Further up the coast to Nha Trang...

As you can see, Cindy and I are now soaking here in the glorious deep sea mineral mud at a 'Hot Springs and Deep Sea Mineral Mud Spa' just outside the city of Nha Trang, which was our next stop up the coast of Vietnam. This was a rather blissful and luxurious day without the usual 'luxury prices' hee hee! I was actually a little apprehensive as to how good soaking in mud(!) would actually feel but it felt great, and i'd recommend it to anyone! :) The swimming pool on the other hand, being a 'hot spring pool' (obviously!) was not on the overly relaxing and 'feel good' side as to start with - it was a boiling hot sunny day so generally you jump into a pool to cool off, not completely scold yourself (ok - so slight exaggeration but it was crazily intense!).

Nha Trang was also a place of us having heaps of fun, and of course taking in some of the sights alaong the way! We met up with an English girl (Sarah) that we had briefly met in Saigon and a friend of hers (Huan), and spent a few days there altogether which was cool.

We spent many a nights in the Red Apple Bar which then lead us nicely on to Why Not?, both of which i'd recommend to anyone heading to Nha Trang! :)

One way to see four of the islands off the Vietnamese coast is by hopping on board one of the very popular 'Booze Cruises'... Maybe not the best way to actually 'see' the Islands, as all tends to become a bit hazy, but certainly the way to have a laugh whilst 'sight-seeing'!!! :)

Hmm... Beer in the morning followed by a floating bar of copious amounts of free(!!) local rice liquor, then Ella insisting on attempting to kayak out to one of the islands is maybe not the safest mix but boy it was fun! The boat alos provided an interesting array of entertainment - with their own version of a Vietnamese Boy Band (yikes!), then audience participation in a session of karaoke! Eeek! All extremely cheesy but naturally helped keep the alcohol flowing! ;)

Beautiful Mui Ne...

After the madness of Saigon, we then had a few more quieter days along the sea front at Mui Ne which was just beautiful, and the perfect place for a bit of a detox! On the left is the view from the back of my motorbike as we drove along the coast watching the sunrise(!), to the right is as the sun was setting from our beach ...

From here we had a go at sand sliding which was wicked fun but actually pretty tiring, especially with a still rather 'wonky' leg. One may forget that after you've had the fun of sliding down the dunes you then have the joy of climbing back up them again...!!! Hmm... where's the chair lift i ask myself! hee hee!

We also took our tour on the back of 2 motorbikes to visit the rather impressive Red Canyon that has been formed simply by rainfall over many many years... so our guide told us anyhow! :)

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

From the tiny Island of Ben Tre, Cindy and i then started to head North after many a trips along the Mekong and visiting the more rural parts of Vietnam, up to the vibrant city of Ho Chi Minh... a fantastic city! We stayed right in the middle of 'backpacker central' and behaved just like all the others arriving in Ho Chi Minh. Partying the night away in the local bars and suddenly finding yourself sat outside a bar as the sun started to come up and the city around us was waking up and getting ready for the day ahead...!

We went from one extreme to another during our stay here. One minute we would be up partying and singing and dancing, and the next we were walking around the War Remnants Museum seeing some of the most horrific sights i have seen (as i am sure you can imagine). Certainly moments where i just had to walk on by as it became too much.

We also clambered through the famous Cu Chi Tunnels, which in their day stretched out for more than 200km... (not one for the claustrophobic!!!). Pretty amazing to see how the Vietnamese planned it all out... a clever old bunch!

The small Island of Ben Tre

After Can Tho we decided to take the road a little less travelled and visit the slightly sleepy island of Ben Tre where we stayed in a guest house over looking what basically resembled an empty concrete swimming pool which really was nothing to look at during the day but almost came alive at night. It was lit up beautifully and became the spot where an array of locals would take their evening power-walk (in their pyjama's!) around the lake while catching up on all the latest gossip with their friends! Was a great scene, which we enjoyed over a bottle of wine from our balcony.

I hasten to add that Ben Tre is also where we went on a rather touristy day trip along another part of the Mekong where i am sure our guide was determined to get us drunk; starting at 9am on the spirits was a little early even for me! :) Very entertaining though - sampling all the local liquors such as rice wine, coconut liquor, banana liquor, you name it we tried it! We even went a little too far and sampled the local, very specially made, snake wine!!!!!!! Ewwww! Certainly not one i EVER had any intention of trying. Cindy and i had seen it on a few occasions prior to this particular tour, and both decided it was one of the few indiginous liquors we would give a miss....!!! Hmmm.... so that didn't last long. Unsuprisingly i did not feel 100% after i had drunk the stuff, when it really sunk in (literally i guess!), what i had actually just consumed! Yuck! As you will see below, we also complied with 'the role of the tourist' by wearing our 'local hats' while sitting on the back of a horse and cart.... couldn't really decide whether to cringe or laugh!

All in all it wasn't a bad tour really, we got to see some more of the nearby Islands, and take a walk through fruit orchards, that then lead to some traditional singing and dancing... all good fun! :)

Gooooooooooood Morning VIETNAM...!!!!!

Oh yes, so having recovered enough from my accident to get back on the road again Cindy and i took a bus then 2 small boats along the Mekong River to cross the border into Vietnam on the 18th April.

We started off in the very south at Chau Doc, a small town which introduced us nicely to the local life in Vietnam. We spent a few days here just getting a feel for the country, eating at the local markets and visiting Sam Mountain, before taking another small boat out to the fish farm and floating village as we continued on to a lovely slightly larger town/city - Can Tho.

From here we spent a really wonderful day where we hired a guide and a long-tail boat with a woman we'd met from Germany, to give us a real taster of life along the Mekong River. We started off on the water in time to see the sun rise through our sleepy eyes before arriving at the hustle and bustle of the great floating markets...

Here we saw every type of fruit and vegetable that you could imagine, being passed and sold between their wobbly little wooden boats... this really was where all the local business took place! Such a fantastic experience! After taking in all the sights of the market we then floated along the very narrow, and rather shallow canals, where we kept getting caught up and stuck in all the weeds and plants along the way. At one point we thought we were going to be wading back home but our fantastic little man got us back still nice and dry! ;)