Welcome avid readers, it's your beloved friend D from B&D providing some strange descriptions, attempted humour and ultimately giving B a break from the world of internet writing. Enjoy..
17th and 18th April
Overnight bus... after our last experience we were uncontrollably nervous about this to begin with. Our knees were weak, arms were heavy, vomit on our sweaters already... Mom's spaghetti. But we were calm and ready.
In reality it wasn't bad at all... leg room aside. If you are over 5ft 6" then you won't fit properly in the 'bed' but we figured out a way (hanging upside down like a bat helped for a couple hours).
We arrived at 5:10am. The sun wasn't even up so we couldn't expect to check in to our hotel yet but we did force our heavy bags upon them! Such a freeing feeling and we now had some time to kill.. and a few options; we could sleep on the side of the road or go to the beach.. watch the sunrise and the world go by.
To keep up appearances we are going to describe as if we went to the beach. Grand choice... beautiful beach, people were doing their morning exercises in some form or another and it was great to watch the world wake up. We chilled here for a bit until the morning cafes opened.
Time goes on my friend.. and I'm going to fast forward to the afternoon now. Back at the beach... Heavy waves.. soaking wet.. great fun! This place was incredibly hot so we spent a lot of time in the refreshing (though nicely warm) water getting pummelled by waves.
Nha Trang was an amazing place, full of life. Full of restaurants and Russians. Moscow in the sun!
From the beach we spotted an island in the distance with what looked like the Hollywood sign on the hill. I kid you not, it was even better.. Vinpearl Land! Where all your dreams may (disclaimer: or may not) come true!
We got the cable car across from Nha Trang to Vinpearl land.. taking in the breathtaking views along the way. The place is open until 9pm and if you get the cable car after 4pm then the tickets are half price.... 440,000vnd rather than 880,000vnd. It would have been silly not to! It wasn't very busy.. we didn't have to wait for anything and the place wasn't full of meddling kids.
This place had a waterpark, rollercoasters, aquarium, fountain and light show and much more. Like a mini Disney Land. The only downside being that there wasn't a lot of choice for food. The wannabe KFCs had run out of chicken, which was an outrage! Overall we really enjoyed this place it was a nice break from begging on the streets like the poor backpackers we are.
19th April
After another solid day at the beach, yelling at the sun "Is that the best you can do!? BURN ME you yellow fooool!!" it was nearly night bus time. Again with the Sinh Tourist company, now our trusted ally in our quest for reliable / moderately comfortable overnight travel (knees strong, arms not so heavy, less spaghetti). But before we met with our four wheeled friend it was time for dinner. We went to a BBQ steak type restaurant but with a twist. They cook everything at your table... on your table. Yep!
Here we met a waitress who could speak English, Russian, Chinese and Vietnamese. That's insane.. if someone from England could do that they would be in a pretty top job!
20th April
We arrived in Hoi An at 5am, walked to our accommodation which was a homestay only a short walk from the Ancient Town of Hoi An. We (Dan) had a good chat (mainly about football) with our host. Although I couldn't help but feel overwhelming sympathy towards him for his rather obvious disability... he was an Arsenal fan.
In the afternoon we explored the Ancient Town of Hoi An, this place was known for it's many tailors, clothes shops, bustling street markets, art craft shops, paintings and picturesque scenes along the river. It was beautiful, we loved it here!
Food being one of the obvious highlights we found a nice restaurant in view of the river.. where we could watch the world go by. Fantastic food here ladies, gentlemen and other. We could go down the normal route of saying "yeah it was tasty", "yummy" or "very nice" but perhaps it deserves more..
"The food was so good that with each passing mouthful, our conversation devolved further into fragmented celebrations of its deliciousness: I want these stir fried garlic chilli prawns to become a person so I can take them to Las Vegas and marry them." (Sorry Beth..)
The people of the town were very friendly, a young lad, maybe 4 or 5 ran up to Beth in the street and hugged her legs whilst his parents were laughing and apologising with embarrassment... cute!!
21st April
We had a flight booked from Da Nang airport to Hanoi late morning. Our host had arranged a minivan for us to the airport which was about 40 minutes away. Flight or bus?! Well check me in and call me Suzy ...BRING IT ON!!!
Do you have a friend who would be interested in praise for the Sinh Tourist bus company or weird over the top descriptions of food? Well if so.. please let them know about our blog. All profits go directly to nobody.. because there are none.
Muchas Gracias and much love,
B&D
x
Disclaimer: I don't really want to marry prawns.. that would be weird.
P.S - There is a multitude of pictures below! (Very like, much excite!)
Costs -
Bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An - £15.51 for both of us
Vinpearl land tickets after 4pm - 440,000vnd each (£14.19) rather than 880,000vnd (£28.38)
Mini bus from Hoi An to Da Nang airport - 100,000vnd each (£3.22)
Flights from Da Nang to Hanoi - £75.63 for both of us
That's all for now folks..