After a lovely bruch in Nha Trang we went back to the hotel to suit up and hit the beach. The beach was lovely we spent a dollar each on a sunbed and spent the whole day doing nothing apart from swimming, sleeping and drinking water. The Nha Trang public beach is lovely, whilst on the beach I watched to start of Apocalypse Now, I only mention this because coincidentally he travels from Saigon to Nha Trang where he sets off on his mission. Learn a new thing every day. We also received a flyer to go to the Green Apple bar, where upon buying a main meal, we would receive a free bucket. Of alcohol. for free. After beach we went for tea at the afore mentioned restauraunt, had our free bucket with our meal and left. Went back to the hotel and rested for a while until leaving again at 9. Our first stop was the red apple club, known as the backpacker place to hang out. We spent half the night flippig beer mats and catching them, we worked ut a whole routine and everyting....I know we're very sad. That was until joy of joys (sarcasm) we saw Tanya from Fiji. Henry was in fact more happy to see hre than I was. I really wasn't too bothered. We then spent the night talking to her and her friends. I became very disenchanted with the night and left around 12.30, not before witnessing Henry driving a little cyclo with the vietnamese driver asleep in the front and two girls hangin off the back. I also found out that he'd been escorted into 'the Sailing Club' (very la di daa i know but its basically just a beach party every night) by a prostitute who would not take no for an answer, he ended up basically running away from her.
Next morning woke up nice and early for our island trip, Henry had a large hangover and wasn't so talkative. Had bread for breakfast before being picked up by a minibus and taken to the docks. Found ourselves on a rusty boat with around 30 other people. Our first destination, a little aquarium posing as a concrete pirate ship. We quickly realised that we would have to pay for some of these trips off the boat and should therefore start saving some money. The aquarium was good though limited, with some big fish, small sharks and average sized turtles. The views from the top of the pirate ship were very nice aswell. Next stop was the floating thing with the cute puppies and the little snorkelling. We jumped off the top of the boat for a while so by the time we got to the snorkelling equipment all that was left were these little one piece masks that made you look like frogmen. But in we went, wasn't very good but still was quite fun. Next stop FOOD! Had a little buffet with al the chairs folding down to form a table, was quite a lot like Fiji, a lot of food none of which is particularly nice. After lunch the entertainer guy asked people their nationalities I spoke up with England and that sealed my Karaoke fate. All the people that spoke up had to come up and perform a karaoke from their country chosen by the guy. Mine was wonderwall. A brief panic at the start when I had absolutely no Idea what was playing then it kicked in and I was propelled to stardom in the eyes of the 50 Vietnamese people watching. After lunch was the lovely floating bar, we didnt stop floating away. After leaping off the top deck of the boat a few times, doing a few dives and such like the floating bar was taken in and we were hauled up onto the boat for our last trip. This was to a packed stone beach which you had to pay to get onto, it was appalling, the public beach was so much nicer, we just went to the deckchairs and read till the boat left. When we arrived back at the hostel around 4.30 we had our showers then left to get tea, after tea we played a game of pool and booked our sleeper bus out of Nha Trang, we were leaving the next night at 7. Went back to the hotel watched tv till 10 and left to go to the Red Apple, Henry ghad left his diary there before so when we got there we had to walk back and there again, for the first half the night we entertained ourselves. The second part we met some Scottish girls and the German girls off the boat. Flyer girl organised a group of us to go to the Sailing club, along the way I walked into Why Not bar to talk to some girls about Hoi An, what to do, where to stay etc. but we got bored and left to find everyone else. We got there and strolled in. It was a sunday night so the place was dead, we found everyone standing round on the beach talking, I rejoined the Scottish girls and a new guy, cant remember his name but he was from the midlands. After talking to them for a while we went back to why not bar, they couldnt get in as they hadnt got the stamp, me and the midlands had the stamp, we bid them goodbye and agreed to meet them at the full moon party, after talking to the other girls from why not bar for a while I leave to find Henry, find him down the street talking to a girl with the most peaceful voice ever, not sure if this is normal or due to a lot of alcohol we talk for a while and go back to why not bar. Around 3 we get bored and go back to the hotel to try and get some sleep.
Wake up at 11, go downstairs, go find a cash machine, pack bags, pay for room, leave bags downstairs, go for lunch, play pool, go to beach, go for a swim, meet Tanya and Tanya's friends again, try and swim out to a buoy, is a lot further out than it seemed from the shore, regret decision when we reach the buoy and have to swim back. Make it back very tired, talk to Tanya's friends, ask person how much the Kite Surfing is....30 dollars for an hour lesson, this seems like too much. We are poor and cant afford 30 dollars for a kite surfing lesson. Leave the water and talk to Flyer girl and why not girls for a while. They buy a lobster, we talk for a while, we leave to find some food, have food and leave to go get our stuff from the hotel. Go on the internet for a while, and leave, go to convenience store, buy some convenient stuff and go and wait for the bus outside the tourist office. Get picked up by a minibus and taken to the bus stop. We pile on the bus and Henry recognizes some girls from Fiji, they recognize us, we talk to them. Arond 8.30 the driver turns all the lights off on the bus. Apparently 8.30 is bed time, around 12.30 the driver turns all the lights in the bus on. Apparently midnight is wake up time, we get off the bus to stretch our legs. At 1 we get back on the us and fall asleep. I have a horrible nights sleep, very sweaty, very bumpy and every now and again I'd wake up to a pile of drool on my hand where my chin had been resting, lovely.
We arrive in Hoi An at 6.30 and are immediately assailed by moto drivers and hotel people trying to sell us stuff. This is not fun and makes it very hard to focus on anything apart from saying no thank you. After traipsing up ten flights of stairs and seeing many appalling rooms, we find a cheap double fan room in a hotel with a pool. It is also the cheapest place we'd found so jackpot. We sleep for the next three hours. Around 11.30 we wake up, find we're hungry and go for some foods at the hotel restauraunt, a lovely fried rice dish later and we're ready to go find us some suits. 30 minutes later we're being measured, having chosen the style, the fit, the colour, the lining and the embroidery. Henry only wants a blazer, I get a suit. You'll habe to find out what they look like when we get home, let me tell you though that they are spiffing. I was gonna go for fire red with royal blue stripes but they didnt have that fabric so I had to settle for a more conservative style. After having our fitting session we go for a walk round the town. It really is a nice little town, almost all the shops are dedicated towards customising clothes, from shoes, to bags to jewelley, everything can be done here all you need to do is tell them what you want. We crossed the Chinese Bridge walked along the historic roads dodged our way through the food market, holding our breath for fear of smelling the putrid Durian fruit. Likened to the smell of mature cheese mixed with caramel. and not in a good way. After seeing all of Hoi An we walked back to the hotel stopping by to see our suits being made. We went out for tea but it was generally an uneventful night of resting and watching films, too exhausted to move from the beds.
Woke up the next morning had breakfast, went to see our suits, Henrys was done apart from his shirt which needed a bit of adjustment, mine needed a bit more adjustment but they told me to come back at 5 and it would be done, we spent the day by the pool lying in the perfect sun, slowly getting skin cancer. At 5 we went to the suit shop. There had been a power cut so they hadnt done any embroidering on mine but Henrys was completely done. They said it would all be done by the next day which coincidentally would be the day we were leaving Hoi An. Fast forwards to after tea around 10. Picture Billy and Henry standing on a street corner waiting for a free shuttle bus that would never come, to take us to a beach party that probably no longer exists, and you can picture us. After our weak attempts to get to Cua Dai beach party, we try for King Kong, also recommended in the guide book as a nice place to go for a drink. Nope still nothing there, perfect. King JKong was actually there however there was only one poor vietnamese guy sitting on his own. We decided not to go in. We felt we had put sufficient effort into going out and therefore relaxed in front of Moulin Rouge for the rest of the night.
Woke up this morning, had a shower, horrible pancake for breakfast, Go to suit shop, say it'll be ready by three, go to the pool, swim underwater (mostly) for 2 hours, write a large portion of this, then leave for an overpriced Indian meal. Go back get the clothes we're sending home and go to the suit shop. Try on the suit for the last time, it looks perfect. Package it up and send it and the other clothes home in a very expensive parcel. Lovely, went for a little walk through Hoi An, spent 10 minutes asking a shopkeeper the price of the model ships in there, literally a HMS Endeavour larger than me for 550 dollars. We both decided that we wanted it. Think of the opportunities. 8 foot HMS endeavor is sailing back home as we speak. Fantsatic, after ship shopping we went to a perfect little cafe where we could resisit a scoop of ice cream. And now we are back after running/hobbling back due to intense bowel movements. Oh the joys of Asia.x