Where The Wind blows Us: The good the bad and the ugly!!!!

27/02/2011

Hoi An is delightful old town set on the Thu Bon river. Most of the buildings pre date the war and have been preserved so it's easy to imagine as you wander the narrow streets what it use to look like. The streets are filled with gorgeous colourful lanterns. Hoi An is full of character with European, Chinese, and Japanese influences and it is a shopping mecca, everywhere you go there are such delights for all the senses. This is the place to go if you want affordable custom made clothing!!! I wasn't going to get anything made but I sucumbed and ended up getting shoes and a dress made . Eden had a couple of outfits made aswell. Taylors are everywhere, just about every second shop is a taylor, it's quite over whelming, and very dangerous on the wallet. Our bags are getting heavier and heavier!!!!

There faces are sculpted out of the roots of bamboo

28/02/2011

Off again to Nha Trang on a sleeper bus. We were rather anxious as to what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised. The bus was rather nice and we had good seats. What possibly could go wrong?

After about an hour out of Hue An the bus broke down and for about 3-4 hours we were left sitting.We found a eating place full of locals who shared their dinner and beers with us. We ate this food which is very similar to fresh spring rolls. You take a piece of rice paper and add meat and salad and you roll it up. So simple and so yummy. We learnt how to say cheers in Vietnamese ….. YO. I think Eden is getting an education in how to drink Vietnamese style.

We finally arrived in Nha Trang at 11am, 17 hours later. Aaaaagh a trip we will never forget!!!!

02/03/2011

We thought some therapy was in order after our ordeal bus ride so we ventured off to a place called Thap Ba Hot Springs. The mud bath sounded like the go.

Getting there was another thing. We were given directions and a map. Easy not quite. It makes it a wee bit challenging when most of the road signs aren't in english and most challenging when they are non existent, and even more challenging when the locals send you off in the opposite direction. Hmmmm,

Well we got there in the end thanks to Eden finally spotting a sign that we could read. I must say my patience is being well and truely tested here!!!

Mud baths, well I thought it would be warm mud but it was kind of luke warm going on cold. We found it quite chilly, due to an overcast day didn't help. We spent 15minutes in the mud bath. It is suppose to help treat a number of ailments such as skin dieases. After our mudbath we showered then we jumped into a mineral bath for about ½ an hour. It wasn't very warm either, but we finished off our therapy with a swim in the pools which were really nice and warm.

We felt amazing after, our skin felt so soft and luxurious. It was well and truly worth the effort!! I thoroughly recommend mud baths, not just for the health benefits but for the experience!!!!

mud mud glorious mud!!!!

03/03/2011

We headed off on a boat to visit three islands, snorkelling and visit an aquarium. We clambered onto our boat with a number of other travellers most being under the age of 25, and putted out to the first island where we snorkelled for about an hour. The fish and coral were abundant and amazing. It was brilliant. Our guides were excellent really funny and they showed us a really good time. After our lunch which was a fine spread they entertained us with their boy band. I was most impressed, they had made the drum kit out of old saucepans, excellent recycling at it's finest and to tell you the truth it didn't sound too bad.

didn't know Yamaha put out a range of saucepans

The boy band

After the boy band we all jumped into the water for our floating bar . One of the guides jumped into a floating ring and proceeded to hand out drinks to us. A lot of fun had by all. Eden is getting really educated isn't she?

Our last port of call was the aquarium. They had enormous groper and snapper there. I've never seen fish so big. There were hundreds of tropical fish and sharks,but the highlight were the giant turtles. They were just so amazing. We got to feed them and Eden got up real close to touch one.

We had such a good day it was so much fun, we were exhausted.

04/03/2011

Our last long haul bus ride hopefully for awhile. Eleven hours or so and we made it to Saigon. Unfortunately first impressions aren't very high. We got scammed by the taxi driver to the hotel and he proceeded to lock the doors of the taxi till we paid. Not nice situaton to be in!!!!!

We spent two days in Saigon getting in some last minute shopping and taking advantage all that is cheap as when we fly to europe cheap doesn't exist.