Week 2 - Into the groove

It really feels like we have settled in to travelling now.  Much easier to pack each time we have to move and everyone is pretty relaxed.

There was no need to worry about the bus trip from Dalat to Nha Trang, as not even a super stunt master could have coaxed anything out of the delapidated old bus we were on.  The only hazards we faced were the dust from the unsealed roads and the last stretch into town as it got dark as we had no lights.  The driver's sidekick was actually hanging out the bus door with a torch.

Nha Trang itself was unexpectantly good.  Reading about the place made out that it was the Vietnamese answer to Surfer's Paradise - all built up and touristy.  We ended up in a great (new) hotel close to the beach and really enjoyed our time there (despite another bout of the Viet Trots ending up being sorted out with a course of antibiotics). 

We also caught up with the Australian family again that we met in Dalat (6outofoz.com). Sorry Paul - promise I'll be up for a beer next stop.

From Dalat we caught the "sleeper" bus up to Hoi An.  I can assure you though that there was no sleep for me or Tina as we had to share the little reclining seat with Skye & Jamie respectively.  You had to be a contortionist just to fit the both of you into the thing.  Never listen to any nice people who tell you the kids can sleep on the spare seats.  Actually, it would have been really good except that there were no spare seats on this bus.

Hoi An is the higlight so far.  The town is a world herotage site and comes across as a more of a movie set than a local town.  The place was once one of the largest Asian trading ports for hundreds of years, and all the buildings are preserved well from this time of seafaring and swashbuckling.  The food here has been really good too.

Not too far out of town is the best beach we have seen in Vietnam.  We rode out there on some rented bikes (40 cent for the day) and had to sort out an inner tube replacement on Tina's bike about 6 km's away from home.  The 2 USD it cost to fix was well worth the fun of finding someone who could fix it and sorting it out with them.  The old guy who did it "talked" to us by writing broken  French on the pavement with chalk.

Tomorrow morning we are up at 6:30 to head of further North to Hue.  Till then...