I got off the night bus from Hoi-an to Nha-trang at 7am....I officially hate the night bus now!!! I checked into the first hotel the bus stopped at...I got the cheapest room for $8 on the fifth floor...no elevator. I was getting my exercise for sure! I got to take a nap, and hit the city!
Because it was my birthday, I treated myself to a manicure, a shampoo, and style! A shampoo in an Asian salon is quite different...they massage your head and it only costs a 1.50!!! I had seen a nice restaurant on my way to the salon...there I met a young waitress named Bach Duong...I told her it was my birthday and she went above and beyond to make it special!!!! I tried the local specialty...claypot catfish, which was amazing!!!!!!! I walked on down the road back to the hotel...feeling like my birthday couldn't get any better, when I met an Italian dive instructor! He pulled me into a bar embarrassing the hell out of me, yelling silly phrases in broken English, there at the Le Cabranon, I met Ute, Sven...and a few other Americans. I got to play pool, badly, and ran off to the Sailing Club for some dancing...the energy in this place was phenomenal!!!! I had one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time!!!! The only thing that was not so cool was almost getting robbed by lady-boys!!! The Italian Dive Instructor was walking me home to the hotel...which proved to be lucky for me!!!!! Moto drivers were offering us rides all along the way...so when another moto pulled up, no big deal, but what was odd was that there were two on the bike...my brain registered that these women were wearing a lot of make-up, and were by themselves? Very unusual!!! They started off with the usual pitch "Want Moto ride?"...they started toward us and the Italian started shoving!!!! These were actually guys!!!! I had heard about this scam where these nefarious individuals would get near you...you didn't have to be on the bike...and they would distract you by INAPPROPRIATE touching and lift your wallet, loose money, cellphones..etc. I think if I had been alone that I would've lost my purse and had a couple of bruises...instead I had a tall Italian guy whose friends had just been robbed like this a couple of days before!!!! I was delivered out of harm's way and my next few days in Nha Trang were uneventful, thank goodness.
I was then on my way to Mui Ne in search of the sun.
