Crazy Train
Trip Start
Oct 17, 2009
1
18
19
Trip End
Ongoing
Nha Trang, Vietnam
Friday, February 12, 2010
We'd figured that we didn't want to be stuck in a big city when Tet (Vietnamese new year) started, life would be easier chilling out at the beach while the locals had their holiday. We'd had a look at the map and settled on Nha Trang, a resort area with lots of beaches and good diving opportunities if we wished. It wasn't 'til 9pm that we finally reached our destination, after a quick hunt around we dropped our bags at the first hotel that seemed respectable, and showered off the accumulation of 10 hours stale sweat.
The next day was the eve of Tet and the excitment in the air was tangible. People were shutting up work early and strapping orange trees to the back of their motorbikes to take home to their families(I guess the equivelant of a christmas tree). The owners of the hotel we were staying in had cut up watermelon, boiled pots of tea and were sharing it round with us. The streets were full of decorations and huge displays of flowers adorned the foreshore area. Parents were buying their kids balloons while grandparents were cracking open cans of beer.
We spent the day bumming around, frolicking at the beach and relaxing in general. A lazy day was followed up with dinner at a restaurant that raises money to fight peadophilia in Vietnam(its a problem here too). After dinner we accompanied some of the guys staying at our hotel to a club down the road, where we had a few beers and watched some performers do some fire eating and various other tricks involving razor blades and snakes.
It was fun but at the same time it was the eve of Tet and is much akin to new years eve back at home. We figured it'd be more fun to watch the locals party than be stuck in a club with other westerners and miss out on the celebrations. So we wandered down to the beach boulevard which was absolutely packed with people. Big stages had been set up and singers and dancers were entertaining the crowds. Balloons floated everywhere and food stalls were working hard to keep the masses fed. Some areas of the beach were full of families who had had set up picnics while other areas were the domain of the younger crowds, clustered around eskys of beer. After wandering aimlessly throught the masses of people for a while we found a patch of sand on the beach to sit on, and waited for midnight.
Like the Chinese, the Vietnamese believe that it's prudent to make as much noise as possible when the new year starts to keep evil spirits at bay. Thats why they have firecrackers. At the stroke of midnight everyone on the beach stood up and started cheering as fireworks lit up the sky.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, one that we finished off at the 'sailing club', a bar further up the beach where the music kept pumping til the wee hours.
The next day being Vietnamese new years day, was a slow one. The shops were closed and streets were quiet apart from the occasional conga line of dragons dancing around with guys with drums following them making a racket. We were quite happy to sit back and watch the locals do their thing, Danni did some reading and I caught up on my blog notes.
Vinpearl was next on the agenda. Supposedly a project created by a mafia kingpin with lots of money to launder, it's an Amusement park, Water park, Aquarium and 5 star resort all in one located on an island in the bay. We caught a the worlds longest cablecar across the sea to Vinpearl island where we spent the day frollicking in the water park and in the evening in the amusement park. It was great, there was hardly anyone there so we didn't have to line up for rides at all. We went on the 'black hole' heaps of times, a big cylinder style water slide where after twisting and turning down the slide you were spat out into this big plug hole sort of thing, good fun. There were speed slides, tandem slides, a lazy river, even a massive water half pipe to slide on. The amusement park had dodgem cars, a rollercoaster, mechanical bulls and a big video game arcade where all the games were free. By the end of the day we were sunburnt and tired so we were in bed pretty quickly.
Good thing we did as the next day was a big one. We had decided to go on a boat tour of the islands around Nha Trang where we had the chance to do a bit of snorkeling, if we liked what we saw we'd have a go at scuba diving too.
Our boat left early the next morning, we we'rent the only ones, turns out it's the thing to do here. There were rows of boats all full of tourists like us that were embarking for a tour plying the same route. If we were on a different boat I reckon we'd have been bored as hell but as a stroke of luck we'd scored a happy boat full of young, like minded individuals that enjoyed the idea of having a bit of a party.
The tour guide introduced himself as 'funky monkey' and encouraged us all to begin the day with a beer and a little karaoke. We sailed from island to island, following all the other boats from one place to the next, going to an aquarium on one island, doing some snorkelling off another (pretty average), and anchoring off near another island for a bit of lunch. After lunch we were entertained by the boats crew who had formed a little band, complete with electric guitars and pots and pans for drums. The deck was cleared and turned into a dancefloor and everyone boogied the afternoon away. It was totally random but heaps of fun.
The ships crew seemed bent on getting us drunk, after finishing playing tunes one of the crew jumped over the side of the boat with a little floating contraption that was fitted out with a bucket full of grog. We were told that the floating bar was now open and we should jump overboard and join in. We didn't need much encouragement and shortly thereafter there were 20 odd tourists bobbing around in the water downing shots of rice wine and enjoying the afternoon sun. Everybody by this stage were well on their way to intoxication, not the best scenario on a boat. But apart from an American that enjoyed buying three beers at a time and shouting out at regular intervals that he came from New York, it turned out to be a great day.
Funnily enough while we were here we ran into some more of the people we'd been hanging out with in Vang Vieng. Eating breakfast that morning we'd noticed Ryan and Kerry, the Irish couple walking down the street, and after some catch up banter quickly arranged to meet that evening for drinks. Evening came and we joined the irish and a bunch of revellers from the party boat at a bar to continue the good times.
Two Dutch girls from the boat were talking of how they had to catch a bus in the morning but were worried as news was a bus had just crashed on the way to Nha Trang killing several people. They had good reason to be worried, we'd been hearing more and more stories of accidents around town, mainly motorbikes. The idea of travelling by road was sounding more and more suicidal. Not to worry though, we'd booked our train tickets well in advance this time and were gonna be taking the night train to Hanoi.
Another night on the drink with the Irish followed, an awkward one to begin with as Ryan warned us not to mention Kerrys new hairdoo, (she'd decided to take advantage of cheap hair salon prices but found out that Vietnamese don't know how to dye hair blonde as they only have black hair), a few beers later the mood had lightened and another night was drunk away.
We bid farwell to the Irish and the following afternoon we boarded our train for Hanoi. The journey was going to take 24 hours so we thought it prudent to go with a sleeper train. The sleeper trains in Vietnam differ greatly from the Thai models. Instead of an open plan, each carriage was divided into little cabins with 6 bunk beds in each and a long hallway down one side for access. It seemed far safer as each cabin had a door that could be locked.
We'd booked two top bunk beds as they were the cheapest, so after stowing our bags under the bottom bunks and saying hello to our new flatmates we ascended to our sleeping quarters and settled in for the ride.
About half an hour later the train was rattling through a tunnel when several loud bangs brought the train to a grinding halt. The train stood still and silent for a couple of minutes then all the lights went out. Everything was pitch black and there was a commotion outside so we fumbled around for a torch then joined the rest of the passengers out in the corridor, peering out the windows to try and see what was happening. A bunch of train guards were walking along the tracks waving torches around and shouting jibberish at each other. Some of the windows opend up and people were craning their necks out for a better view of the drama. Strong oily, petrol fumes wafted in to the carriage and things were seeming pretty grim.
No foreigners were on the train so we couldn't ask what was going on, the best we could do was communicate in charades with one of our cabin mates, a young bloke that looked in his 20's. After acting out different scenarios and pointing now and then at our phrasebook we came to the conclusion that there was mechanical problems with one of the wheels. After sitting in the dark for an hour or so the train lurched back into motion and the lights came back on. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing chess with our cabinmates and watching i-pod movies. Everything with the train seemed fine, the only difference now was we were more aware of how the carriage was wobbling from side to side.
It turns out our little cabinmate had a few friends on the train and by dinnertime they were all in our room, munching on various snacks and watching music videos on my i-pod. Strangely enough Rammstein proved to be their favourite and the evening was spent watching their video clips. The boys got off at Dha Nang around midnight and they insisted I get off also and meet their buddies before the train left. After bidding adeu and buying a pack of smokes it was back on the train and onwards to Hanoi.
Sleep was intermittent throughout the night as the train stopped here and there and more and more people got on. By morning the train was chockers and we were woken by little kids squealing below us and train guards ordering who could sit where. In the couple of hours we'd been asleep the cabin we were in had gone from fitting 6 people in it to fitting 15. Whole families had booked one bed between themselves and each bunk bed now resembled a game of twister. Friends were sticking their heads in the door to say hello, dads were distributing breakfast snacks between the kids and mums had their tits out feeding the babies. It was chaos. Our bags weren't packed neatly under the bunk anymore but were just visible amongst the sea of luggage, pots and pans and whatever else piled on the ground. One of the babies had even been sick, her spew covering the side of my back pack, doing anything there and then would have been a lost cause so I left it to soak into the fabric and went back to sleep. We rode out the rest of the day up in our beds to avoid the mayhem below and by evening were well and truly ready for some fresh air and a shower. Round 6pm the train pulled into Hanoi, we jumped into the first available taxi and sped away, already calling shotgun on who had first shower.
Morale: festive
Over and out from Nha Trang, Vietnam.
note: apologies for the poor quality photos, our cameras are suffering from multiple war wounds. Danni's camera got wet in thailand and mine got bumped a bit too hard on one of the waterslides at Vinpearl, they're still working but are a shadow of their former selves.
Comments
Finally another blog loved it keep safe mum