Hi all! For some reason an entire story has disappeared, so will re-write. Ian remains unwell, persistent headache and lethargy. After an unsuccessful attempt to see a Dr in Nha Trang he is heading back to Saigon to find a Dr via the Australian Embassy. Have spoken to him this morning, and he is packed and ready to go, and hoping to catch us back up soon. Hayley and I are continuing to travel north up the coast and arrived in Quy Nhon around lunchtime yesterday. We had a nice time in Nha Trang, although the heat made it difficult to do much. Last year we met some waitresses at a mexican restaurant, and we were looking forward to seeing them again, but when we arrived, the restaurant had since closed. The day before we left we were walking up the road when a very excited vietnamese girl flung her arms around us, and it was one of the waitresses! She contacted her friend and we all went for coffee, was so nice to see them again! We had a really fun night out with them last year, and they remembered everything, so was fun to chat and swap presents, I got a bag of coffee! We had dinner in a French restaurant where one of the girls, Dung-Le now works. We both had pasta and shared a chocolate mousse, the food was good, but very rich.
We caught another sleeper train to Quy Nhon, it took about 5hrs. The corridors in the train were so narrow we had to take our backpacks off to get through. Hayley did her usual and slept for the most part. The scenery was beautiful, coastal for a lot of the way, then returning to countryside. Fields of sugarcane, corn, coffee, flowers and rice paddies. All the work is done by hand with basic tools and ploughs pulled by bullocks, looks like a hard life. We are staying at the Royal Hotel @ Healthcare Resort booked via agoda. There are only 5-6 hotels catering for tourists, and as yet have seen no other westerners. Very few english speakers. The hotel/resort is huge, although there are very few people staying here, the staff seriously out number the guests. It takes about 5mins to walk through the gardens to the restaurant for breakfast, which was a huge buffet style, with lots of things we hadn't seen before, black cubed jelly, something that looked like a bowl of caviar, gelatenous rice things, but also eggs, tomato, sausage (kind of), bacon, bread, fruit.... so all good. We were the only people there.... so service was good! Our room is huge with wicked aircon, big bathroom and a good sized bacony overlooking the bay ( about 20 metres from beach). Nice to sleep to the sound of the waves! The beach is about 5-6 kms long and we went for a good walk yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately the beach was incredibly dirty, with lots of stuff washed up... various foods, the odd shoe, plastic bags, wire, planks and even a fluorescent light all dumped by the little fishing boats and occasional freighter in the bay, so swimming at the beach is off the agenda. Luckily the hotel has a massive pool! Despite the garbage on the beach the scenery is very pretty, the hills are green with tropical plants, and coconut palms dot the place. Sunset was awesome from our balcony, and the hotel has lovely gardens. It is overcast today, so we are in heaven, about to go for a long walk. Love to all! Glad you enjoyed your trip Chris! Say hi to John! Great to hear your voice Mum, was great when we found we had IDD again. In Nha Trang, even at the top hotel, we could not dial international. Cheers! xxx
