In this city there isn't a whole lot to do which suited our then lazy demeanour. In the evenings we went spent most our nights at Booze Cruise bar having been manhandled in by two enthusiastic/eccentric bar girls called Lovely and Windy (genuinely). They were all about selling Jaeger bombs. Upon introducing herself to us, she said 'my name is Lovely and I'm going to get you drunk'. Tired from bus journey she did not sadly though we did frequent this bar ever night during our stay and exchanged our fair share of extremely aggressive high fives (by her instigation, not ours). It was a good laugh. Other than there we played pool with some local hustlers at Why Not Bar and had some dodgy cocktails. Our previous travel companions from Laos who had traveled Vietnam north to south were in the city at the same time so we met up briefly and had a few drinks and a good catch up with them. Always nice. Funnily enough, we met a couple at the hostel who recognised us from the slow boat into Laos from Thailand and said 'oh yeah we recognise you, you guys were the loud drunks ones on the boat!' Haha...oops. They were cool about it.
When not on the main beach, we took the cable car over to Vinpearl, an island resort with a water park, theme park and an awesome aquarium. This was an awesome day out. Apparently it has the longest cable car over a body of water? pretty impressive! Unfortunately, due to the rumours of the high levels of theft (apparently 6/10 people get mugged) I didn't get to take many photos for the blog but did what I could on the beach.
Other than that we dined at some incredible eateries, one of which served one of the best fish and chips EVER. Literally a fat fish fillet with a proper thick breadcrumb crust, chips, homemade tartare sauce and get this, malt vinegar!!! I dipped my chip in it thinking it would be foul fish sauce or something similar but when I put it in my mouth, it slapped my taste buds about and blew away the cobwebs that had accumulated in my memory of British food. I nearly cried full in tears of joy. Of course I did sample a traditional Vietnamese dish of stir fried sweet and sour beef served in a pineapple. On our last day we discovered a Texas BBQ joint and again, I nearly wept. Owned by a proper Texan old boy, I've never felt more at home than here. Bemusingly, he had dressed his cute Vietnamese staff in uniform akin to hooters girls. Not quite the same but it made me chuckle.
This has been an incredible city, made extra special by the hostel staff who really went out their way to make us feel welcome. Would definitely recommend!
So now I am Hoi An, a 12 hour night bus north from Nha Trang and guess what, it's my birthday bitches! Boo yaaaaa! Going to celebrate my quarter century in a big way tonight and then maybe tomorrow get a 3-piece custom suit made because apparently that's what you do here. Can't wait. So as it's my birthday, I'm going to get the festivities rolling! Peace!
Much love to you all. Keep safe! X
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