Party Town, Excellent

 Nha Trang, beach and party town. It's really warm here and the beach is super beautiful. 

We got on a bus in DaLat.  The seats were 2 on one side and 1 on the other with a fold down seat in the aisle. The only seats available were at the very back. I sat on an actual seat but it was on the wheel so I was basically crunched into the fetal position and TJ got a dodgy fold down seat. They had loaded all the luggage through my window and just piled it haphazardly on the back seats. So that meant that everything was on an inverted triangle and was unsteady. Everytime we went over a bump (about every 2 minutes) the luggage would slide forward and try to land on our heads. Very frustrating. At one point we had got it wedged back up pretty well but the bus hit a HUGE bump going at a rapid speed. All 4 of us in the back row flew off our seats and the luggage rained down. We were not happy.

Then we got off the bus and there were so many people waiting to tell us about their good hotels. We hadn't booked but I told them all that we had. Since we had no idea where we'd been dropped off in the middle of town it was tricky to get our bearings, especially since there were people constantly hounding us. We decided to walk down the street a little to try to work out our map. This one guy kept following us and demanding that we stay at his hotel. I said no a zillion times. He kept coming back. We crossed the street, he came back. Made me crazy. He kept saying that it was a nice one (I looked at the leaflet later and discovered that the hotel was actually named Nice Swan... Not that is was a nice one). Finally TJ took the leaflet just to have him leave us alone. Even though we kept saying no he must have thought that we actually meant to come so he just followed us. 

I tripped over some broken pavement and fell and he laughed. So even if we didn't mind being harassed and followed, that clinched it. By the time we got to the hotel we wanted to stay at we were just so happy to be here and with no one trying to sell us anything...

TJ had the genius idea that we deserved massages. We priced out a few places and decided on the least dodgy. It was lovely. They served ginger iced tea and the facilities were beautiful. We wanted to make sure that we could have them at the same time so that neither of us would be waiting for an hour for the other. Maybe that didn't come across in translation so we had a couples massage. It was so wonderful and relaxing. TJ looked up all the definitions and decided that Swedish was the least painful and most relaxing. Totally worth the $18 each for 60 min. And that was pretty expensive compared to most. So wonderful.

Nha Trang was a bit too much of a party town for us. Maybe I'm just too old but drunk backpackers doing pushups in the street or banging on the bathroom door so they can vomit is not my idea of a good time. It's just a bit too much in your face selling for me. I really just wanted to go for a walk because I was having a small emotional meltdown. But it was not relaxing as every bar/restaurant we walked by people would shout at us to come in for happy hour. 2 for 1 buckets of alcohol... I just wanted to go back to the room and get under the covers. 

We took an overnight bus to Hoi An. These buses are not made for large Canadian people. 3 rows of 2 bunks. There is no place to put your carryon baggage. 13 hours with a 10lb bag on your lap is not so good. I think I managed to sleep a little but kept waking up when the toilet door would become unlatched and bang it's smelly smells all over. Not the greatest experience but we got there safe and sound. 

More photos at Mind the Ramp.

Today I'm thankful for public transport, even when it's not ideal. We are lucky to be able to explore this beautiful, amazing country.