Mui Nie & Nha Trang

Mui Ne, Vietnam
12 - 14 June

Three delighted girls boarded the luxury sleeper bus to Mui Ne, but Kerry and Gayles excitement was soon curbed as they couldn't fit in their sleeper seats while everyone else on the bus, including Sally, seemed blissfully comfortable. Specific arms length measurements revealed that they had been given the midget sleeper seats and luckily the situation was then quickly rectified!

Mui Nie is a more remote holiday beach area of Vietnam - this was definitely proved to us that night as we wandered around for ages looking for a 'vibe' but eventually had to settle on a small family run restaurant where 5 locals were watching the World Cup.

We hired motorbikes and quickly learned that ensuring the petrol guage remained above the red was pretty important. Pushing a motorbike to the petrol station at the top of a hill in a very humid 38 degrees is not all its cracked up to be.

Petrol situation rectified, we set off for the Cham Towers (according to tour guide Sal they are older than JC himself!) and to the local fishing villages where fish sauce is made. We watched the men paddling in their round reed boats, the women carrying heavy loads of small fish to the 'factory' where they were then steamed before being dried out in the sun.

Nha Trang

14 - 17 June

Nha Trang is a larger beach town in Vietam where we had our first real encounter with the GAP students backpacker vibe.

Again, we hired motorikes (filled to the brim with petrol) and jetted off to a remote beach favoured by the locals. As the only foreigners there we were definitely the centre of attention. We went searching for the giant buddha, said to be just outside the city, but after witnessing two consecutive accidents inches away from us decided looking from afar was good enough.

We also did two scuba dives. Due to lack of recent diving experience on Kerry's part and complete lack of diving card on Sally's part, our first dive entitled 'discovering scuba diving' was a bit of a refresher. The second dive, involving caves and some great sea life, was fantastic.