So Nha Trang had to be all about ME cos it was MY BIRTHDAY during our stay there.
The overnight bus was a bit of an adventure - Ben & Ollie are frankly too tall to fit in the sleeper seats, Rox’s was cut short so even she couldn’t fit in - I was fine for space, but as many of you know, I’m a terrible sleeper at the best of times.
So, full of the joys of spring, we arrived in Nha Trang at 6.30am. Nha Trang is another seaside resort, this time on the East coast, on the South China Sea (the name SOUNDS cold). It’s a heavily French influenced town - it really reminded me of Nice or St Tropez with a huge esplanade and hotels set back from the beach.
Once again we were in a hostel, but this time with a dorm for the 4 of us which was great - a more sociable place to stay than a conventional hotel, but with enough privacy for our stupidity not to have to be shared with other backpackers.
After a bit of a snooze, we hit the beach. Rox & I had run out of suntan lotion, so Ollie let us borrow the last of his, with disastrous consequences for himself. Let’s put it this way: for once, I was the one who WASN’T burnt - Ben could have fried eggs on his stomach, Roxane had weird jigsaw shaped burns from missed bits with the lotion and poor Ollie, having sacrificed his suntan lotion to us, suffered 3rd degree burns that have lasted 3 weeks and have resulted in him being nicknamed Napalm ever since. Oops.
The Kings of Leon song “Sex on Fire” has been a bit of a feem toon for this trip, and we quickly rewrote the chorus to “My skin is on fire” which has kept us amused ever since.
I’d like to say that we did lots of cultural activities in Nha Trang, but that would be a lie, so I’ll just tell the truth: we sunbathed for 3 days.
But then came My Birthday. I was the first awake cos I was EXCITED - so I treated myself to a trip to the supermarket to buy some moisturiser (I know, crazy huh?). The guys had bought me gifts - a fab necklace from Rox, a new pashmina from Ollie & Band of Brothers DVD from Ben. How sweet of them? We had a lazy day on the beach, before heading out for Italian food (yum) and………(drum roll)………
WINE
You have no idea how exciting this was - most of you will know that I do like a glass of wine or eight, and to have gone without for two months was TORTURE so I decided to treat us to a bottle of wine - it was dreadful wine, but to me it was like milk & honey.
We had a great night at the sailing club - buckets in happy hour were only 25,000 dong (£1) for a vat of vodka and orange, Benny had a nap at the table and a tactical chunder, Ollie & I put the world to rights (if only we could remember what we’d said, I’m sure we’d make the world a better place) and Rox was sociable, making friends with some Vietnamese-Americans and helping another girl to throw up - what a trouper. We all hit the dance floor and were throwing some amazing shapes (natch) until closing at 2am. Of course, we didn’t want the party to end, so we all went on afterwards, in various shapes and forms. As we have the rule ‘what goes on tour, stays on tour’, I will draw a veil over the rest of the night - but I was first home at 5.30, followed by the boys 10 mins later and Roxy at 7.30.
An excellent birthday.
The next day was hilarious - Ben & Ollie were RUINED - and I have photos to prove it. We managed one final day on the beach, recovering from our exploits the night before, then headed on our next overnight bus to Hoi An.
Because it was getting close to Vietnamese New Year, the buses were getting full, so we ended up in the ‘human buffet’ section - the back seats, top & bottom, of the bus, where you inadvertently ended up having a cuddle with a complete stranger in the middle of the night - super. To add insult to injury, being right at the back meant that going over bumps had something in the nature of a catapult effect, with every likelihood of hitting the ceiling.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Clairestravels/VietnamNhaTrangMyBirthday#
