Nha Trang - Hoi An

Nha Trang was a vacation within a vacation. The beaches were beautiful, the people were friendly and the drinks were cheap. Nha Trang is very small and it didn't take us long to feel comfortable there. It turned out to be the perfect place to spend for New Years/Mimi's birthday. The day before New Years we took a boat trip called the Funky Monkey tour, around the islands of Nha Trang. It turned out to be the perfect way to meet people. We met some really nice Australians, Kimmy and Timmy who are dating, and Heidi, their friend who were all traveling together. We ended up seeing them every night after the boat trip and it was really nice to feel like we had friends and people we felt comfortable with. The boat trip cost $7usd and was from 9-5. It included snorkeling, lunch and happy hour on a floating bar. We were also taken to a beach and after lunch a band comprised of the staff played music and sang songs, which was entertaining to say the least. The water was warm and when the boat was stopped we were allowed to dive/jump/bellyflop off the top of the boat which was a lot of fun and also really scary. The only downside was that there were sea lice in the water and every few minutes you'd feel a bite or sting somewhere on your body. Overall it was a great experience though and the friends we made out of it were worth much more than $7.

I probably had the best New Years of my life. There was no drama, no crying, no worrying where we were going to go or how much fun we wanted to have. We had low expectations and a great night. We went to a place called the Sailing Club which was located on the beach and had a really nice restaurant, dance floor and bar. On New Years a band played and the whole beach became a dance floor. I probably danced for 2 hours straight and have never felt more care free in my life. The day before New Years we also went parasailing which i've wanted to do since we got rained out when I was 13 in Tortola. The day we also met some other Aussies who we became friends with. A few days after New Years we rented motorbikes, which turned out to be just as scary as it looks. Now we weren't on foot or in an enclosed car but directly in the intense motorbike traffic. We originally intended to go to the waterfalls, but realized it was going to get dark too soon and then instantly lost one another. We only ended up driving around for 20 minutes or so because Jamie, my bike's driver, was so petrified that we had to stop. Luckily he didnt tell me how scared he was until we got off the bikes, otherwise I think I probably would have been freaking out the entire time too.

Finally after a full week of vacationing we decided to head up to Hoi An. We took a night bus which took 12 hours. Luckily the bus had makeshift beds. It was kind of like the Night Bus in harry potter except the beds didnt move around and we took ambien to put ourselves to sleep. There was a bathroom on the bus, but the sign read something along the lines of "Not To Use Toilet For Making the Bus Smell Bad." It was locked and we weren't allowed to use it, essentially, and the bus stopped every half hour for bathroom breaks which was seemingly why it took us 12 hours to get there in the first place. It wasn't a terrible ride though and when we arrived it was morning in Hoi An.

Hoi An is the place to go in Vietnam to have tailor made clothes at cheap prices. You can go in with pictures, but they also have a ton of fashion magazines you can look through and say "can you make that?" and they say "Oh, yes I make I make" and then they take your measurements and you return the next day to try on your clothes. Aside from a few alterations the clothing seems to be of good quality and I wasn't disappointed. I also have very good taste and therefore I made smart purchases :) It was a good thing that we were given a recomendation on the tailor to use because literally every street is filled with tailors whose clothing looks exactly the same. After our clothes are finished we are heading up to Hue and then to Hanoi, which I'm sure will include some more intense bus traveling. Last night we went to a bar after dinner and met some girls who had brought a DARE game with them and we agreed to play. The dares were fairly harmless and very intertaining and by the end of the night we had about half of the bar involved. I have definitely learned that a huge part of traveling are the people you meet and I feel very lucky to be having this experience. Lately I have been making myself slow down a bit and really take in everything that is going on around me. I was sitting in a hammock on the beach the other day and I realized that I was truely happy and so lucky. Today we rented bikes (bicycle bikes) and biked through Hoi An to the beach and the view was so beautiful. We had the river on our right and rice paddies on our left and it was just picturesque and real and I can't believe I'm here.