Nha Trang, Vietnam, 11-17 July 2012

Arrived in Nha Trang bright and very early after an ok nightbus with a driver with no fear. After a bit of wandering about asking prices and looking at rooms, we finally found a triple room for a good price in the hotel next door to the one Liv and her friends were staying in. We found some breakfast and headed back to the room so Jo and Jen could have a kip. The afternoon was spent searching up and down the beach for Liv and co but never found them. We arranged to meet Liv later on in a bar, but we got there early to see them all walking back giggling like schoolgirls after an afternoon on cocktails, so no wonder we never found them on the bloody beach! We decided to meet after dinner, but again we never found them, so after a few more drinks and lots of poking our heads in doorways we retired. The next morning as we looked for some breakfast we bumped into Marc and Patricia who we met in the 4000 Islands in Laos. We swapped stories and advice (they were going North and we were heading South) over breakfast then said our goodbyes again. We then wandered down to meet Liv and co at the beach in a certain spot, but we still nearly missed them; they weren't on the beach but by the pool of a bar on the beach. Spent the day getting crispy, then Jen and I went to find the bus booking office as she had decided she wanted to go off on her own for a bit and meet up together again in Cambodia on her birthday. She wasn't keen on going to Dalat, so she would forge on to Saigon, then fly to Bangkok, then go overland back to Cambodia and meet us in Phnom Penh in 9 days time. That night was our last evening with Liv, but her friends wanted to eat somewhere else, so the four of us (Liv, Jen, Jo and I) went for a set menu curry that Marc and Patricia had recommended that morning. Was great grub, and we went off to meet the other girls in a bar, but they weren't to be seen, so after a while we found them for Liv to get the key to the room, and we went off to another bar for more drinks (including free passionfruit daquaris for ladies) and Jo and Liv to have an emotional farewell. The next morning it was just the three of us suddenly. We did much the same as the previous day, going from pool to sunlounger to restaurant to bar to bed. The next morning we had to leave our hotel as Jen was leaving that evening, but the two of us couldn't now afford the hotel we were in. Lots more looking at rooms and bartering, and Jo found a lovely little place for USD10 for the room including breakfast. We shifted bags, spent more time by the pool, then had a decent meal before walking Jen to her nightbus to Saigon. Suddenly we were two again. We spent the following day in the now familiar holiday routine, and the day after that was my birthday and our last full day in Nha Trang. The only real difference was that we went in the sea (tempted to get the bus to another beach, but as the one on our doorstep was often mostly deserted, we didn't bother). Was a great and relaxing way to spend the day though, with a few drinks in the afternoon, back to the Indian place for dinner and more drinks! The following morning we were up at 6am so we had time to walk to the bus station and get on the bus to take us onto our penultimate stop in Vietnam; Dalat.