Sun bathing in Nha Trang

The journey to Nha Trang was a bit of a trek. We left Hoi An fairly early in a taxi, to Danang, about 45 minutes north of Hoi An. We then embarked on a train journey which should have taken about 7 ½ hours, but actually ended up taking about 12 hours. We were traveling in the first class seats, but these are not the most comfortable of places to spend 12 hours. We also had no where to put all of our luggage and ended up with most of it under our feet. The price of the ticket also included some form of food. I did remove the foil lids from all of the little pots on my tray, but only indulged in the rice, which I thought was pretty safe, where as the rest of the pots I could not be at all sure about! There was also a young child sat in front of us, who was asleep when we got on the train. However after a couple of hours, he woke up and needed to go to the toilet. His mother did not wish to take him to the toilet and instead produced an empty water bottle from somewhere which the young boy proceeded to pee into, through a conveniently cut hole through his trousers (he later used the hole for others things but I will leave that to your own imagination)! This was bad enough, but then she placed the now half full bottle under the seat around my feet! We then had a few hours of the boy playing around in and around his seat and playing hide-n-seek with us, which passed a bit of time. This did however get a little boring after a while and myself and Jeff did have to go for a wonder to find the bar!Anyway, after a very long day we eventually arrived in Nha Trang, where we were met by a very small taxi and a guy on a moped to take us to our hotel. I hoped in the taxi with the girls and all the luggage whilst Jeff hoped onto the moped! We were not entirely sure that we were going to see him again, but he pulled up at the hotel about 30 seconds behind us with a big grin on his face telling us that he had had a great time.Compared to Hue or Hoi An, Nha Trang has very little charm. It has basically grown into a sea side beach result, catering for watersports and a reasonably good night life. It’s a good place to be for a few days, lying on the beach and exploring the good bars in the evening. We basically ended up spending a long weekend in Nha Trang. Friday was spent lying on the beach at the sailing club, which is a pretty nice place to find yourself. The beach was a very nice long sandy beach, but the waves were a bit rough for swimming or bodysurfing unless you are an expert in this field. So of course that meant the myself and Jeff felt that we should give it a go. This was all great fun even if we did get a few bruises in the process and have to empty out about 2kg of sand from the lining of my swimming shorts!The following day we decided to take a boat trip around some of the surrounding islands. The trip was run by a company called T M Brothers, which basically turned out to be to local clowns calling themselves the Trouble Maker Brothers. Anyway, it seemed like a bit of a laugh, and after a bit of snorkeling and jumping / diving off of the boat, it was time for a very good lunch, before the live entertainment on board the boat started. To the delight of everyone the entertainment consisted of the brothers and the rest of the crew turning into a band and covering an incredibly large number of decent old records. The drum kit was made up of a washing up bowl, some form of large water drum and another bowl of some sort and was surprisingly effective. Part way through the performance another boat came alongside and this oldish guy steps onto our boat and proceeds to entertain everyone with some form of crazy dancing. This whole crazy, funny and kind of surreal experience made us all feel that we were really getting decent value out of the trip. We then had what they described as ‘happy hour’. This basically involved one of the T M Brothers getting into some form of raft (attached to the boat by a rope as the currents are quite strong) with a bucket of bottles of wine. Everyone then jumped into the water with a life ring of some description and went and held onto the floating bar or each other, so as not to drift away. They the proceed to pour the most revolting wine down your neck. A very amusing experience.That evening we had arranged to meet everyone from the boat trip at the sailing club. On the way to the sailing club, we went out for a pretty good meal. It was on leaving the restaurant that Jeff had his first encounter of the evening. Basically he had walked over to the other side of the road, to check something out, so I was left walking down the road with the three women. At this point a young boy of no more than about 12, comes riding up on a bike which was far to big for him and I think the conversation went something as follows:Young Boy: ’Three lovely lady…you lucky man’Graham: ‘Yes I am!”Young Boy: ‘You big banana’Graham: ‘What?’ (In dis-belief at what I’ve just heard from a 12 year old)Young Boy: ‘You big banana’Graham: ‘Thanks…would’nt you like to know’ (still in shock)At this point Jeff rejoins the group:Young Boy: ‘He you friend?’Graham: ‘Yes’Young Boy: ‘He no lady…he small banana’At this point everyone else is in hysterics.Jeff: ‘What?!’Young Boy: ‘You small banana…you lady boy!’Jeff: ‘I don’t think so!’Young Boy: ‘Yes…you no lady…you lady boy’As he says this, he proceeds to basically feel in between Jeff’s legs to check out his claim.Young Boy: ‘Yes…no banana…you lady boy!’We then tried to explain to the boy what a lady boy was and that perhaps he himself was a lady boy. He assured us though that he was no lady boy and wanted to take the three ladies to a hotel room and give them all twins, which we thought was quiet impressive. Anyway, we eventually got away from this ‘young stallion’ and found our way to the sailing club where a good night was had by all.It was on the way back to the hotel when Jeff had his second unfortunate incident of the evening. It basically involved him being propositioned, felt up for the second time that night and then effectively chased by a transvestite or two at three in the morning. A highly amusing scene I can assure you!Sunday was spent in a similar fashion to a typical Sunday at home. Getting up late, feeling a little, scruffy, wondering around trying to get some fresh air. Then sitting in a bar, drinking plenty of soft drinks, eating some good food and reading the papers. We had eventually recovered in time to catch our night train to Ho Chi Minh City. All in all a fairly good weekend.