Oh Nha Trang, what a good time you were. We arrived early morning on the overnight bus from Hoi an to the same usual asking if you want a tuk tuk and having brochures thrown in your face the second you get off the bus. We already booked our hostel so before debating on wether to take a motorbike taxi for 20 000 dong a person we decided better to walk. (We heard its not that big.) Turns out after walking in the wrong direction we took a taxi with a metre. Alot of people will try and convince you to pay big money and wont turn the meter on making the journey double the price. So we get in, went one street in the taxi and realized our hostel is about a 3 minute walk from the bus station and the taxi ahead of us paid 100 000 dong and we paid 12000 dong. Rip off. For them.
We arrived at our hostel, took advantage of some skype time and by 10am we were all floating on a boat heading to 3 differnt islands. Turns out you have to pay for the boat, and then pay to get on the island so we did 2/3. We went snorkeling, played beach football before jumping off the side of the boat and having shots of wine while floating. Luxury. After lunch our boat had a little band and they made us do Karaoke. ( not necessarily my idea of fun with a voice like mine on a little tiny boat full of people, but hay)
Our hostel allocated everyone a free shot from the bar out front and on the flyer a free drink for girls, or boys that dress up like girls. So... hehe being in a group of 10 girls and 10 guys we gave each one a dress, some earings, makeup and Tom blonde HAIR EXTENSIONS. Oh yes, I will be posting photos of them soon. And went out front to claim our free drinks. Now I would say this paid off very well for them and they seemed to get more than 1 free drink. We played pool at the red apple while drinking very strong buckets before moving on down the street.
Tom was on fire, he played Jai for money and won before a complete stranger came upto me and asked me where my friend was that was playing for money. The most intense game of pool, a large amount of money was on this and Tom was 5 balls ahead (still dressed as a lady) before missing the black ball a good 8 times before Jon had to have a quick word and he sunk quite a hard shot. He won 750,000 dong that night.
We'd been in a few different bars, along the one road, but now it was time to move on, there was one more place we were going to go, right down the street we had the whole group together. Tom and a few boys walking ahead, Fiona- her boyfriend Darragh and I walking in the middle and a few others in the group behind. So Darragh says hes going to wee and we kept walking. We were about half way between bars when 3 motorbikes pulled along side Fiona and I and then in front blocking our path and 3 people came up behind us- one of them grabbing Fiona from behind and shaking her saying ''you so beautiful lady'' and me frantically trying to push them away while 2 others went through her pockets. They let go and I grabbed Fiona and ran straight to the bar, thinking how odd because Darragh should have caught us up by now, I explained to Tom what happened and 3 of the boys ran back to find him. Everyone now was in a little panic but we stayed in a group and all walked back to the first bar together to find Darragh had just had a knife pulled on him in. But being a sound guy, headbutted the feller, punched another and ran away.
Now before coming here we heard stories from travellers saying that if you go through Nha Trang without getting anythign stolen you are considered quite lucky. They have a massive problem with prostitues on the beaches and streets who are the ones known to rob you. Anbd apparently it's one of the only towns left in Vietnam, mainly controlled by Mafia type people.
But we had a few drinks, took the same necessary percautions as always (pac safe under the clothes blah blah) but they got her camera. Could have been worse but Oh her camera.
T.
3 guys drove back up to us outside our hotel and waved us over, so Darragh and I went to see what they wanted, well he stormed over, and i was just trying to calm him down as much as i could, because as you can imagine by now, he was fired up!
They pulled out their camera, and started saying that they wanted a reward for being the good guys. I asked him where he got it, and why he was returning it, knowing full well that this guy isnt going to go out of his way to get a foreigners camera back. And if he was so nice, he'd would've given it over for free.
So after asking Darragh if that was their camera, i got it from him and chucked it to Darragh. The guy then started to say about his reward and i replied, OK lets wait for the police then you'll get it. To which he promptly started his banged up old bike and did one.
All that being said, we still had one of the best nights of our holiday in Nha Trang, all of us blokes dressed as women was priceless. We all had women's names, mine being Tina, and if you called one of the other draggers by their man name, you had to do a shot. We got hammered, and best of all for Kels and I we still went home with more money than we came out with! Happy days!
I will say one thing i learnt in Nha Trang. Jon Forbes is a bad influence, one minute he's going to bed, and the next it's 6 in the morning, i cant see, speak and am struggling to breathe but still playing pool and doing shots.
Steer clear of this man, because even though he's a legend, he'll rub off on you, and you'll be very drunk. As most of you know i lead a quiet life in England, but he ruined that. Him AND Michael Jorgensen. Michael just loves life far too much, it's infectious, and Jon is constantly on a mission to get me battered. Very unfair.
We'd intended to go to Dalat for trekking etc, through what we'd heard word-of-mouth. However reading it over in Jon's Lonely Planet, it said it's highlight was "A Long walk round a man-made lake", we decided to swerve it and go straight to Mui Ne. A coastal town, quite small, meant to be beautiful.
But then again, it was in Jon's book and as you now all know, he's on a mission.
Next stop Mui Ne! (well not really, next stop right now is Angkor Wat, but as it's known, we're a bit behind)
Peeeaaaace!
No comments:
Post a Comment