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Why Not Bar, Nha Trang. Lethal. |
After the downpour and mixed weather yesterday, I was in two minds about taking the boat trip. In the end I decided to go. There must have been about 40 people in all on the boat - a mix of nationalities and lots of Vietnamese tourists too. It started off a little dubiously with a 45 minute visit to what was lauded as Viet Nam's biggest aquarium on Mieu island. In reality the building (a ship cut from rock) was more interesting than the limited contents - though the turtles were cute. The water was choppy enough but the sun made an appearance just in time for the first swim part of the trip mid-morning. The day was not right for ''snorkeling on the extraordinary coral reeds covered with multicoloured fish'' as the little brochure put it. Lunch arrived and the seats on board were miraculously transformed into a large dining table. Very nifty use of space.. this is something I've noted the Vietnamese are very good at. (85 million people in a country just smaller than Italy..) Food and beer always get people going so by this time people were chatting. Met nice Oz couple (Kirstin and Dan) who were on their holliers away from small town Denmark (Oz not Europe) and 2 English backpacker lads, Alex and Tom, who are close on completing their one year away and heading back for Christmas. Food was usual good stuff (spring rolls, noodles, cuttlefish, shrimp etc) and too much for 40 people to put away in one sitting. Then the 'Entertainment' came on. HILARIOUS. The guide and crew transmogrified in about 5 minutes into a Vietnamese Boy Band Wonder. Pretty damn good they were and they sang a Vietnamese favourite first off : - 'We Love Ho Chi Minh'. This was followed by Waltzing Matilda sung by one of the Oz girls and then ME doing Fields of Athenry. I think they were clearly choosing different countries' national drinking anthems so interesting to see how FoA has got that name for itself. To top it off we had La Bamba and there were 10 mins dancing on the table which now served as a dance floor! Post lunch, the floating bar came out and we were treated to grape wine made from pineapple as we swam about in the warm water. I have tasted worst but we all had good fun. I can imagine it's even better on a really warm, sunny day. Final destination was a stop over on Con Se Tre resort on Bai Tranh island. We all had a couple of beers on the deckchairs before the fruit party en route back. That evening a few of us met up and
