It was early, and the three manly men, being Iaki, Daniel and I decided to start the day off with a swim in the shorebreak. An excellent start to the day, somewhat cold, but oh so good! Once back to the hotel we bumped into the Aussies whom we had met on the bus on the night before. They were going on an island cruise... We were all somewhat tired, and rightly so. But with hunger for some adventure Daniel and I decided to join them. It was a great morning, and we were picked up from the hotel at 8:30. Judging from the rate that the guy hanging from the door managed to fill the 25 seater bus, Daniela and I knew that it was going to be an excellent day. We had everything, from Bavarians to malaysians to Assies on board. We arrived at the little Nha Trang port and were shown to our yacht... well kinda hybrid tug boat... or transformed tuna fishing boat. Anyway, a party location, Ill refer to it from now by... the cruiser. The cruiser only left once we had packed two bus loads of people on board and the last tout had handed out all his fliers. The fliers we were handed ranged from ipod refills, to indian quisine to a specialised overpriced french hairdresser located in nha trang. Whatever blows your hair back right?

We left the port and were heading out to the islands, when suddenly our MC got hold of the mic. An awesome guys, of whom i forget the name, but he definetly knew how to handle the crowds.

the kareoke improv

Daniel

After a 45 min cruise and after the first Tiger beer we arrived at the snokle reef. We were all told to get in and had 2 hours to fondle around in the water. The snorkeling was mediocre, as there was only about 3 meters of visibility, so the 2 hours were spent jumping from the second level of the cruiser. Good times for sure.

The lunch menu

The cruiser headed out and went for the second island, this was to be our lunch venue. The boat anchored and the feast was brought out onto the deck. A feast of shrimp, springrolls, calamari, fish, beef, chicken, vegetables, morning glory, rice and noodles. Re-energised and ready for anything... they shood us to the front of the cruiser. They set up a home made drum kit, hooked the whole system up to the onboard sound system... and started the live performance. A drummer, a guitarist and a singer, some local Vietnamese culture. To improve the performance they brought out their secret weapon. dalat's finest vintage... dalat red wine.

dalat's finest

Now when you imagine this wine, down thing of wine... at all. rather think of an alcholic drink somewhat resembling bourbon, but with a far harsher aftertaste. The drink was topped off with a thick, juicy slice of pineapple, yep red wine with pine apple. that shows how high the quality really was. Well, let me just say this... the guys knew what they were doing. Soon the whole boat was singing and clapping along and the party was really getting started. It went from being an island trip to somewhat of a rained out booze cruise. The next stop was a little tourist island, where you had to pay entrance to the beach, could eat, drink and play volleyball. And for those really keen you could paraglide, jetski or ski for a bargain price of USD 10 per km. Needless to say, these activities were far from popular. back onto the boat, and now in more of a storm we went for the last island of the day... the one with the aquarium.

Back on land, we were dropped at the hotel, where we went in search of food and the rest of the posse. back at the room the four of us reunited, exchanged stories and made plans for the night. The plan was to check out a place called why not bar, where the assies (Dave, matt, Paul and Liz), the germasn and anyone else from the cruiser was gonna go. The evening started pretty chilled with some pool and jam jar cocktails. It was time... we needed to go out check out what nha Trang is all about. On our way in we saw a place called 007 discoteque! How could you turn that down, so the 8 of us made our way through the monsoon like rain and were welcomed in. When I say welcomed I mean we were ushered to a table, pushed into a chair and then confronted with a menu shoved in our face well lit up due to the 200 watt maglite illuminating it.

nha trang night club -- Number 1

The second day in the gloomy rainy beach town was a chill day. The day was spent watching movies on our DVD player in the room and ended with a night out on the town. We made our way to some of Lonely planets finest and were not dissapointed. The Sailing club is a must. From there we got the early morning bus to the amazing town of Da Lat.

The ride to da lat