Day 9 and 10 continued...

When we arrived in Nha Trang we were immediately accosted by a man on a motorbike who told me he could get us to a great hotel for $10/night.  The accommodation I had booked was $29/night, so I agreed to hop into the waiting taxi and we were driven to the backpackers end of town.  A tad more exciting this end of town anyway than where I had booked.  More restaurants, best part of the beach etc, probably more tacky too, but I didn't get to find out.  Our hotel is called Nice Hotel and it is down a little alleyway.  There are a lot of little businesses - food and wine -set up and working from the back of people's homes here in the alleyways.  Right next to our hotel there is a wine bar and a restaurant.  Each has a little baby plastic desk and baby plastic chairs set up outside.  These little food and drink areas are hugely popular.  The "restaurant" closest to our hotel doubles as a laundrette.  It's the first laundry service I've seen since we arrived in Vietnam, excluding hotel laundry services that are pretty expensive.  We have been living in stinking and dirty clothes now for about 5 days.  The weather is too humid for anything to dry in the short time we stay in each town.  The cost in Nha Trang for laundering: 17,000 VND /kg ( about 75 cents/kg) for washing, drying and ironing of clothes.  We've had 8kg of clothes washed in the last 12 hours.

Our rooms here are tacky but ok.  Huge queen size bed and a double bed in each room.  The room I slept in with Max and Gus had no air conditioning and the window backed onto the alleyway that was pretty lively all night.  Vietnamese music began playing at 4.30am this morning and at that stage people were already shouting across to each other from their back yards.  The heat was unbearable, but at least our TV worked.  The TV in Drew, James and George's room didn't.  They, however had the luxury of a working air conditioner.

The beach this morning was pretty.  The wind only starts up at about lunch time.  The water was crystal clear and calm.  I paid a total of $25 for the kids to play in the giant inflatable fun park that is anchored just off shore.  I paid about 50 cents to use a deck chair under an umbrella, then at the ungodly hour of 8:45am I bought myself a cold beer and lay back to read my book. If anyone ever asks you if it's too early to have a beer, just tell them that Dana had a beer on a weekday before 9:00am.  It felt like midday to me and the temperature was about 35 celcius.

There was a never-ending stream of vendors walking up to me on the beach trying to sell me food, bracelets, cooked lobster, pizza bread the afternoon before, but this morning when I paid to lie on a bed, the vendors seemed to leave me alone.  So I think the trick here is to pay to lie in the sun, because there is certainly no privacy otherwise.

Every one of the vendors was a woman, and every one of them asked me if the kids were all mine.  So began a long conversation with each of them (me out of politeness, them out of a need to suck me into their lair with their sob stories) about their own children, their marriages, why they hate their husbands, why they can't leave them.  They are all slightly disgusted that I am no longer married.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, I feel I have to buy from them after they've shared their life stories with me.  One lady even started to cry when she was talking to me.  She was pregnant with her 3rd boy.  Understandably, enough to make one cry.  Her tears flowed for her loveless marriage. I've heard that story too many times to feel too much emotion, and I'm fairly sure her 3rd child isn't going to be the answer.

It's amazing how happy everyone here is to see me with lots of children.  They all think it is very lucky that I have 4 boys.  I think I have already mentioned how angry this makes Drew.  "Oh 4 boys, very lucky, very lucky". The government somehow penalises families in Vietnam for producing more than 2 children by reducing the government benefits.  Probably pretty sensible.  If Australia had that approach, I would certainly be enjoying my trip to Vietnam a lot more that's for sure.

Anyway, back to our trip from Dalat to Nha Trang.  I think it took about 3 or 4 hours.  The journey felt safe and the driver seemed sensible, which leads me to conclude that the driver we had from HCMC to Dalat was indeed a maniac.  The drive was really picturesque.  We were up in the clouds for some of it.  Oodles of waterfalls to see.  Huge mountains and valleys.  We did see some crazy caucasians attempting to make the journey on bike!  They looked buggered.  I'm sure those things only seem good when told as stories at dinner parties after the event.  "Oh John, remember that remarkable bike journey we took from Dalat to Nha Trang?"  It actually looked hideous and no-one looked happy on those bikes.

Lunch at an alleyway diner

The beach isn't that good from lunch time onwards.  Too windy.

After giving me her story, she finally leaves me alone to read my book.

Early morning on Nha Trang beach is much nicer.  The water is calm
and the wind isn't a problem (on the beach that is, my own wind is
very much a problem due partly to the huge amount of fibre I'm pumping
into my digestive system).

Waiting for lunch.  George is NOT impressed.  He usually refuses to eat
and hangs out for anything that has sugar in it.  

The tacky fun park that costs $2.50 each person. I was able to drink my breakfast
beer in peace and read my book.  I'm not going to knock it.

If you pay for one of these, you are more likely to be left alone by the endless
stream of sellers.

A local takes a midday nap

The town caters for tourists with plenty of homestyle cooking.

Much to George's disgust, we chose to eat locally at lunch time.

Beer is sold in the 7/11 right next to the fruit.  Wonderful.
These guys don't have to make an extra stop at Dan Murphy's.

One of the cuter restaurants.

We decided to leave Nha Trang after 1 day.  Partly because our accommodation was crappy, and partly because I couldn't stand the number of men/women in wheelchairs, women with disabilities, men without eyes, and men without arms reaching out to grab my hand as I walked by, asking me where I came from and could I give them some money.  

So we hopped to it and we are catching an 11 hour overnight sleeper bus to Hoi An at about 6pm.  What a magical opportunity to enjoy some serious bonding!