Nha Trang, Vietnam

It’s been a while so thought it better be blog time again with a completely Vietnamese theme this time.

I left Sihankoukville with my back positively glowing. The swine flu body scanner at the border picked it up beautifully but thankfully the border staff didn’t diagnose it as Swine Flu so I haven’t spent the past 2 weeks in quarantine. We spent the night in the town of Chau Doc which is close to the border on the Mekong Delta. I had an interesting few hours. I became a cash millionaire for the first time (the thrill didn’t last long..). I had some pretty painful ulcers so also went to the chemist to try and get some Bonjela. Instead they handed me 3 packets of pills, each one containing 5 pills (1 red, 1 purple and 3 white skittles). They told me in complete confidence (via a translator..) that the ulcers will be gone by morning. I’ve no idea what they are although I did take a photo of them incase i passed out. I didn’t pass out but they didn’t help either so i hunted down some Listerine to return to a more tried and tested method. That evening we also went on a moped to watch the sunset over the Mekong Delta. Disappointingly we were all just passengers but maybe it was just as well with the number of mopeds on the road in Vietnamese cities.

The next day we transferred to Ho-Chi-Minh City (Saigon). One part of the journey was a ferry across the Mekong River. I climbed up onto the roof of the ferry. The safety standards were dodgy to say the least…there were no barriers around the roof and the life rafts looked very suspect. I tried one for size and the netting started tearing under my weight. After that bit of sabotage we continued on to Saigon arriving mid afternoon. The afternoon was spent walking around looking at some of the Colonial building before we sampled the nightlife in the evening.

In the morning I headed out to the Chu Chi tunnels to see how the Vietnamese fought the Americans. After a very amusing brainwashing/propaganda video detailing how great the ‘American killing heroes’ were, we toured round the site looking at various tunnels and traps. We then headed back to Saigon to catch the overnight train to Nha Trang. The train was very comfortable but the safety information messages were peculiar to say the least (no body corpes or remains are allowed on board…).

The next day in Nha Trang was spent on the beach. Our tour leader and his Vietnamese wife (who live in Nha Trang) put on an amazing BBQ serving up food and drink all day on a beautiful beach with turquoise seas. I hired a jet ski for a short time and had a great time bouncing off waves. The following day was a lazy day by the pool before we headed to the station for the train ride to Hoi An. This train was disgusting and the night’s sleep wasn’t the best.

All I have time for, I will write Vietnam part 2 very soon…

Via | TravelPod

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