View from the train
We got our first train in Vietnam, the first class air con was a room with two bunk beds, and they were very clean and comfy, the station was also clean and it was minimum hassle to get on the train. I was really impressed until the train started to pick up speed and started to sound like a wailing banshee. I thought that there was the biggest thunderstorm going on outside - I think that they desperately need some WD40 on the rails here! Anyway the view coming into Nha Trang at 5:30am was very beautiful, see above.
El and I got a cyclo each (cycle rickshaw with the seat at the front, you feel like you are in a pram) and raced each other to the hotel, I even made my poor old driver get out so I could beat her!
We again met up with Carolin here, our biggest travel buddy, 5 times so far we have met up and we might catch up in Kula Lumpar to make it 6.
Choosing the lobster
Nha Trang is one of the strangest towns we have ever been too. The trucks play "happy birthday" when reversing and the ice cream trolleys plays some kind of Xmas tune, You can get lobster on the beach for $10 and every 5 minutes some kid drives up in a moto to sell you a fake photocopied book, first time ever for that in Asia, could be a really good service if the books were real.
The place has a massively high level of tourism which we did not like but on the flip side 5 mins out of the main area we had a great night, eating on a street stall and drinking the local brewed beer with a big crowd of locals who keep telling us 1-2-3 YO! (cheers) and kept on asking "you drinking - yes!" they even bought us a plate of vegetables and one of them came up to me to apologise for his drunk friends, lovely people and a great night out.
The first day we took a cable car over the sea to an island off the coast (very cool) where they have a water park. Eleanor had never been to one (Francis and Celia, you are bad parents!) so I was really excited to see her face after a big slide.
First off we all went down a multi-slide slide all together, they had mats with a stiff curve at the end with handles, so you could only go down head first. The stupid designers of park had the slide end up right at the end of the slide in a foot of water. This meant that the mat met the water first and was pushed up into your face, I thought that I had broken my nose and El did not look too happy but we tried a few more out with the same result. Last off we tried a slide that shot you into a large cylinder that then dumped you into a pool, it look very cool and did not use the mats so we thought that we would be ok.
I went first and the guy told me to grasp my head as I went down, no problem I said, all was OK until it shot me into the cylinder, the force tore my hand from my head and smashed my head into the wall, then it dumped me into the pool...nice. We all had headaches for the next hour and decided to give the rest of the park a miss :-)
Not happy at the park
We went diving with the sailing club the next day, our first fun dive after our divemaster course, we had to take a picture of the diving rosta board: Kieran and Eleanor Divemasters!!! The first dive was really good and we got to see a lot of things that we have not seen before, but are both looking forward to other places now.
We are now off to Hoi An a world heritage city that is known for its tailors, yay shopping!!!!! We had to get the tickets on the black market as 4000 students are traveling up and down the country taking their entrence exams, bless them.
Just finished the Time Travelers Wife, really good book if anyone needs to get a present for someone :-)
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment