We arrived in Nha Trang at 7 am after a surprisingly comfortable overnight bus from Hoi An. Although we had managed some decent sleep there had been a small amount of drama when at 9:30 pm we had pulled over on the side of the road as there was some sort of engine problem. The comedy that ensued was more than enough to make up for the inconvenience of the delay as out of nowhere more and more Vietnamese men kept appearing to lend a hand. The back of the bus was evacuated to allow them to get into the engine and the girls that were sleeping there were roped into torch holding to assist in the delicate operations which seemed to involve hitting things with hammers and spanners. Tom scoffed at these primitive methods especially when a battered old tool box appeared from the front of the bus. He was sure that much more sophisticated equipment would be required. However, when the engine roared to life 30 minutes later he was forced to eat his words and marvel at the effects a bit of a good bash could have on a dying engine!

As we first entered Nha Trang we were desperate for a glimpse of the ocean and the famous beach and we were not disappointed, of course it was greeted with the familiar call of 'I can see the sea!' We checked into the first hotel we were dropped at as the price was good and after showering and breakfasting as necessary we were straight down to the beach, books and towels in hand. As is often the case with these things that you eagerly await it's never as good as you imagine and by 4pm in spite of the lovely sand and blue sea we were already bored and slightly lobster like. We spent the evening getting to grips with the town which we found mainly catered to the tourists on package holidays with the western style bars and restaurants and had a few drinks in a local bar.

The following day we had booked ourselves on a boat trip which visited various islands off the Nha Trang coast and when we were picked up at 8am a couple of the Vietnamese guys on the trip had already got the beer flowing! It was a boiling hot day and the trip involved a visit to an island aquarium where we saw some enormous fish and sharks much to Tom's delight. The second island we moored at was for swimming and snorkeling and although I didn't want to do the snorkeling as it would mean using the gross equipment that had been in other people's mouths I did pluck up the courage to jump into the sea off the top of the boat after a good 5 minutes of squealing, the water was lovely and I had to pinch myself when I remembered that it was Monday morning and I was swimming around a tropical island! We ate lunch on the boat and then were treated to an immense performance by the crew who performed songs from around the world using a battered old guitar and a drum kit made out of buckets and metal containers, it was ingenious! The Vietnamese guy who had been guzzling the beers all morning then did some great sexy dancing in his swim shorts much to the entertainment of everyone. Following lunch it was time for the 'floating bar' which was essentially the tour guide in a rubber ring with a bottle of wine in his hand. The final stop was a deserted little beach where we sunbathed and were generally lazy for an hour. It was a great day of the sort that we hadn't had yet and we met a couple from Yorkshire who we hung out with later that night and Tom and Mike discovered their shared fishing passion, cue talk about rigs and bait for the next 45 minutes…

Our final day in Nha Trang was much the same as the first except the weather wasn't so good and although we sat on the beach and I swam in the sea there was little chance of us getting burnt. In the evening we treated ourselves to a lovely dinner at a more expensive beachside restaurant which was full of holidaymakers rather than frugal backpackers and we even had dessert which was immense. Tom's indulgence was a cinnamon apple crumble and for me, cheesecake, aaah it was heavenly!

Next, onto Mui Ne, another beach spot but this time with sand dunes and the little known sport of sand sledging!