Valentine's Day 2011

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  Nha Trang, Vietnam
Monday, February 14, 2011

Our bus journey from Hoi An to Nha Trang was quite frankly my worst nightmare. As we boarded the bus I got the feeling it wasn't quite the standard of the last night bus we’d taken – to Sapa and back – and as Matt and I were two of the last people to board, and there were no allocated seats, I was directed to one of the top 'bunk’ central aisle ‘beds’ and Matt in between two people on the back bottom row. Luckily the guy on one side was prepared to swap with me so I clambered in next to Matt. Unfortunately, within minutes I spotted a cockroach and as the journey progressed it transpired that the whole bus was crawling with them, the majority of which were emerging from under the back row, where we were ‘sleeping’.

As if this wasn’t enough the driver was going far too fast for the condition of the road and on more than one occasion we found ourselves, literally, thrown in the air. We discovered a few days later, from a couple who’d been on the same journey but on a bus behind us, that our drivers had been drinking and switching places, whilst the bus was in motion, every half hour or so! It was by far the worst journey we’ve had all trip and I’ve never been so relieved to get off a bus in my life!

And so we reached Nha Trang, incredibly early (6am), having had no sleep and feeling more than a little sore and unhappy. We had booked a room in a hostel but, being so early, it wasn’t available yet so we sat in a café next door for 4 hours and had breakfast and a coffee or three. Our room, when ready, was nothing special, and the bathroom was quite awful, but, to be honest, I think we were so tired we didn’t care enough to complain. We settled in and did practically nothing all day, having no energy and feeling more than a little low-spirited with tiredness, homesickness and general weariness. It was a far cry from the Nam Hai and delicious meals with my parents!

We decided we needed something to enthuse us about travelling again and, having heard about ‘Easyrider tours’ and seeing that our hostel offered them, we decided to investigate. Basically this involves a Vietnamese motorbike rider taking you on tour. This ranges from a day tour of the surrounds, to 2, 3, 4, or more days from one location to another. It sounded like a great idea though I had my reservations, the main one of which being that I wasn’t entirely happy entrusting ourselves and all our belongings to a complete stranger. So, we met up with two guys who offered the tours, to ask a few questions. They seemed nice enough and had a book of reviews from previous passengers, and they would go wherever we liked. We decided we needed to sleep on it, in particular as it cost $60 per person per day, not an insignificant amount of money, even more so if you’re nearing the end of your trip and funds are running low.

That night Matt took me for a meal at a recommended French restaurant just around the corner and on arrival, it being Valentine’s Day, the waitress brought out a basket of red roses which, I must confess, I couldn’t have been more surprised by. Anyone who’s met Matt will know he’s not the most romantic of fellows and I’ve learnt never to expect such things (in fact in our not far short of 3 year relationship he has never bought me flowers… up till now). I was rendered speechless for a while before I found the words to thank him and he insisted that he didn’t know who they were from, taking some of the romance out of the situation! We had a lovely meal and even treated ourselves to a glass each of wine.

Next morning we met with the Easyriders and, much to their dismay, had to turn down the opportunity. We had decided the night before that although it was something we were interested in, it would be more sensible to start the journey from Dalat, the city in which Easyriders originated, and where there was lots to see on a day tour, thus giving us the opportunity to ‘test drive’ our guides and see if we felt comfortable to do a longer tour.

Then we hit the beach. A rather beautiful beach and in fact one of the nicest, in terms of sand, sea and sun, that we’ve experienced all trip. We spent several hours trying to top up our rather pathetic tans before heading for lunch at a great, and cheap, nearby café. We had a little walk around the resort town and not liking it much, sorted our bus to Dalat for the next morning and then went to try out some of the bars we’d seen dotted around.

Several 2 for 1 bellinis later and we found ourselves in an Indian restaurant just over the road from our hostel. I’m fairly confident I can speak for both of us in saying that it was one of the worst curries we’ve had. Neither of our dishes (a vindaloo and something similar to a rogan josh) were even remotely spicy and practically devoid of flavor as well. Once again our instinct never to trust Lonely Planet food or accommodation recommendations was confirmed.

Next morning we left bright and early and had an easy 4 hour journey to Dalat.

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