17th February - Nah Trang - room at the inn?

Despite being sold two "luxury sleeper" tickets back in crazy Hanoi our bus was neither luxurious nor did we manage to get any sleep! The combination of an infestation of extremely fast and jumpy baby cockroaches, poorly inflated tires on potholed roads and the by now familiar and only form Vietnamese road communication, the horn, meant sleep was simply not an option, so I instead resigned myself to 9hrs listening to Simon and Grafunkl's Greatest Hits on loop in a bid to calm myself enough to at least doze. Alicia as annoyingly as ever, was out like a light! In situations like this I have learnt to try and look at the positives in order to trick myself in to a better state of mind, and in this instance my solstice was provided by the local Vietnamese we picked up en-route to join an already packed bus. Whilst I genuinely felt for there sardine like plight in the isles of the bus, it did lead to me feeling much more appreciative of my seat.

At around 4am, the bus screeched to a halt and we were summoned to attention by our Nazi conductor who marched up and down the bus kicking the seats and screeching Nah Twang, Nah Twang, get off bus, Nah Twang. To be dropped off at 4am when we had expected 7am earliest came, as you would expect, as somewhat of a shock and it was only later that day that we cottoned on to their ploy knowing full well they wouldn’t get a full departing bus were tourists aware they would be left to fend for themselves in the middle of a big town at 4 in the morning, they advertised the arrival time as 7am. Anyway, the commadery amongst the outwitted travellers was quite high, and as usually happens in times of travel struggle, we teamed up with three Irish girls to go on an accommodation hunt. Surprisingly there were a few hotels still open for business but given the cheapest room was $50 a night we holed in for a few hours outside a 24hr convenience store playing sh it head, sharing stories, eating Oreos and drinking water, rock and roll!!!

Eventually people started to open shop again, and we walked around dozens of guesthouses all charging triple the normal rate (note to self, NEVER travel through Vietnam at TET). Close to giving up hope of ever finding a bed to rest our weary heads, we were approached by an angel from above accompanied by the chorus of heaven(a fat man on a motorbike)professing to own a new guesthouse round the corner. He plopped us both on the back and proceeded to drive the wrong way up a dual carriageway to the new guesthouse nearby. Usually we wouldn't accept such a proposal from a stranger on a bike, but when sleep-deprived and gagging for a clean room, anything sounds like a good plan!

Fortunately, the guesthouse was great as it was run by a family who had just opened it a few months earlier. We got the room by the kitchen and it felt like we were part of a home stay, as our hosts were so attentive and friendly the entire time. As is the norm after a long journey, we both had our showers and snoozed for a good few hours until we felt like normal human beings again... Oh the stresses and strains of travelling...

We both awoke at around 1pm and having found a laundrette to wash 10 days worth of clothes (I had been wearing the same underwear for 3days), we headed East towards what Nahtrang was most famous for, its beaches! As the promenade approached and the scent of the sea air stated to hit the my nostrils and I was becoming giddy by the prospect of a further snooze in the sand followed by a cool dip in the crystal clear waters. Sadly, the beach did not meet neither mine or Alicia’s expectations. Nahtrang had been sold as the beach capital of Nam and yes, it did have a beach, but you couldn’t really see it for the wash of tourists (mainly Vietnamese) and accompanying rubbish which had also littered the water. Alicia and I were starting to learn a VERY valuable lesson for any future trip to Vietnam, DO NOT TRAVEL AT TET. It would appear Nah Trang is also a very popular holiday destination for the local population making it feel more like Blackpool in its heyday than a South East Asian tropical paradise. To its credit however, you could see the place had potential and without the mass of people and rubbish, it would probably have been better appreciated by Alicia and I. As ever, we both made the most of the tools we had been given and following finding a spot on the beach, settled down to a few hours of sun bathing. Considering our surroundings, we had a very pleasant and relaxing afternoon.

Our evening entertainment was the beginning of Con Air, followed by some Thai food and an early night in preparation for a fuller days exploring on day2 in Nah Trang.

16th Feb 2010: Down the coast to Nha Trang

We decided to be smart about our travels the next day, so instead of taking a taxi we hired a bike for the day and set off on our adventure back to the beach. We had a coach to take that evening, so we had to check out, leave our bags behind reception and set off for a bit of beach action before our trip that evening.
Cycling doesn't come that naturally to me (apparently I look like a bit of a donkey on a bike) but I have to say that, despite the traffic and motorcycles, I felt fairly confident cycling in Vietnam! Maybe it was because so many people cycle, that I felt some sort of safety in numbers on the road..
We got to the beach which was absolutely packed (again) and searched for another bargain restaurant and deck chair combo. Unfortunately this time round we weren't as lucky. Yes we did manage to secure free deck chairs in exchange for a promise that we would have lunch in the restaurant, but, when we received our grilled fish it was completely off! Chewy, smelly and rather similar to cat food, Leon and I had no choice but to complain and return the terrible fish. The manager did give us some amazing garlic prawns in exchange but we were a little upset that they tried to pawn off some old fish to us. Some people never learn.
After another glorious day of sun bathing and swimming in the sea, we cycled back, grabbing some baguettes on the way, all ready for our journey for the evening. We had to wait in the travel agency for hours until the bus eventually arrived, and the scramble to get onto the sleeper coach was one of the funniest sights I have ever seen. About 25 people were following this coach around as it was trying its best to turn round in the road, almost knocking people off their feet because they were just following it so as to get onto the coachh first. Luckily we had learnt the trick of getting one person to man the bags, whilst the other one queued, so we secured some ground floor beds next to each other. The man who conducted the coach was evil however, and kept shouting at everyone (including me!) to take off their shoes, not use the toilet etc....we could tell this going to be VERY long journey!