We left our hotel in Hoi An early in the morning to catch the express train to Nha Trang. Mum, hand in hand with the very helpful staff of Vu`On Trau family resort hotel had organised our tickets. At such late notice all that were available were soft seats for the 10 hour journey costing $21. The train was comfortable, although the air conditioning was sporadic, with even the locals feeling the heat. Now it`s my turn to continue, I`m Kay`s Mum. There was food available on the train for the entire journey but thankfully we had stocked up with food for our onboard picnic which we thoroughly enjoyed. Our cup of homemade`English`tea also went down a treat especialy as mine was in a bone china mug I'd imported from home. When we arrived at Nha Trang station, understandably feeling weary after our long journey, we were met by a local cab driver holding up a notice with my name on, quite a novelty in Vietnam. Within a few minutes we had arrived at our hotel. We went straight to our rooms dumped our rucksacks and went out on the town. We didn't stay out too long though as a shower and our beds were calling. Since we`ve been here in Nha Trang we`ve done it the hard way as our mode of transport has been pushbikes. However it`s been great fun and managed some exercise into the bargain. We`ve had time on the lovely almost deserted beach and as always the beach vendors take it in turns to try and relieve us of some of our Vietnamese dong. Today we`ve been on the oceans waves. We took a boat trip to 4 local islands. Not quite what we expected but still enjoyable. We snorkelled though didn`t see too many fish, swam and even had a floating bar. We even had to pay an `import tax` of 10,000 dong each (that equates to 33 pence) at one of the islands, another innovative way of the locals earning a `crust`. We`re back at the hotel now showered and almost ready to go out for our meal before boarding the overnight bus to Saigon. We leave at 8pm and arrive at 6am tomorrow. It is a sleeper bus, yes we all have our own beds, no sharing, and we even have a toilet onboard. We are keeping the teabags and mugs handy hoping they'll be hot water onboard. Maybe that's expecting too much though. Not quite what I`m used to but it`s different and it`s fun and as we're travelling overnight we don`t have the expense of a hotel!!! Saigon here we come.
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