18 Feb 10 The boat that rocked (literally) and the floating bar…

Our last day in Hoi An was spent by the beach topping up our tans. As it was the Lunar New Year Festival & TET the beach was crammed with locals getting smashed, whilst Jackie remained sober. Nice role reversal there me thinks!

On the 16th Feb we took a day train from Hoi An to Nha Trang. Nha Trang looks just like any other holiday resort, it has a great atmosphere with lots of bars; so you know in about 5 years time this place will be rammed. We arrived late the evening so Crazy Q took us to a restaurant, which in theory should have taken 5 mins to get to but he must have taken us via Glasgow ‘cos it took bloody ages. As I’ve said before Q should not be trusted when it comes to directions and distances.

Early on 17th February Jackie, Aimee, Sandy and myself got up to go on a boat trip. We didn’t know much about the trip, other than it visited various islands, we had lunch on the boat and that it would be busy, because of TET. What he didn’t mention was the free floating bar, a tour leader that was insane and that we’d come back absolutely smashed. The day was great though! We stopped off by some coral where we were given snorkeling gear to use. We also jumped off the top of the boat into the sea; surprisingly we were still sober at this point. The tour leader, Loc AKA Funky Monkey, was dead set on getting everyone mullered so by 12noon we had sank our first beer.

The organisers provided lunch, but then afterwards they brought out what can best be described as a make shift band. A drum kit made of kitchen uttensils, a semi naked old Vietnamese guy wearing a coconut bra with a tamborine in toe and Loc on the mike. At one point we all had to get on the stage to dance, but this being a small boat wasn’t tall enough for most of the guys so we were crouch dancing.

After the ‘entertainment’ had finished it was happy hour. The floating boat and the semi naked vietnamese cross dresser were thrown into the sea. Anybody wanting free drink had to join them. So naturally we were there with our rubber rings and a random concoction of alcohol.

In the evening we carried the drinking session on; if its 15,000 dong (50p) for a double vodka and coke, you can’t say no.