To pick up where I left off, we went to go find the legendary Banh Xeo46 which was dissapointingly closed for what looked like those two days all year. Luckily there was mad street good outside and we went and saw what looked like a crackin Com Tam place. The owner was way amused by my camera and was showing me what shots I should get. Mind you no conversation was happening just a lot of smilling and pointing. The food was bomb diggity tooo and cost like $2. We also copped some mangosteen of a tip from my friend veronica. We didn't really know how to eat it and the fruit lady we got it from sensed our confusion and cut it open revealing the awesome looking fruity bit within.
We still had some time to burn so we figured back to the bars would be a good way to go. The folks who work at the bars pretty much just stand outside and try to convince you to come in. We didn't really have any particular plans so when this dude at the "boston bar" was like come in friends we were like sure w/e. Inside we're pretty sure he started hitting on me which was sort of awkward but I do suppose I'm flattered. We met this british dude too who was doing a whole 1 year trip around the world. Pretty jealous of that. By the time we got a few beers under our belt it was about that time to catch our night train. The difference between stations here and in India cannot be overstated. The ones here have convenience stores that make India's supermarkets look like food stalls. What's even crazier was that the train LEFT AND ARRIVED ON TIME. We haven't been accustomed to this in a while. On the down side our berths had plenty of roaches which, though I know can't bite me, the thought of them and the relative discomfort of the cot meant that I don't think I slept more than an hour or two during the trip.
We got into Nha Trang at around 5:30 Am napped in our hotel and went to hit the beach. Nha Trang is supposed to be like THE beach town for vietnam and it didn't really disappoint. We posted up at this one spot and got some beers. Hella people come up to try to sell you things, from sunglasses, to fruit, to random books, to fresh seafood that they cook on the spot. We ended up copping some sunglasses which felix is self conscious in and I went for it with one of the seafood ladies. They have these little charcoal grills and pretty much cook your fresh ass seafood on the spot, I had some crab, shrimp, scallop and snail. She had lobster but I couldn't do it on my budget sadly. It was delicious and though I know i got ripped off it was a worthwhile experience.
The water in Nha Trang is ridiculously warm. Like warmer than the water I use to shower. It's also mad salty and buoyant and makes for a great let me float around time. These random viet dudes who were swimming gave us this thing of 6 pieces of styrofoam abour 1x1" tied together in a bundle. It was sort of cool cause you could sit on it be neptune on his throne.
Anyways to end the night we went to this popular bar called the sailling club and there were these two hippie girls from Japan doing the poi ball fire spinning stuff and I'm not gonna lie one of them was the hottest thing since fire. The entire bar just sort of watched them do their thing for like 2 hours and it was pretty funny seeing the various patrons and staff hit on them. I took some pretty sweet pics and got one of their emails so I'll send them over eventually.
That part was pretty awesome. What wasn't awesome is we stayed to watch till two and were supposed to wake up at 4:30 to get the train to Da Nang. Needless to say we woke up at 5:30 (when our train left) and had to leave the hotel by 6 AM due to the amazing institution of 24 hour checkout... So we got to the train station in Nha Trang, were unable to get a refund, and then had to get a train to Danang for 12:45. This also meant we had 6 hours to kill starting at 7am. CAN YOU SAY AWESOME?! Luckily one of the main non beach attractions of Nha Trang was nearby. It's this really cool buddhist temple with a sick altar, giant reclining buddha, and even larger seated buddha. It was siiiick. We then got some mi quang and banh mi from a street stall that was legit and proceeded to waste the next 3 hours in the only bookstore in nha trang, also conveniently located near the train station. Luckily I've been dying to read the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives book as well as stuff on BBQ and Scotland. Finally before we left we had a delicious 1$ bowl of ox tail pho.
The train itself was pretty misereable because felix and I are really just too big for the seats. At least two big to sleep. It didn't stop Felix but I don't think I slept more than one out of the 9 hours on the train. One part was really funny though when this large late-middle aged vietnamese woman started talking to me, in vietnamese, and pointing to my cargo shorts and laughing hysterically. She didn't know a word of english and unless she's talking about food i don't know a word of vietnamese so all i could do was smile. Maybe she was saying "HAHAHAHA Look at those cargo shorts! what is this? 2002?" She randomly talked to me a few more times on the ride and all i could really do was smile and nod.
The train also had TV's that showed shitty american movies like the never ending story and MI2 as well as lots of tom and jerry. What made them hilarious was every character in every show/movie was narrated by the same deadpan vietnamese woman. It made MI2 much better in my opinion
We finally got to Danang at 11 and had to take an hour cab to Hoi An. The cabbie who picked us up seemed sort of drunk and drove us somewhere close where a lady took over from him. During the course of the ride I had to pee like it was the end of the world and getting her to stop was mad difficult due to the language barrier. When I was eventually able to get her to stop on the way her and felix shared a laugh as she realized what I was doing. When we finally got to the hotel they were sort of closed and the very groggy but cute receptionist had to sort of wake up before we could finally get to our room to end the 12 hours of sleep in 3 days marathon.
I'll write about Hoi An tomorrow because I'm still here!
Other highlights of Nha Trang:
1. Grilling your own meat on a charcoal grill on your table! a sort of out of the way local joint and it was bombbbb
2. Eating claypot fish at a restaurant that supports a local orphanage!
3. getting EXTREME CLEAN bodywash so i can feel EXTREMELY CLEAN
4. You can buy Jim Beam and Coke in a bottle as a complete beverage
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