Most of our time here was spent getting clothes tailored, upsetting Vietnamese shoe makers for the demands of our sandals and having coffee shakes at the same place every day. As we had to return for second and third fittings for our various garments, and the thought we ought to make a cultural visit to My Son (below) we didn't leave Hoi An until several days later.
We then hopped on another bus to Na Trang where we took (and passed) our Scuba diving open water courses. The mornings were early as we had to be at the Dive centre around 7am, but the afternoons were free and although we tried to get some beach time in, the weather was rather unco-operative. The only day that boasted strong sunshine all day, Justin and I were stuck in the post office for several hours trying to post all of our tailored wares and other unnecessary weight from our backpacks home! Unfortunately I don't even have any photos of Na Trang as most of the time here was spent underwater, on the beach or in a restaurant.
After Na Trang we made a slightly unplanned detour to Dalat. I had wanted to see the Crazy House but somehow we had overlooked this when booking our open ticket and were supposed to be heading straight to Ho Chi Minh city. However, adamant that it would be worth the detour and despite the less than over enthusiastic reviews we had received from a couple we met whilst on the Scuba Diving course, we decided to go; it didn't cause too much bother to re-arrange, and 8 hours in a sleeper bus later we were there.
Dalat itself wasn't that different to the rest of Vietnam but I am definitely glad we went for the Crazy house, well worth a visit. We also rented motorbikes and saw Elephant waterfall, some coffee plantations, and ate from the street market stalls selling a variety of meat on sticks and seafood. Justin and I even tried the famous boiled egg that I can't remember the name of now (if it even has one) but is essentially an egg that has the embryo of little chicken inside. Admittedly it does sound wrong and gross, but when in Rome... and it was also bought for us by a Vietnamese Lady who we got chatting to along with her American friend so it would have been rude to turn it down. It was actually not that unpleasant, and he had been quite apt in his description of it which he said lay somewhere between a boiled egg and chicken. Although in my eyes it also had the added texture of liver and was much firmer and denser than a normal fried egg. At the very least I am glad to have tried it, but I can't say I will be rushing to have another, despite the various health and sexual benefits that the American claimed it possessed.
Dalat was also the only place in Vietnam that was not been swelteringly hot and for a change we didn't need any fans or air conditioning in the room. We did also run into a bit of trouble with the police... Well actually not quite, but there may well be some Vietnamese police on the look our for four tourists matching our descriptions for the price of one burnt inedible pizza...
To cut it short we went into a restaurant that advertised itself as a 'Pizza and Bread' restaurant and Tim and Mauren received a Pizza that was not only burnt but, they said, was the worst pizza they had ever had. They said it tasted like a pre-frozen base, and still managed to be worse than any other shop bought pizza they had had before. They asked for it to be removed from the bill after only eating about a slice and a half from the whole thing but the waiter didn't speak much English and he went to speak to what we assumed must have been the manager who was standing about 8 ft away behind a glass screen. He spoke to the waiter who returned and said 'no'. We were still expected to pay for it. Mauren and Tim adamant that they did not want to pay for the Pizza asked the waiter to go back to the manager and explain and which point the Manager, who could not speak a word of English came out shouting incoherently in Vietnamese and preceded to pick p bits of the pizza and throw it onto the table. No translation needed to ascertain that hes was not happy. He then began a very heated conversation with the waiter who told us that the manager was going to call the police and that we would have to wait for them to arrive.
We couldn't actually believe he had been so unreasonable. We waited for a short while during which a large crowd of westerners came in who we noisily advised to take their empty stomachs and their money elsewhere. About 10 minutes passed and I decided that we had waited long enough for the 'police' so I suggested we just paid for the remainder of the bill and left. The Manager came again shouting at us, telling us to sit for the Police, reluctant to take the money, but eventually we managed to give him the Money and leave. Although we can never be sure if that was an empty threat or not we managed to make it out of Dalat unscathed!
We left Dalat at 12 Midnight and arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at about 6am the next morning. It was meltingly hot, even at this hour and after a short taxi ride into the centre we retreated to a cafe for an iced coffee shake. We booked onto a tour to see the Cu Chi tunnels later that morning;
Came back in the afternoon, had an amazing ice cream at 'Fannys'
And the next morning went on a tour of the Mekong Delta. Our tour was two days and one night during which we took a little boat up the river, got to see the locals making coconut candy, rice paper and noodles and went to the famous floating market.
When we arrived back to Ho Chi Minh we spent our final night with Mauren and Tim and said our goodbyes as the next day we would be going our separate ways.
The next day we were up at 4am to catch a taxi to the airport for our flight to Phu Quoc a little tropical island off the coast of Vietnam. It was our first flight of the trip and although it did feel a little like cheating, I think making it all this way without having to board a plane so far justifies our short 1 hour trip. And it was only one way.
Phu Quoc was beautiful, everything a tropical island should be. Sun, sand and seafood. Apart from renting bikes and taking them round the island one day (trying unsuccessfully to find a beautiful beach on the north of the island) most of our time was spent lazing on the beach, feasting on the plentiful seafood in the night market, or floating in the clear turquoise waters.
Three days never went so quickly, and before we knew it we were being collected by the bus to take us off to Cambodia.
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