Day 97 - Nha Trang, Mui Ne

27.10.09

Up at a still dark 4.30 and I pack my bags and am ready and on the beach at 5.30am ready to catch the sunrise, which I'm hoping will be worth the early effort. It appears I have arrived to the beach late, not because of the sunrise, but because the beach is the most rammed that I have seen it so far. There are Vietnamese people exercising, swimming in the sea, playing football, pacing up and down the beach and basically just doing their normal morning exercise routines, but just amazingly early. By the time it hits 7-ish they will all be gone and the beach will be empty again until all us tourists rise up out of bed and get down there. It's such an unexpected sight to see them all up and about so early, but is quite cool, and the sunrise, my whole reason for being up so early was nice as well.

At 6.30, my bus leaves for Mui Ne and it pulls into the one road town around 1-ish. Mui Ne, is a small town on an epic stretch of beach that must be at least 9 miles long and forms a huge circular arc. The town is mainly located at one end and then a road leads around the beach all the way to the far end and is dotted with small resorts and hotels with beach side bungalows that are literally on the beach. I walk for about 40 mins along the beach to the hotel where Clare and Lee are staying and get my $10 room which is all of 15 seconds walk from the sand.

Day 96 - Nha Trang

26.10.09

Clare and Lee have gone on to Mui Ne today and so I'm left to my own devices on this sunnier day. Hitting some pre work Geneva admin and emails entertains my morning before a walk over to the beach to laze around in the afternoon. My plan is to relax and try and even out some of my tan which has me sporting vicious tan lines where I have been wearing t-shirts in the sun over the past two months. I'm not sure how successful I will be in the remaining 6 days away but it's worth a try. Once again, the beach is rammed to the rafters and I can't move for the people stumbling over me as I relax and read some Ernest Hemingway in a very sophisticated beach bumming session.

I fully intend to go for some food tonight but end up finding that there is a TV in my room and after not watching TV in 3 months I end up watching 4 films one after another until the early hours of the morning. Not long to go now before I'm back home. It's sad to think I have seven nights left away and then I will be back home in the UK. The journey has been so good and I've met so many people and experienced so many different things. I'm not sure if I want it to continue or I'm just sad that it is coming to an end, as I do want to be back home and am ready to leave.

Day 95 - Nha Trang

25.10.09

Rain rain rain is the order of the day and the more than inviting weather is putting any kind of beach action thoroughly off limits. I sit down in the hotel lobby and drink tea with some of the hotel staff and also Clare and Lee, two people who I have been stalking all the way down from Hanoi, Hue and Hoi An. Vietnam has such a treaded route from north to south, that if you set off from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh or vice versa, you will see the same faces at nearly every stop. People travel the same routes and stay roughly the same amount of time in each place and so you are guaranteed to bump into them. As outside activities are being thoroughly rained off me and Clare take a walk to a photography gallery at the other end of town. It's by a famous Vietnamese photographer who shoots only in black and white and never in digital. He develops all his own photographs in his home studio in the back of his Kitchen. His photos are very good and capture different scenes from Vietnamese life, a boy running across the back of buffaloes, pictures of very old Vietnamese women looking weather worn and spaced out and one prize wining piece of a child crying are amongst his best for me.

Come evening time we eat out in a Vietnamese restaurant that serves food the size of fish pellets, so luckily I ordered two mains in anticipation and then have a few beers until a respectable 11pm. Hopefully tomorrow will bring better weather and some sun and sand time.

Day 94 - Nha Trang

24.10.09

Pulling into Nha Trang at a bright 6.30am and still the local population are up and about doing their business and it seems as if they have been up for hours already. Avoiding the 'recommended' hotel that the bus drops you off outside (for a healthy commission no doubt), I walk to a hotel that was recommended to me by some people I met in Hoi An and manage to bag a lovely $5 room. A quick walk around the local area and a pop into a super market yields some water and a sizable pack of cashew nuts, which I manage to polish off in more or less one go.

Before I venture to the beach I want to walk and check out the main temple in town and it's large white seated Buddha. The questions is will it compare to the colossal Leshan Buddha in Sichuan, or the massive bronze Lantau Island Buddha in Hong Kong... not quite there, but it's still nice and it's pure white construction is radiant in the bright sun.

Walking to one end of the beach which probably stretches at least a couple of miles, the golden sand and warm water is very inviting. It's just a shame that the beach was rammed to the rafters full of people... or not.

Day 93 - Hoi An

23.10.09

My last day in the tailor capitol of Vietnam and it starts at 5.30am as we depart for My Son, the ancient ruins about 50km away from Hoi An. The aim is to get to the ruins before most of the tour groups do and as not many people like to wake up this early it should be relatively empty. The deal is that we get breakfast on the bus there, which is a slightly disappointing coffee and small roll, but it will do the job for now. There are only 6 of us in total on the bus and outside the heavens seem to be opening up and the road is getting flooded in places. The ruins themselves are quite nice although only one section remains semi intact and the rest really are truly ruined. The severe rain has left some paths very flooded and so unless you are Jesus and can walk on water you're going to get very wet feet, I obviously am not Jesus and so now am sporting a pair of soaking wet trainers.






















Getting back to the Hotel I take a short nap and then roam around town some more before settling down in the same cafe from yesterday and getting my two coffees, some lunch and a cup of tea, more or less the same order as yesterday. Watching the world go by, and the rain, I kick back and finally finish updating the journal before heading out to Nha Trang on the 6pm bus. The ride should take about 12 hours and it's on an air conditioned tourist sleeper bus. The transport situation of Vietnam only dreams of being as efficient and having the coverage of China's and so for tourists one of the easiest ways of getting around is on the tourist buses that run between the major destinations. Hopefully I can find a nice spot on the beach at Nha Trang and just lose a few days to the sun, sand and sea...

Day 92 - Hoi An

22.10.09

To buy or not to buy, that is the question... I decided last night that I'm not going to buy any more clothes, but still this morning I am getting tempted. I could wangle out a more expensive suit at the reputable places and still pay only £200 for a tailor made suit in a quality fabric that I'm sure would be lovely. After another stroll around town I decide that this is not a good way to spend my money and I can pick up a suit for the same price at home in Marks and Spencers and it will probably be better if not the same quality.

My morning takes me out to one of the Islands near Hoi An which isn't that interesting apart from a transaction where I am initially quoted 5000VND for three banana fritters and after some negotiation, I end up getting 3 for the 5000VND. It is typical of nearly every transaction in Vietnam, where you are quoted outrageous prices compared to the locals for food and even things as basic as bottled water. My journal is seriously out of date and I have a span of days from a month ago that I need to write up, so I place my self in a cafe on the river front and end up whiling away 4 hours writing and drinking tea/coffee. I know I said I wasn't going to buy any more stuff, but a few silk ties glistened in the light reflecting of the river in that oh so special way and beckoned me to part with my money. The initial price was $7 for one, but after some talking and smiling I end up getting them for just less than $3 each. No more buying!

Day 91 - Hoi An

21.10.09

I have a fitting for one of the shirts at 10am, so I get up early and have a walk around town and end up ordering another two. I now have 4 shirts, all from different places on order. My aim is to compare quality and then possibly get some more stuff made if it's all good. The shirt is nice and the cut is good, They put normal cuffs instead of double cuffs and it's slightly too tight, so I get them to change it and while there I obviously end up ordering more... 30 mins later and I'm measured up for a blue 3 piece navy suit. I head around to my other fittings during the day and by night fall I am the proud owner of 4 bespoke shirts and a 3 piece. The shirts vary in quality and the three shirts from expensive tailors are better than the shirt from the cheaper tailor, unfortunately I also got my suit made in the cheaper tailor as it was half the price of the expensive one. It's not horrendous, but it has some problems and the lining isn't properly set in the jacket so it doesn't glide on unfortunately. I have come to the conclusion that I am going to save my money and not splurge on clothes here as the quality is below what you would get at home, although it is still so cheap it is probably worth it.