Fearless Frances!

We hit the beach today!

Lovely early morning run along the winding roads of the highlands, amazed to see mile after mile of polytunnel type greenhouses, commercial cultivation of vegetables and flowers on a grand scale. In Nha Trang we headed straight for our boat, just for the five of us - Frances and I, Bill and Lola (please don't start singing that Barry Manilow song...) from Oz and our guide Hai - and headed out to Mieu Island to the worst part of the trip so far, a horrible tacky, badly kept aquarium - it is housed in a giant concrete galleon and you enter through a shark's mouth - say no more. Except that I just got in the door and caught sight of something large and black with a long tail disappearing behind a box or something and as I have a phobia about rodents, that finished me off. I scooted round to the exit and back into the fresh air. Frances had only remarked yesterday that we hadn't seen any rats in HCMC....

We then motored out to see the Vietnamese equivalent of fish farming, and had we stuck to our schedule should have been having lunch there, fresh out of the tanks, but as it was we had to slum it at a nearby beach resort, where we had lunch in a huge open air restaurant made of bamboo and palms. After a wee rest we enjoyed a swim in the Eastern Sea (on the map it is the South China Sea but the Vietnamese seem to have the same opinion of the Chinese as most other people and won't call it that) and also a swim in the huge swimming pools there. While we were swimming about Hai came looking for us with a member of the staff in tow - she was carrying Frances' bum bag, the one with all her money and passport in, which had somehow been left in the loo where we got changed. Everything was intact and I think typical of the people here that it wasn't raided and dumped, but returned with a smile.

On the beach there was the chance to go parascending, and Frances decided that she wanted to have a go. It was a brief flight - only five minutes - but was the highlight of her day - the smile on her face as she unhooked the harness said it all but she wouldn't let me blip that one!

Back to town to check into our hotel - more easy wi-fi in the room - then a wander around. We ended up at 'Sandals', a beach side restaurant, for a pina colada (me) and a coconut juice (F) served in the shell with a spoon for scraping the flesh from the inside, and some western food. Expensive by Vietnam standards - the whole thing cost 480,000 dong - about $23! The Vietnamese meal on our first night cost 153,000 dong. Getting to grips with the money in such huge numbers is still confusing!!

Tomorrow is a bank page till we see what the weather is like but I would like to go to the mud baths!

and finally...

We can't access the BBC website
There are cafes along the highways with lots of hammocks for people to have a wee rest on!
There is a vegetable that grows in water called morning glory.
Often eaten for breakfast, sticky rice is like black chewing gum with crushed nuts inside. It is pretty disgusting!