later that day, Josh got fresh lobster cooked on the beach whilst Christina got really sunburnt (despite being under a brolly the whole time). Nha Trang is completely different from Hoi An, it is a town full of high-rise hotels running along the beach - really ugly in comparison. That night we went to a restaurant and ate from the all you could eat Vietnamese Street Food menu - so it was really good to taste all the different types of food.

The next day we went on a boat trip, they separated us from the Vietnamese people we arrived with and put us on a boat named Funky Monkey which had a few other Westerners on it (you'll see why shortly!). We've got to mention the Russian guy, who was really nice but a definite alcoholic - he was hilarious, he had actually done the trip before but couldn't remember it as he was so drunk. There were also these American boys who were trying to chat up these French girls - it was so cringey. The boat trip took us to an aquarium and then we went snorkelling in the sea. We then stopped for lunch, a few other boats pulled up and were all linked together. After lunch the people from the other boats all got onto our boat for some entertainment - a band started playing songs like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and were actually really good. Then a guy got up who introduced himself as Funky Monkey and asked all the Westerners where they were from…he then started pulling up people on stage - first of all it was the French girls who had to sing Frère Jacques. Then it was our turn, so we headed up to the stage in front of about 40 odd Vietnamese people, all filming it and taking pictures. He gave us a mic and started singing The Beatles - Hey Jude, and made us sing along (apart from Christina new NONE of the words, so just stood there turning red). After everyone else's performances, a conga line and doing the twist, he then announced it was time to jump in the water. We all jumped in and they threw us tyres to float in. There was a man on a floating bar giving out free shots, which was great until we noticed we were all covered in oil from the boat.

The next day was another action packed day. First of all we went to a museum/aquarium that had been recommended by the guide book. We looked at a few fish and a whale skeleton and then realised that the place was completely infested with rats - so we stomped our way out of there (literally to scare the rats!). We then got on the cross sea cable car to Vinpearl which is an amusement/waterpark. Josh went to the toilet and came out to find Christina reluctantly having photos taken with some Vietnamese men. After that we spent the day on the waterslides, the aquarium (third one in two days!) and on the rides. One of the rides took us all the way to the top of the mountain, there was then a track all the down and we controlled the speed. It would have been great fun if the guy in front of us wasn't constantly putting the brakes on - so we crashed into him at the end - which his friends found hilarious. The following day we decided to chill out after an action packed two days, which was just as well as there was a massive storm and the roads turned into rivers!

We left Nha Trang on a bus to Da Lat which was described as similar to the French Alps. The bus journey was horrendous! EVERY single person on the bus except for us were throwing up in plastic bags - it was absolutely disgusting! When we got to Da Lat we decided it was just cold and drizzly and not at all like the French Alps, so we left the following day and headed to Mui Ne.

Our hotel in Mui Ne was great; we could literally walk out our room and onto the beach. The sea had really strong currents and giant waves which were fun but a bit worrying when you realised you had been pulled about half a mile down the coast without even realising. On the first night we went to a restaurant which was recommended in our guide book (which we now know to be hopeless for finding hotels and restaurants), the service was awful and when we saw a rat run under a couples table next to us we quickly left!

Mui Ne is famed for its sand dunes so the next day we decided to go on a Jeep tour around the area. We started by getting dropped off at a muddy stream and being directed to walk down it, we were not impressed until we got round the bend and saw that it turned into a giant multi-coloured sand canyon which was beautiful. Josh attempted to scramble up the steepest and highest side but was beaten by the heat and exhaustion so didn't quite make it, no one else even attempted it. After the stream we carried on the tour to a dry red sand canyon, which was nowhere near as impressive as Pai canyon that we went to in Thailand last month. People had carved their names into the sand walls so we did the same and then left. We went past a fishing village and then onto the white sand dune desert where we hired a couple of quad bikes or ATV's as everyone else in the word calls them. The sand dunes were amazing and it was like being in the middle of the Sahara desert, the only downside was that the quads were really battered and old, Josh's seat wasn't even attached to the bike!!! This didn't stop him from doing donuts and going flat out up the dunes though. Christina also got hers stuck halfway up a dune so Josh had push it out whilst also burning his leg on the wheel spinning tyre. On the way back we stopped at some more red sand dunes but it started to rain so no one got out the Jeep. The next day we got the bus to Saigon.

To be continued ...........