Bad luck comes in threes

Edit: once again my app fails me. Read the post about me becoming a drug addict before this one!

Today's blog covers 2 days, since the first day we got up, me Belle and Dave nipped into Hoi An for some last minute shopping, then we got on a train, and travelled the entire rest of the day to Nha Trang. I read the whole of 'Ready Player One', and had a nap, and that was all that happened the whole day. Ngyuen did give us a little info about Nga Trang on the train: it is full of Russians, gangsters, and prostitues apparently.

Sometimes the view was like this,

Sometimes it was like this,

And sometimes it was like this

We arrived quickly at our hotel, and checked in to our humongous rooms, before going straight to bed.

More like a corridor than a room!

The next day was our snorkelling trip round Nha Trang. Breakfast at this hotel is the best; about 12 different cooked options, fruit, bread, and CEREAL! I was still a little coldy, but significantly better by this point. We took a bus to the docks, and got on our own little boat which took us out to sea. 

First stop was a little island just out from Nha Trang where everyone is a fisherman. I don't really know what we went here to see, but we learned a bit about the local people, saw some kids in kindergarten, and got to ride back to our big boat on a tiny circular boat made of bamboo. Our boat had also pulled up alongside a fish farm, so we got to see some little sharks, cuttlefish, lobsters, etc.

I helped the lady row the tiny boat because I am the best

We then moved on to a suitable spot for snorkelling. I had put my sun cream on a little earlier, so I was good to go. The water was the perfect temperature, a bit cooler than I would normally like, but not too cold, and considering the heat of the sun it was spot on. I saw about 100 different kinds of coral, including some very cool, unusual ones, plenty of different fish including a huge angelfish, a few kinds of starfish including lots of crown of thorns, and some little, completely transparent jellyfish, which were presumably harmless (though they didn't sting me so who knows!). Dave also saw an eel, but I wasn't so lucky.

Where we stopped to snorkel. The communist hut was to check for bird nests

After swimming for an hour, it was time for lunch, a buffet on the boat with spring rolls, fish, pork, rice, bread, and assorted veg. It was pretty nice, probably better than I expected on our tiny boat, and there was chance for another snorkel after lunch. I foolishly took them up on this. There were even more fish out after lunch, no idea why, and I spent another half hour looking before returning to the boat. 

We then went back to the hotel, and I relaxed a but before feeling a tingling on my back. I rushed to the mirror and, yup, I'd been sun burned quite a lot. It wasn't looking too bad, but it was hard to get a proper look at it, and I wasn't going to take any chances. I looked up how to counteract sun burn on the Internet, and discovered ibuprofen, keeping the sun burn moist, and keeping myself hydrated were all methods I had at my disposal. I still had my cold to contend with, so I had a hot shower for my front, a cold shower for my back, and kept my back wet with a soaked towel all afternoon until dinner.

Dinner was at a local place (we were the only foreigners in there) where they brought a little barbecue to your table along with raw meat, rice, and veg, and let you cook it yourself. It was good, and good fun, but pretty smoky which didn't do much for my cough. On the way back from dinner I decided to get some money out of the atm. I put my pin in, and selected withdraw cash, before the machine told me my transaction had been cancelled. I tried again with the same result, so no cash for me. Bad luck again!

Gary looks worried by the fire

I went back to my room and gingerly removed my shirt, just happening to catch my necklace (a tiger's eye tiki from New Zealand), which sent it flying to the floor, and broke it in 2, with one half vanishing God knows where. This was just not my day, so I decided to end it with sleep.