Nha Trang

Sorry if these posts seem more like Blahgs than Blogs, but I keep falling behind on the posts so always feel like I'm cramming in too much. I'll try to be better about it, but honestly I'm heading to the Mekong Delta and then up to Cambodia in the next few days, so it will probably get worse. Now that that's out of the way, on to Nha Trang.

There is really only one thing in Nha Trang...The Beach. Well two I guess, but the other one's water, and really they're kind of the same thing. I mean what's a beach without water? A desert that's what, so really, still just one thing. That being said I didn't really go to the beach, but I did go in the water. So I guess you can have water without beach, but not the other way around. And no I'm not drunk, I'm just rambling, sorry, I'm just really tired.

So after arriving on Nha Trang at 7 am, and still a little woozy from the sedative I took on the bus (Yay, Vietnamese no-prescription pharmacies!)(Don't do drugs kids...drugs are bad), I decided to book a boat tour of the islands surrounding Nha Trang. The trip seemed fun, and you got to go snorkeling, so why not. I had just enough time to shower and grab a bite before heading off on the tour. The first Island we went to was Hon Mun, and we got to do some snorkeling, but it wasn't all that great since the visibility wasn't that good, and there didn't seem to be that many fish either. It was nice to be in the water though, and I met two groups of Canadians, one of which was born in Ha Long Bay, and immigrated to Canada. So we hung out and then went off to Hon Mot. There we ate lunch which was pretty tasty. We even had Sea Urchin soup which was mighty fine. I'm always impressed that these stupid little tour boats have such good food. After lunch things got weird....Really weird.


The cook brought out a home-made drum kit, and the skipper brought out a guitar, and the tour guide and another person did the singing. They then played a selection of songs,and it was freaky. Then they started going around asking people where they were from, and then playing songs from that country. The first country...Canada. Then the tour guide said "Canada, same-same as England right?" Well no, but apparently close enough for him,as he broke out a Beatles tune. The guy knew a German tune (not 99 Luft Ballons though, much to my disappointment), an Israeli tune, and even a Danish tune...Canada though gets the fucking Beatles. I'm just glad he didn't do Celine Dion though, because no Canadian tune is still better than Celine Dion, or that Bitch Ann Murry too. After the music it was time for the "Floating Bar", which was just one of the crew sitting in a life ring with a case of mulberry wine on his lap. That being said we still dove in like crazy, and drank the stuff. It was actually a bit of work since the current was pushing us away from the boat, and therefore the booze, since he was tethered to it. That part was actually a lot of fun, and it was nice just floating there talking to different people. Honestly, the islands didn't hold much to see, so this distraction was much needed or the tour would have been a snooze fest. We also went to Hon Ton, and Hon Mieu, where there was a pretty cool aquarium. I even saw one of those little round basket boats from The Amazing Race, you know the one that no one could paddle, and Flo and Zach had to get help and then got penalized...yeah that one. It should be noted that I probably got that all screwed up, and all the other TARFlies, are going to be bombarding me with what really happened, and I'll never be invited to another TARCon again. Supposedly we could have rented them ourselves to try out, but I don't remember ever being offered, and therefore my TARFly status should be revoked anyway.

That night I finally got a chance to tour around Nha Trang, and yeah, I return to my original statement. There is really only one thing in Nha Trang(or two things, but I'm not starting that again!). I knew that some of the people I roomed with in Hoi An were in town, so after dinner I went looking for them. After awhile I decided to give up and head back to the guesthouse. Then I head a Vietnamese girl shout "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" and familiar voices going "Oy, Oy, Oy" I turned to look and there they were across the street. So I went over and joined them in the middle of their pub crawl. They were on bar 3 of seven, and by bar 4 some of them were looking a little rough. In fact one of them proceeded to throw up beside her. She was taken home, and our numbers continued to dwindle as we went from bar to bar. 19 year olds..what rank amateurs. I did the math though and realized that these kids were 4 then fist time I puked from drinking too much (Hi Mom!). Our last stop of the evening...The Castle Argggggh, our quest was at an end...or the Nha Trang Sailing Club whatever you want to call it (I can guarantee that my parents read that last sentence and have the biggest WTF [that's What the Fuck, Mom] look on their face right now). Buy that time we were down to five, but soon it was just Tosh, Anna and myself, and Anna and I just danced the of the night, since we both had no need for any more drinks. Then I saw these two Israeli women that I first saw on the bus from Hanoi and Hoi An. Ever since then I've seen them all over the place, no matter what city I went to. I go to Cafe on Thu Wheels, there they are booking a tour. I saw them in Hoi An, and even on one of the other Tour boats in that morning. They're everywhere, and I've never said a word to them, because they've always come across as pain in the asses. I don't know why I felt that way, but it was a sense I got (well I do kind of know why, but I really don't feel like typing it out). Well, anyway, I was drunk, and I felt I just had to talk to them, or it would bother me the rest of my life. Turns out they were pretty nice, and once I told them I was Jewish, we were fast friends. The night soon ended, and so we said good-bye, and I went and joined Tosh and Anna on the beach for some mellowing out time.

And that was basically Nha Trang. I went to the beach the next day, but it was pretty cloudy so it wasn't all that good. The next day was my flight to Saigon, and it was storming so it was a good day to leave. Except that the storm caused our plane to be delayed 5 hours, so that kind of sucked, but it was still better than the bus.