Jun 05

Well,

the last 2 nights have been interesting. Night before last i was walking back to my hotel from the internet cafe. Only about 100 metres or so. It was dark, some Viet guy left the internet cafe at the same time as me, got on his motorbike, drove along the pavement next to me and said hello etc. Then he said "I want to see you c*ck. I thought i mis-heard at first, but he then pointed at my groin and said it again. Well, the closed gates of the hotel loomed, i didn't really understand the situation, but told him to go away, he didn't, so i got ready to get in a bit of a scrape, the night porter took ages to open up the gates, and the guy just rode off, a very curious incident. Last night i ended up in a private karaoke room with 7 or 8 Viets. I hate karaoke!!! 2 girls spoke good English, the rest only knew "Cheers Dave", and were saying it every few seconds, which meant a swig of beer had to be taken. Well, after about 200 Cheers Daves my legs felt a bit wobbly. But, as always seems to be the case with Viet parties, the karoake night came to an abrupt halt and we all went home. Today i've been fishing. Caught about 7 in this small lake, a lot more got away with my bait though.

Well, i'm now holed up in Vung Tau, which is a small, quiet city about an hours boat trip from Saigon. I have a couple of English friends here who teach and i've been invited to a brithday bash tonight. I've arrived here this afternoon with the dreaded delhi belly, so i'm pumped full of imodium and the internet cafe next to the hotel is about as far i dare to go tonight.

I've spent the last 6 days or so in Nha Trang and Mui Ne. Nha Trang was a very busy beach resort. Night life wise it was pretty good. A bar called Guava was my favourite. I had heard and read much about the Sailing Club too, it was a great venue, good music, great location. Unfortunately the first night i went with a friend, everytime we turned our head away from our drinks or her cigarettes, they were stolen. We returned a couple of nights later, every time we danced we asked the staff to keep an eye on the drinks. This time however, upon paying 100,000 dong for a 40,000 dong drink, i received no change. Upon enquiring to the staff where my change was, i had to point out the guy who served me. He was obviously drunk and told me, whilst finding it all very amusing, he had been to the loo and couldn't possibly have served me, after that no-one seemed interested in finding out what happened to my change. One of the group sitting next to me had also come to the bar to complain because one of there group had had their wallet stolen whilst in the club. Shame, because it's a great venue, just there seems to be an awful lot of thieving in there. Never experienced it anywhere in Vietnam before, but this place seems to have a real problem. Aside from that it was a good few days and certainly didn't spoil my time there. Mui Ne was about a 3 hour bus journey from Nha Trang, only had 1 day there, whick i regret a little now. It had a lovely beach, sand dunes all around and was really, really quiet. Lots of restaurants but the whole place seemed to shut down around 1030/1100 pm which is great if you're after some peace and quiet (which i was). Stayed in a nice little bungalow right on the beach for about 11 dollars. The beach is just about empty, with nice clear water and sand for miles in both directions. If its a hustle/bustle nightlife beach resort you're after then go to Nha Trang, if its a really quiet beach resort you're after then head to Mui Ne.

After 5 days of being unable to drag myself away from Saigon because i'm having such a good time and meeting up with old friends, i have at last managed to book a flight to Nha Trang for $39 US. Not sure how long i will be in Nha Trang. Still want to go to Phu Quoc too but it would mean i have to come back to Saigon first to go on to Phu Quoc.

My first entry will be a short one. I'm in Saigon, the jet lag and the cold i arrived with has all but gone, so now i'm ready to explore some of Vietnam. Phu Quoc, Nha Trang and the Mekong Delta is the plan of attack for the next couple of weeks. I have 2 nights in Saigon now, so i'm off to have a few beers. I will keep you posted on what these places are like.