Nha Trang

Written on the 16/2/2012

As soon as we stepped off the bus at Nha Trang, the taxi/tuc tuc drivers were at the door of the coach waiting for their next fare. This is usual and it kind of feels like being a superstar with all the paparazzi and journalists waiting for you. Anyway no sooner had I gathered the luggage together, miss Alex had a tout with a nice ring binder with nice pictures of a nice guesthouse for us to stay in. So we decided we’d give it a look, then the tout handed miss Alex a helmet. I instantly burst into laughter as this meant one thing. Crazy frog!!! Normally it’s a taxi ride to the accommodation but this time it was a bike. For some reason miss Alex on the back of a bike with her Cath Kidson bag and a saggy helmet is enough to make me giggle like a girl. Even to the point where on the back of my bike I managed to fumble my camera from my bag and take pictures of miss Alex looking nervous and uncomfortable on the back of her bike whizzing through traffic. From past experience I can only imagine what miss Alex was screeching down the drivers ear. The hotel we were taken to was a nice hotel and the name of it fitted it perfectly, it was called Nice Hotel. We paid $12 (£8) for the penthouse 9^th floor room with stunning views of the bay, with a balcony.

Before we went to Nha Trang we’d checked the weather, it was due to be around 28 degrees, quite colder than the usual 33 + we’ve grown used to. So we were a bit concerned about being able to top up our tans, this concern however was put to bed on the first day as we both managed to get burnt.

The first day was spent at a place on the beach front called The Louisiana Brew House. They had beds on the beach and a nice pool to relax next to. There was a cracking cake stand here and we promised ourselves a nice treat the next day as it was valentines day.

In the evening we went for a run, this turned out to be a 6 mile epic along the sea front. After Tea on the way back to the Nice Hotel miss Alex spotted a place to have drinks. It was literally someone’s living room opened up, with tiny tables and chairs that a 5 year old girl would play house with. The beer only cost 5000 dong (15p) it was strong homebrew as well. This gave us a taste for another drink so before we ended getting really drunk in the living room bar we decided to try a place we’d spotted earlier in the night called Patricks. Patrick is a typical French restaurateur, by this I mean he is a perfectionist. No sooner had we walked in he was telling me how proud he was of his 450 different varieties in wine. When I asked him for his best English wine, he laughed at me not realising I was being serious. I felt like telling him it cant be that hard the squash a few grapes barefoot to produce a good wine!!

Valentines day took us back to the Louisiana Brew House for more tanning, this time with a very high factor 15. Midday came and our little cake treat that we’d promised our selves. We had a Tiramisu cake with a cappuccino and it was finger licking good.

The evening meal was spent with miss Alex as she had accepted my request to be my valentine. The food was not as good as we’d expected really. We chose to eat at a very nice looking place on the beach front called The Sailing Club, it looked very upmarket but the service was straight out of Fawlty Towers. A cocktail bar followed, then back to Patricks for some wine and live music. Because the food wasn’t really much good at the meal, miss Alex wanted a crepe, we each had strawberry crepe and as Patrick would say it was FAN TAS TEEK!!! In one of my earlier blogs from kep I failed to mention how miss Alex had asked another French restaurateur for some butter for her jacket potato. The famous Dime Bar look followed this request and a dialogue that goes along the lines of miss Alex asking “excuse me can I please have some butter” the Frenchman says “eh” then miss Alex would ask “some butter for my potato” the Frenchman with another blank look “eh” then miss Alex imitates spreading butter onto a potato and the coin finally drops, the Frenchman says “AH BUTT TIERE!! To this day we are still not sure what the difference between butter and butt tiere is. So now Miss Alex and I sometimes say to our selves its better to say nothing than have the  blank looks.

Next day we went to an Island called Vinpearl. To get to the island we had to ride in a cable car stretching from the main land. This is the longest in the world (3k) Once on the island there was a theme park, water park and aquarium. I must say miss Alex was a little bit nervous in the cable car, 200 foot high from the sea water, but once I reassured her that if we fell it would only hurt us once I think she settled down a little. Once safely across to the island miss Alex noticed a Swinging Chair ride, that goes round like a carousel. Without hesitation she jumped on and I took the opportunity to take some photos of her screaming her head off on the ride, as she is being swung around at a million miles an hour. A lad was sick on the ride and as it came to a halt he managed to vomit on most of the fellow riders shoes and flip flops that had been left on the ground. Thankfully not miss Alex’s.

Then we headed to the Water park. After one particular slide I had to pull my shorts from my chest as I got off at the end. I looked like Simon Cowell. In front of a watching crowd was a little bit embarrassing!! Through out the day we both managed to do all the slides and had a really good laugh. One particular ride was called Tsunami, Miss Alex and me grabbed a double seated ring and before we could settle ourselves into the ring, we were pushed from the top. Imagine a skateboard half pipe, but bigger, on the first dissent down we managed to hit the other side. I think for a second we both thought we’d end up going over the side.

The underwater aquarium was also very good. But because we were in Vietnam, where maybe Health and Safety Regulations aren’t as tough as England I half expected to see something that I couldn’t see in England. Something different like a Vietnamese diver wrestling with a Shark or watching a pack of Piranha fish going to town on a school of goldfish.

After some Tea we decided to head for the theme park and do some rides, as I’m writing this I’m already thinking why did we decide to do this. Nether the less, the theme park it was and the first thing we sore was a tower with four spinning arms. The four spinning arms each had another spinning arm. This spinning arm then turned forwards and backwards, and to top it off the tower moved like a pendulum. No Chance!!!! We instead settled for the Pirate Ship that just rocks gently backwards and forwards. As soon as the ride started miss Alex and me were both looking at each other in regret. Why did we decide to do these rides after tea? It only lasted for 5 minutes and I would have loved this ride when I was younger but now I’m afraid I cant handle these rides.

After a couple of minutes to compose ourselves we headed into the indoor arcade, just to let you know this left hand that is typing this blog is the hardest hitting hand in Vinpearl. That’s right I smashed the boxing glove machine into the middle of next week and Miss Alex was witness to the new record score on the machine. Both of us managed to last the full 3 minutes on the Bucking Bronco Bull. Once again it was really funny watching miss Alex’s face as she was getting flung about on top of a bull but she did really good, and out lasted any of the Vietnamese locals, who where flying off at a rates of knots.

Today we booked a sleeper bus to Hoi An, 12 hours overnight and I’m fully expecting this to be a new worst nights sleep ever for miss Alex, who needs at least 8/9 hours undisturbed sleep per night. So a rocking bus beeping and beeping horns every 10 seconds is not the best of starts.

Speak Soon xxx