Have just arrived in Nha Trang this morning (after another painful sleeper bus journey) and again it's so much hotter. We can see the beach from our hotel window and it looks so beautiful, heading down there in a bit to cool down.
Hoi An was brilliant we had such a good time there. Firstly it's just so pretty, especially in the evenings when there are lots of Chinese lanterns strung up across the street and you can see all the restaurant lights by the river. Also because we rented motorbikes. That was probably our best idea so far, was so much fun. On Wednesday Mike and Ken rented them while I went and faffed around at the tailors trying to get everyone's clothes sorted (my whole family put in orders for tailor made clothes, it got a little bit complicated). Then they came and picked me up and we went off exploring. I don't think we actually really went anywhere (tried to go to Marble Mountain but it was closed), we just went really fast up and down the roads outside of Hoi An by the beach and the rice fields. And it was just really fun. I had a go but as expected I was pretty crap and uncoordinated and slowed everyone down so mike took it off me. We went to the beach and walked around and had a drink. The beach at Hoi An is so beautiful and so quiet. There are a couple of really expensive resorts ($155 for the cheapest room!) and that's about it. Just lots palm trees and some people sunbathing. It's been the first time we've really gone to the beach and I really enjoyed it, although we were only paddling. We went on the bridge over the river back into Hoi An just as the sun was starting to set and it looked pretty perfect.
Beth and Rory arrived that evening from Hue so we all went to Cafe 96 for dinner and then for some Bia Hoi. Then a chap handing out leaflets persuaded us it would be a good idea to go over to the island to King Kong bar where there were free rum and cokes so we headed off. I have not yet spoken to anyone who has been to King Kong bar and not got hideously drunk. Ken said it smelled of rape but I though it seemed quite a nice place, although there were only drunken British people there. Proper brits abroad, they gave out stupid amounts of free alcohol and everyone danced on the pool table. Was really fun until the amount of spirits caught up with me and I found that I couldn't really walk. Beth was worse so they had to go home early. We didn't stay that late as mike was more battered than me and couldn't actually speak any more, so we stumbled home and spent most of the next day in bed or sitting in Treats with sunglasses on. By the eve we were a bit better and met up with some boys that Beth and Rory had met in Hue. Went for dinner with them and then to Before and Now bar which was really cool and had loads of paintings all over the walls. They tried to persuade us to go back to King Kong bar that night but we wisely resisted.
Friday we were good and got up early to post all of our clothes back to England. Cost a small fortune. Oh and we went to Jean's cafe and spent 1 pound 80 having the best breakfast ever: banana milkshake, tea, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and chips :) Then we hired bikes again (because we're such pros) and went to Marble Mountain, which was open this time.
Marble Mountain is a pretty wierd place. It's a huge cave about 50m high in a cliff of marble that just sticks out of the land. At the start it looks amazing, there's lots of little shrines carved into the rock and steps taking you to more secret shrines and waterfalls and it looks really pretty. We were the only ones in there and it was so quiet. Then there's some more bigger shrines with lots of buddhas and flashing lights. And then there's some little steps going down and it gets really dark and narrow. There are some carvings of people being tortured and eaten by demons. And then some more carvings of people in pain and being killed. And some demon heads carved into the walls and you keep on walking down and it's like descending into hell. I got a little bit freaked out and suddenly wished there were some more people in there to make some noise. And I had just read a book about vampires and there were some bats squeaking up at the top which weren't really helping. And that was the end. The steps just stopped and you turned around and walked back out of hell to the buddhas. Very strange place.
After that we went to the beach again and just stood in the sea for about 30 minutes just perving on how pretty it was and how nice and cool we were. I do love Hoi An. Had some ice creams and found a place that sold board shorts for one pound sixty. Then went back for dinner. We went to a place called Tam Tam cafe for dinner which was a bit more expensive that where we'd been before but was delicious, worth every penny.
Then we got on the sleeper bus to get to Nha Trang (obviously we had to wait about 1 1/2 hours to do this as the bus was late, standard). We got better seats than last time but I think at about 3 in the morning we went offroad for about an hour, as no proper road could possibly have that amount of potholes or need that amount of swerving. Got into Nha Trang at about 6.30 am and have now checked into Nice Hotel. Which seems very nice, our room has 2 double beds which is pretty good (and a little odd). Lots of pictures on facebook as it's a bit tricky putting them up on here xx
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