Vietnam

Our last day in Nha Trang was frantic. Just flat tack all day. Not a minute to spare. Cultural highlight after cultural highlight, walking miles from pagoda to temple to scenic wonderla…. oh who the hell am I kidding? I did decide that (unlike certain nameless travel companions…) I couldn’t quite cope with the idea of an entire day doing nothing on the beach again, so after breakfast and swapping one of my books at Shorty’s Cafe (and book exchange, obviously), I beat the streets to check out Long Thanh Gallery.

Well I didn’t quite manage the not drinking theory, but was pretty close – only a two or three beers at the Backpacker’s Place bar and home before midnight. Positively teetotal by current standards.

We’d booked on Mama Linh’s boat tour for the following day – a trip that goes out around several of the islands offshore from Nha Trang and costs all of $8 US. Lonely Planet billed it pretty much as a party cruise, an assessment I’m not sure that I agree with – there were other boats out there looking a lot more party like than ours, especially in the first few hours. Things loosened up considerably after the free fruit wine at the floating bar, strangely enough. Still, plenty of good stuff to enjoy, especially the hour or so of snorkelling at a marine sanctuary off Hon Mun island. Incredible colours and variety of both fish and coral, in those warm and crystal clear waters … ahhhh. It was brilliant. Shame I don’t have a waterproof case for my camera really.

So we weren’t really going to drink last night. One Bia hoi (draught beer), some dinner and maybe a couple at a rooftop bar. A quiet night after several not so quiet ones lately. Mmmm. Some new found backpacker buddies had other ideas, however. Bugger. Still, when you get a group of Kiwis, Dutch, Spanish, American and English guys crowded round some plastic tables in a shabby little cafe drinking 50c beers, it’s probably not the biggest surprise in the world…

After another night of rain, dinner and beers, we headed out the next morning to join our tour out to the Cu Chi tunnels. These tunnels were part of a 250km, multi-level tunnel system used by the Viet Cong to avoid the guns, bombs and napalm of the US forces during the war. There are loads of bus tours that can take you out there for a few dollars, but we decided to pay slightly more and go one way by boat along the Saigon River. Amazingly enough it was raining when we started out just after 8am. Who would have thought?

After a very relaxed few days on the Sunshine Coast – not too many other choices, the nightlife isn’t exactly mind-blowing in Caloundra – I headed down to New South Wales. Had a wonderful time there, was fun hanging out with Craig, Sam & the kids in Orange for a couple of nights (though a slight temperature change … snow on the ground and all that), and then a few nights in Sydney.

Spent suitably large amounts of time in a selection of bars, wandered round the city, met some fun new people and caught up with wonderful old friends …… and found myself falling back in love with the place like I do every time I go back there. Great, just what I need. Would it be wrong to move back to Sydney for the third time in eight years, I ask…?