We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

18th March 2007

From Nha Trang it was another overnight bus journey to our next destination, Hoi An, as we continued our journey North through Vietnam. Night busses are really cheap here, but unlike the luxury of South American long haul busses, in Vietnam, you get what you pay for!

So, after 10 hours with no air con, no toilet (not good after suspecting I ate dog for lunch the previous day!), a broken seat, the ever honking horn, and surprisingly no sleep, we left the bus at Hoi An and made a vow to never, ever, never, ever, never, ever get on another overnight bus in Vietnam again!

Thankfully, despite the traumas of our journey, Hoi An proved to be well worth it! Our $10 a night accomodation budget even stretching to pad with a swimming pool, cable tv (although this meant I got to watch Newcastle lose 2-0 to Charlton!) and mini bar, happy days!

Hoi An is billed as a ‘shoppers paradise’ as it is one of the cheapest places on the planet to buy tailor made clothes! The city itself is relatively quiet by Vietnamese standards (i.e. only 2,000 motorbikes per sqaure inch), with gorgeous old buildings and cobbled streets.

Having read all this before we arrived, I must admitt Charlotte was looking forward to our time in Hoi An more than me. However I agreed to spend a couple of days here safe in the knowledge that I would earn enough Brownie points to last the rest of our trip, and maybe even roll over a weekend or two when we get home!

In reality, I’m ashamed to say that we both really enjoyed our time shopping in Hoi An! I discovered that buying clothes is actually ok if they are being tailor made, and you can sneak to the pub for a couple of lagers in between fittings! Unfortunatley, the shops accepted credit cards, so we ended up getting a little carried away (surprise surprise!) and ordering a complete new work wardrobe for when we get home (fingers crossed the Vietnamese post service is reliable!).

We chose to do our shopping in Yalay, and Thu Thuy shops, which despite being relatively more expensive, provided fantastic service, and made the best suits and shirts I have ever seen (and I have shopped in Geordie Jeans before you know!). The tailors of Hoi An are extremely talented, you can choose any design of clothes or shoes, select your material, and within 2/3 days you have a perfect fitting, carbon copy for significantly less than you would pay at home!

The town itself has a unique feel, with every building housing either a clothes / shoe shop, the workers producing the material or the cutters and tailors making the alterations. The click clack of the old fashioned looms that work all night to produce the material provides the sound track to a Hoi An evening. Suits and jackets replace the usual pigs and chickens as the main cargo on the back of the motorbikes that fly around the tight streets all day and night!

In the end we spent 4 great days, lazily wondering around Hoi An centre, we didn’t even make it to the beach which was only 4kms away! The evenings were spent eating great food (including fantastic desserts!) at the Cargo Club overlooking the river. On our last day in Hoi An, the heavens opened, and we were treated to our first rain since Australia, nearly 3 months ago! It would take much more than a bit of rain though to stop the Hoi An locals going about their tailoring business as they simply pull on the ponchos, or drive one handed on their motos whilst taking shelter under an unmbrella!

Without doubt, Hoi An has been our favourite place in Vietnam so far. The town centre has some great old buildings and there is a great feel to the place, oh, and the clothes aren’t bad either!

14 March 2007

Looking for some serious R&R after a hectic final week in Cambodia and the hustle and bustle of Saigon we headed North on the overnight bus. We had very little planned for Nha Trang except lazing on the beach, reading our books and enjoying the seafood. So that is pretty much what we did….although admittedly that does not make for a very interesting blog!

On our first night in Nha Trang we decided to forget about our meal budget and both ordered the seafood platter which included clams, scallops, mussels, snapper and king prawns and a bottle of wine to wash it all down. Wine is something we have not really drunk much of in Asia, so it was a real treat to have a nice cold bottle with our meal. Having whet our taste buds we headed to ‘Crazy Kim’s’ bar. We had read about Crazy Kim in the LP which explained Crazy Kim has launched a program to help protect Vietnamese children in Nha Trang against pedophilia. As most people are aware the sex trade in SE Asia is a huge business but tragically the business also extends to children. Nearly every tourist brochure we have picked up on our travel through SE Asia has and advert aimed at the prevention on pedophilia; providing a phone number to report anyone suspected of pedophilia. From what we read Kim has made it her mission to stop the abuse of children and has even resorted to knocking down hotel doors to stop such acts. Part of the profits from the bar (and gym) goes towards the protection of such children. Tourists are also invited to help out with English lessons at the school Kim has put in place for the abused. Having looked at the register and noticed it had its full quota of volunteers for the following day the only thing left for us to do was make sure we bought drinks…..and plenty of them!

Several Mojitos later we headed to Nha Trang Sailing Club, which is ‘the’ after hours place to be in Nha Trang, for a couple of jam jars and to bust a few moves on the dance floor! (yes – we were able to still move despite the Mojitos! – although I am not sure it was very co-ordinated movement!) Having tried to recreate every dance move known to man – including the robot resurrected by Peter Crouch and the much loved ‘running-man’ (which for some reason will always remind me of school discos!) we decided it was time to call it a night.

The next day was painful but we soldiered onto the beach where we remained until we could find a window in the hangover to move.

Feeling rejuvenated on our third day in Nha Trang we headed out on a day boat-trip to the surrounding Islands. It was on this trip that we met up with Max (a 60 year old Aussie) and his girlfriend Melinda. The day was spent snorkelling, eating, drinking and having fun (spot the theme?). After lunch the crew of our boat invited the passengers to join them in Karoake. Now there must have been at least 50 passengers on that boat and the only ones to get up were the Aussies …….and us! (Never were ones for letting the Aussies get the better of us!). So that is how I found myself in a headlock under Chris’s arm whilst we tried to churn out a tuneful rendition of ‘Yellow Submarine’ by the Beatles (see picture)….although quite frankly we knew far more of the words to ‘Waltzing Matilda’ than our designated song! Surprisingly we got a resounding applause but I think that was more out of pity than praise!

After Karoake we were invited to have a free drink from the floating bar.

Whilst Chris was out of the water Max and I had a little side bet (2 cans of Tiger) that Chris would/would not dive of the front of the boat…..well I will never doubt his diving skills ever again as I lost the bet and Chris performed a perfectly executioned dive from the boat. Max upped the stakes to double or quits challenging everyone to dive off the top deck of the boat which Chris reckons was about 100ft but in reality was about four metres!

Max went first with a fantastic swallow dive from the top – did I mention he was 60!!!. Then it was me! Not having revealed that I spent the best part of my childhood in a swimming pool I went for the surprise somersault. Then it was Chris and Melinda. Now seeing that Melinda was a little tentative Chris decided to build her confidence by jumping in with her (bless him!) but no sooner was he in the water than he was out again and back on the top deck performing a second fantastic dive of the day!

Back on the boat we treated each other to a Tiger Beer as reward for our efforts before we were dropped off at a beach for a few hours. Chris and I chose to soak up the sun (someone had to lookafter the bags!) whilst Max and Melinda were off on a jet-ski
performing doughnuts (he’s 60 you know!). We had a wonderful day on the boat trip which was made all the more fun for meeting Max and Melinda.

Back on dry land it didn’t take either of us long to work out we were both dehydrated although Chris was far worse than me (he’s a ‘big unit’ you see!). Having drank lots of fluids (and by this I mean water!) we retired for the day only for Chris to be up every hour or so with bad stomach pains. Extremely glad that we stipulated a private bathroom Chris managed to leave his retreat the next day for a few hours. The real test of his intestinal resolve however would come later that night as we had booked the overnight bus to Hoi An, and for the record the overnight buses out here don’t have toilets!

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