20th October

After arriving at 5:40am we made the short walk to our hotel and were able to check in straight away.We had booked the hotel in Hoi An at $12 a night, but when we were asked if we had booked the $12 or $15 a night room wecouldn't remember and just said probably the $15 a night.With that we arrived at the door of our room and the lady let us in.She went right the way through the room and opened up another door which led to our very own balcony!It was huge aswell, with awesome views out over the whole of Nha Trang!As soon as the lady left our room we unpacked some stuff and were about to have a power nap when the phone rang.We were then told that we hadnt booked the $15 dollar a night room, but the $12 instead, and this room didn't even have a window let alone a balcony.We didn't really fancy downgrading to the crap room, so we decided to splash out the extra $3 a night and stay in a bit of luxury for a few days.That was all quickly sorted out, so we got down to sleeping for a few hours.

We woke up about 11:30 suitably refreshed, and as the weather was perfect we decided to hit up the beach which was a few minutes walk away (this was after we had ordered our breakfast to the room which we ate on the balcony!!).As we got to the beach we could see that there was a fair bit of rubbish right on the edge.This was pretty minging, so we decided to walk further up the beach until it had cleared some what.The problem was, it didn't really clear, so we decided to head back in the other direction to see if that was any clearer.No such luck.So after a bit of sunbathing and yo-yoing up and down the beach we decided to try and find a pool instead to cool off in.We walked up the road again looking for somewhere called the Louisiana Brewery which apparently had a pool you could use provided you used the bar/restaurant.After about 20 minutes of walking we gave up on finding this place and headed into the beach for one last look.Luckily we had walked far enough up the beach by this point, the crystal clear water had no rubbish at all, so we promtly jumped in.We spent a good 30-40 minutes splashing/swimming around before heading back to the hotel to freshen up.

For dinner I had a hankering for a curry so we headed out to find a curry house.We had been given a leaflet on the beach earlier in the day advertising a place called Omars which said they did the best curry in town, and they did not dissappoint!As we were leaving there, we were handed another leaflet advertising a place called the blue gecko, which said a free margarita cocktail with every drink.Well this was enough to convince Laura to try it out so we went straight there.When we got there we ordered two big bottles of beer (for about 33p each! Bargain!) and got our free cocktails….which were actually quite nice.Two girls we had met on the sleeper bus then came into the bar, so we spent the rest of the night chatting to them before heading back to our hotel about 11:30 (not exactly rock n roll I know!!).

21st October

The next day we were up bright and early as we had booked an island touring boat trip for $6 (about 4 pound) each.We quickly had breakfast on the balcony again, and the bus came to pick us up about 8:30, which took us to the dock where we all hopped on to a boat.In total there were about 30 of us on this boat, and a pretty good mix of nationalities including some Dutch, Aussies, Americans, Irish, Swedish, Chinese, Luxembourgians (?!?) and a few Vietnamese.

Our first stop on the boat trip was an aquarium on Mieu Island.It was a fairly small aquarium, but had some cool fish and turtles and eels and small sharks and stuff, so was pretty good!After that we all got back on the boat and headed out to Mot Island.Here we were all given a snorkel and goggles and jumped in to see the coral and fish.This was AMAZING!There were loads of brightly covered fish swimming around us and the odd cuttlefish too.Snorkelling was abit weird at first, but we soon got used to it.We were there for about 45 minutes before we were back on the boat again and heading for Tam Island.We anchored down about 200m off the island and had lunch.15 of us went up on to the top deck, while the rest stayed for lunch on the bottom deck.The food was amazing and included noodles with tofu, stir fried veg, some eggy stuff, king prawns and some amazing grilled fish dish.As soon as we had finished lunch we were all called back down to the lower deck where the boat crew had set up an impromtu band! They had a lead guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer and a singer, and were actually really good!They did two local songs first, then started picking on people on the boat to sing along with them to a song of their nationality.The first person they picked on was an old Aussie bloke, and they Waltzing Matilda.Next they picked Laura…..obviously she wasn't up for it in the slightest, so after about a minute of badgering from the crew they gave up on her and picked someone else.This lasted for about another 40 minutes after which there was 'the floating bar!'.This involved one of the crew sitting out in the sea in a make-shift dingy while we all floated around him in little floating rings and him pouring us loads of rum and pineapple punch (which tasted horrible!).This was awesome too, and during this time we were all able to jump off the top of the boat and stuff.

About an hour later we all got back on the boat and we set sail for Mieu Island again where we docked at a beach.It was 20,000dong to use the beach (about 66p) so being cheap, we decided to just got for a little swim around the boat.Here we got chatting to one of the Aussie blokes.He was 63 years old and touring through Vietnam with his two buddies who had both served in the Vietnam war.He kept us thoroughly entertained for about an hour, telling us stories before we got back on the boat where his two mates started talking to us too.They were all hilarious and were telling us where they were stationed and how the country had changed since they were here last etc.They were all from Sydney and so also told us of the places to see when we get there for Christmas and new year.They also asked what we were doing for Christmas dinner, because if we had no plans, we couldn't spend Christmas alone, and that they would have us round to theirs for food!!Anyway, they've given us their addresses and phone numbers and have told us to meet up with them for a beer or two while we are there haha.

By this time we were just arriving back in the port.We got off the boat, and on to some minibuses which took us straight back to the hotel for about 5pm.We were pretty shattered after that day, so after we got showered and changed we went out and got a pizza to takeaway and ate that back in the hotel room.

22nd October

Again we had breakfast on the balcony, before going downstairs and hiring bikes for the day!We left the hotel and headed for Nha Trang Cathedral.The traffic is no-where near as bad as places like Hanoi, but its still an experience cycling on the roads.After a quick look around the church we headed to the Long Son Pagoda.While we were looking around the temple at the bottom of the hill one of the guards decided to give us a quick tour.He showed us one of the places of worship, and then took us to go and see the sleeping buddha, taking some photos of us along the way!After seeing these, we had to climb to the top to see the Giant Seated Buddha, which was pretty impressive.We then headed slightly out of Nha Trang to the Po Nagar Cham towers which are on the bank of the Cai river.There were pretty cool views of the harbour below from here, and the towers themselves were unlike anything else we'd seen in Vietnam.There were little shrines in each of the towers and were all filled with burning incense, so we didn't hang around there for too long!

As the weather was baking hot, and I was sweating like I've never sweated before, we cycled another 3.5km to the Thap Ba hot springs.Here we paid 100,000dong each (about 3.50 pound) and were treated to a mud bath, followed by some hydrojets, then we were asked to sit in a steaming hot pool.Apparently its good for the skin and all that, but I'm not convinced.We then went under a waterfall for a bit followed by a swim in the pool.This pool however was at 38 degrees, and not exactly what I wanted on the hottest day I can remember, so we quickly headed to the cool pool for a dip instead (much better!).We then lounged by the pool for a while having a bit of a read and a chill out.The weather slowly turned, and it went from baking hot sun to pouring down rain.With that we went for our final dip in the pool before getting changed.As we were leaving another Aussie bloke and his vietnamese girlfriend/friend/mistress/sex slave started chatting to us.They insisted on giving us their phone numbers and addresses of some hotels in Saigon we should use as they had just come from there.They were nice enough, but a little bit weird!!

We cycled back to the hotel just as the rain was stopping, so we didn't get too wet.As we got back near the hotel we dropped by a shop to pick up some cheap ipod speakers so we can listen to some music in our hotel rooms now which is nice.On the way back we also scouted out somewhere to have food that night.We decided on a place called Truc Linh, so after getting showered and changed we headed back there.

The food was amazing!! To start we had tomato soup and spring rolls, and for our mains (we were treating ourselves this night!) I had a grilled tuna steak with stir fried veg and pasta with tamarind sauce (yes that was one main, not me being greedy!) and Laura had clay pot cooked chicken with rice.The food was amazing!! And all in all the meal (and two beers) came to 237,000 dong (about 8pound) so you cant complain at that!By this time it was getting pretty late, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night!