I got the sleeper train during the day from Da Nang to Nha
Trang. Nha Trang is Vietnam’s beach party city, which is a good thing, because
I had been experiencing far too much culture and not enough fun for my liking.
I arrived late at night and went for a walk around. I popped into a bar and saw
no less than three groups of people I had previously met on my travels. I had a
couple drinks, then went to 'Why Not Bar'. Their signature drink is the ‘Fish
Tank’, which contains no less than 4 bottles of alcohol:
I did not partake.
The next day, I did the obligatory beach visit, then that
night I decided to have a few drinks in the bar attached to my hostel. I ran
into a merry group of English guys and girls, of which only Alex and Lauren I
can remember by name, and before long drinking games ensued. Not surprisingly,
that turned out to be a crazy night and the next day I devoted to
sleeping.
The next night was quieter. I went out with Canadian Andrew
from my doom room. Somehow discussion centred on the awesomeness of the movie
‘Shawshank Redemption’. This then led to the instigation of the ‘Shawshank
Challenge’. I am not at liberty to reveal what the challenge is, but suffice to
say, Andrew and I have set our sights on achieving this noble feat.
Once Andrew had left, Chiliean Pablo moved into my room. He
introduced me to Irish Elaine, who in turn introduced me to a plethora of Irish
girls. Pablo and the girls were going to the Vinpearl Island water park, so I
tagged along with them, as did British Alex and Australian Gabrielle. I
expected the water park to be a bit childish, but in fact there were some
awesome slides there. The best ride was one where you get a group of people in
a big tube and go down a slide banked so that you slide back and forth up the
sides.
This ride is designed for a maximum of 6 people, however as it’s a
family ride, I think they assumed only 2 would be adults. When we crammed 6 adults
in this tube, we slid up the sides so much, that we very nearly went over the
edge of the slide. Pablo especially was holding on for dear life, and looked
like he was about to either be launched into the stratosphere or land on top of
us. Thankfully, we survived the ride.
When we got back from the park, we all went out drinking,
except Alex, who passed out and was declared unwakeable. Well actually the
drinking started at meal time, since the restaurant attached to the hostel
offers a free bucket with every meal! It was probably a given, with so many
Irish involved, that this night would get interesting, and it didn’t
disappoint.
The next day I realised it was time to get out of Nha Trang,
so I booked a sleeper bus to Ho Chi Mihn City. Elaine and Pablo were also going
on the same bus. This was my first sleeper bus experience, and it was a sleepless
one. The seat doesn’t fully recline and you have to stick your feet in a wedge
under the head of the person in front of you.
When we arrived in Ho Chi Mihn
City, we said goodbye to Pablo, who was heading to an island, and me and Elaine
promptly checked in to our doom room, and slept our way through most of the
day. When we awoke, we went to a restaurant that had quite an extensive range
of meats. I decided to try pidgeon. It came whole and was delicious. This is me holding it's head (sorry vegetarians, vegans, animal activists etc)
The next day we went to the Reunification Palace. I didn’t
and still don’t know the significance of this place, so we didn’t stay long. We
then went to the Army Musuem, which held a collection of artifacts and stories
from the Vietnam War, of course painting a bad picture of America. The museum
also had replicas of some of the tanks and planes used in the war:
That night, the rest of the Irish girls arrived in Ho Chi
Minh City. Eilis (weird Gaelic name) came with a gift – the passport that I had left behind at the
hostel reception in Nha Trang!
The next day we were off on a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels.
These were the tunnels that the Vietnamese dug before and during the Vietnam
War, in order to hide and move around undetected. The tunnels were very narrow
and had been widened significantly to allow Westeners to be able to crawl
through them.
They were still narrow however and due to our claustrophobia,
Ailbhe (weird Gaelic name) and I hesitated on crawling through them. The Vietnamese guy working
there was having none of it though, and told us to hurry up, so we just did it.
Next, we were shown some traps used by the Vietnamese against the Americans. One
of the traps is a wooden hatch, covered with leaves, that when stood on,
rotated, causing the victim to fall onto a bed of spikes.
Then it was my favourite part of the day – the shooting
range. I was offered a selection of guns to shoot. I chose the well-known
Russian AK-47. I bought a 10-round clip and fired it in semi-automatic mode.
Obviously this doesn’t last long, but I felt at least 20% more manly for having
fired this rifle.
We headed back to the hostel, then went out for a drink. It
was a good night out until, on the way back, Eilis (weird Gaelic name) had her handbag snatched off
her shoulder by a guy driving past on a motorcycle. As I had shot an AK-47
earlier that day, I was in rampage vigilante hero mode, and started pursuing
the guy on foot. At some point it occurred to me that I couldn’t run as fast as
a motorcycle and gave up.
That was the end of my time in Vietnam. Like all the
countries before it, Vietnam exceeded my expectations. The people are generally
very nice and Vietnam has both the cultural and entertainment aspects covered.
Summary
Awesome:
Nha Trang partying, Shawshank Redemption, water park madness, shooting serious weaponry, Cu Chi tunnels
Craptacular:
Gaelic names. They are not spelt the way I want them to be spelt ;p
What's Next
India - life experiences await
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