When reading in the Lonely Planet book, Nha Trang is highlighted as one of the main areas that tourists visit in Vietnam if you are looking for a nice beach... so another 12 hour overnight bus journey down from Hoi An and here we are! The over night bus we took down was once again a really nice bus with proper beds so we all managed to get at least some sleep inbetween the driver slamming on his breaks every 2 mins and papping his horn every 10 seconds, but thats just normal here, and they still do it all through the night just to annoy you, why they don't just learn to drive properly I'll never know. As I explained in our previous blog we are getting even closer to Tet now so we expected it to be harder to get some reasonably cheap rooms, but it was actually quite easy, we headed to the main backpacker area which is on the beach front, and within a small courtyard of hotels we found one for $10 for the three of us, Lau, Me and Sandra. We decided that as we had been travelling all night and hadn't seen a beach for some time all we were goning to do was hit the beach, so we did. The beach seemed really nice at first and the sea was nice too, but after leaving the beach for lunch and then returning two hours later it was totally different, it was as if someone had emptied a bin in the sea there just seemed so much rubbish, but we managed to find a area that wasnt too bad and finish the day snoozing in the sun. In between doing nothing, relaxing and eating on our first day we also managed to book a boat trip for the following day to visit four of the islands off the coast, the trip included some snorkelling, buffet lunch, drinks at a floating bar in the middle of the ocean and visiting the islands, and it only cost £3 each for the day... so cheap! With paying so little we didnt know what to expect, but just as we were waiting for the bus to collect us for the trip our American friend Rob and his pal Guy popped in - they had just checked in to the hotel opposite us and decided to come too, so it was gonna be fun whatever! The first island we visited was about 30mins off shore and had a aquatic center on it which you had to pay extra for, but we've seen so many before we decided to relax by the pier instead of going in, the others went in and said it wasn't that great so it seems we didn't miss out. We then went to another island where we anchored up just off shore and snorkelled for around a hour or so, it wasnt amazing but it was enough to wet our apertite for when we do our scuba diving in Thailand. By this time Laura was saying how hungry she was so I knew it was lunch soon and after sailing for another 30mins or so we stopped in the middle of the ocean next to another boat and had the biggest buffet lunch and it was really good food. After we had finished eating (well, everyone but Finchy, who continued to eat untill the staff came to clear the table!) the crew on the next boat got out a guitar, drum kit and bass and the three crew members and one singer played music and games , it was really good fun! Then came the best part - we all got given a small rubber ring, and floating about 30 yards away from the boat was a little old man floating in another rubber ring with some kind ocf local alcohol, so we had to float over to him and surround him in the middle of the sea while he served us from his makeshift floating bar! I'm not sure what it was we drank but by the end I think it was just sea water! It was then to the last island which was a beautiful little beach where we relaxed and drank beer in the afternoon sun before heading back to shore for our hotels... it was such a good trip and for the money we payed it was amazing. Later that night we ate local street food which was called Bo something (i forgot) but basically it comes out on a sizzling plate and you get a fried egg, a piece of steak in a tomato sauce, a salad on the side and a baguette and it was really nice... and cheap too, i would defo have it again. We didnt stay out too late that night as in the morning we had another bus to catch further south for 4 hours to a place called Mui Ne as this is where we have decided to meet our friends Patric and Paul to spend Tet... and of course Valentines day... and mum and dads anniversary and... no thats it! x