I've tried to piece together the last 3 weeks using a combination of my memory, photo's I've taken and text messages I've sent and received! I can remember the last week just about perfectly and the first week quite well, but the one in the middle not so well, mainly as it involved a lot of drunkeness and partying!
So the full moon party was really fun. I was at quava till about midnight before going down to the beach. Everyone danced all night, climbing on the stage and getting thrown off again! By 4.30am there were only about 20 of us left, so we all climbed on the stage and danced on there for about half an hour before the music stopped. We went and sat on the beach then and went for a swim as we watched the sunrise; it was a really nice sunrise. At about 5am all the Vietnamese head down to the beach for their morning swim so they were a bit confused to see our group sat on the beach! I got to bed about about 7, so the next day was spent sleeping and recovering.
The day after I went to Karaoke with everyone from work, about 10 of us. You just pay for whatever you drink and the drinks are cheap anyway so it's cheap fun. I sang 2 or 3 English songs as well as one Vietnamese which apparently I did very well. When I got back I bumped into a couple of friends, Linh and Abs and joined them for a walk along the beach to the harbour which took about an hour and a half in total. Then I handed out fliers for a while before going to the bar where I stayed till closing.
Next day I rode my bike (well, a friend's bike that I'm borrowing as she never uses it) down the main road along the beach front in search of a fast food restaurant I'd been told about. I couldn't find it so instead went exploring down a small street. It eventually led to the beach where there was a small fishing community. There were lots of kids hanging around who were excited to see me and more than happy to pose for pictures! I walked the beach and spotted a lady selling drinks so went and had one and watched some people playing cards as I drank. They always play one of two games, both of which involve throwing your card down and shouting for no real reason. Then I watched some little old ladies playing bingo underneath a beach shack. On the way home I bumped into my friend Thao and tagged along with her and 2 English guys to go to the market. We didn't end up staying long as Thao had her bag stolen and there was nothing we could do. The usual that evening - Guava till closing followed by the Sailing Club.
In the afternoon of the next day I took my camera down to the beach to take some photos, of the vendors, the bikes, the motorbike drivers, people flying their kites, etc. Afterwards I rode to meet a friend when she finished work as I had the day off. We cycled to her house out of town and on the way bought a couple of bits to fix my bike as everything on it breaks. I did some handywork when we got back, then we went with her two sisters to a pool place down the road. Here I played Vietnamese pool for the first time, and won both games! Vietnamese pool involves 3 balls and no pockets! After getting something to eat we went to a Vietnamese nightclub. We only stayed for about 30 seconds though as everyone was sat staring at a TV and every single person was chain smoking. We went to another one called The Lodge which was much better and we stayed till it closed at 12. Then we went to the Sailing Club till late.
At lunchtime the next day I again rode in search of Mac Do's - the fast food place and this time I found it. I can honestly say it's the slowest fast food place I've ever eaten. I was disappointed with the food too so won't be going back. Spent the rest of the day on the beach and finished up with a game of football and a swim. After work that night the owners told me there weren't enough potential customers in town for them to need me working there anymore. I was a bit disappointed because I enjoyed the free food and drink but it's given me more time to do what I want so I'm not especially bothered. I went with all the staff to the beach front. A vendor from the other side of the road gave us a mat to sit on and then brought over various snacks and bottles of rice vodka. I was made to drink twice as much as everyone else twice as often! For all the food and drink it only cost 2 pounds so I payed for everyone.
That's week one done! The next week began with an adventurous day. Myself and my friend Dean rented motorbikes for the day to go on a day trip. We set out after lunch and got onto Highway 1. Lots of lorries drive on the highway and probably half of them break down! When they do break down it's up to the driver to solve the problem and it can take them hours or days on the roadside. First we were going to Doc Let beach which is about 40km North of Nha Trang. After turning off the highway we passed lots of rice paddies and salt fields which were very picturesque. We finally found a part of Doc Let beach where we stayed for a drink. On the way back we went to Ba Ho waterfalls. There's 3 waterfalls one after the other but you have to walk quite far to get to them. Worth it though, we had a swim in the bottom one, as well as some diving, flipping and standing under the fall itself. I visited a friend in the evening and went to the 'Why Not Bar' whee everyone was that night. There were 2 really funny Ozzies in town at that time who in the Sailing Club that night got a few people breakdancing and flipping (or trying at least!)
From now is that week that I can't really remember. But some of the things that happened include:
Having a sand-ball fight on the beach.
Digging a massive hole then getting buried in the sand.
Diving off wooden struts in the sea with some local kids.
Playing football; on the beach twice more, once on some 'football pitches' about 1km down the beach and once for the Sailing Club football team which was a proper and good game of football.
Playing Vietnamese pool with Dean.
Getting my hair cut for the first time since leaving.
Helping a man who had a motorbike crash just infront of me. He lost conciousness whilst riding along and drove straight into something. I found out he's ok now.
Going to a friends house so they could cook Vietnamese spaghetti for me - very tasty.
Riding out into the countryside with a friend one evening to go to a cafe which is on stilts over a river and lit with fairy lights everywhere.
Getting drunk and going to the Sailing Club every night!
A big group of us going back to someones hotel room one night and all falling asleep there.
Winning killer pool from 37 people! And winning a bottle of Vietnamese rum.
Eating at a restaurant called Hai Phong and meeting the owner who I now see most days. I found out 'Hai Phong' means 'Two Phong's' as she has a twin called Phuong.
And that brings us to the last week, starting Saturday 26th. When I started my Advanced Scuba Diving Course! It's the cheapest place in the world to dive here, not where
I did my Open Water course in Thailand as I was previously made to believe. Plus I've got loads of friends there so got a 10% discount and 2 free fun dives! I dived on Saturday and Sunday, the waking up almost killed me. We did a total of 5 dives, including a deep dive where we went down to 30m! When you go really deep you can get nitrogen narcosis as one of the divers did this time. It's really similar to being drunk, he basically didn't know what he was doing and when we went back up couldn't remember anything which was funny. The diving was more learning and practicing new things and techniques but we still saw some cool things. I met George, the resident moral eel whose jaw is broken so you can you up to his and stroke him! I've still got my two fun dives left too which I'm going to do sometime this week.
On Monday myself and my friends Sarah and Rasmus (a couple who've just rented a house here and are staying a long time) were going to go and look at bicycles to buy. But someone we know who is a manager at a quarry a few km away called us to say there was going to be a big explosion that afternoon so we went there instead. The road to get there is really dangerous because it's full of lorry drivers who get paid on how much stone they transport, so the faster they drive the more they can transport. We left the bikes at the bottom of the quarry and all climbed in a really cool old jeep. It was built in 1948 for use in war and still drives perfectly. We were driven really fast up the steep quarry slopes, hitting massive holes and rocks without even knowing it and skidding round U-bends. From the top was an amazing view over the whole of Nha Trang, the sea and the surrounding mountains. We were on top of the highest mountain in Nha Trang which was used for gunning down planes in the Vietnam-American War. After some explosions they find guns and skeletons from the war, some of which he showed us in his office at the bottom of the quarry. We then saw all the machines that break down the rocks into different sizes and saw how it all works which was interesting. Finally, we sat down with some beer and watched the explosion.
Tuesday I went with Sarah and Rasmus to look at the gym here. It was really funny, theres posters up everywhere of overly-muscley body builders and all the guys work out topless, walking around strutting their stuff and standing in front of the mirrors admiring themselves! After that we went to look at bikes again, but still didn't manage it as this time Sarah stood on a nail which cut her foot. I went to a supermarket instead to buy a few things inluding one of the feather keepy-up things I mentioned before, it's actually called a shuttlecock. On Wednesday I went to the 'New Market' with Phong when she went to buy the fruit and vegetables for her restaurant and bought some bananas for myself. In the evening she took me to a place where we ate cheese cake. It's made in a toasted sandwich maker so looks just like a toastie but it literally cake with cheese in the middle and is really nice!
I didn't do much in the day on Thursday but the evening was fun. I started off having beef steak with a baguette on the street with my friend My which is really cheap and nice. It didn't quite fill me up though so when I got to 'Bia Hoi' - a really cheap street place for drinking beer - I had a chip butty. There were about 15 of us there and you just order 2 litre jugs of beer which cost 20p. Probably the cheapest beer in the world, and I actually saw it for as cheap as 13p for 2l near the waterfalls. After Bia Hoi we went on motorbike convoy to the Lodge Club where it's the opposite of Bia Hoi and really expensive so we bought a bottle of whiskey to share and a beer each. The whole night (food and alcohol) still only cost me 3 or 4 pounds!
On Friday I helped design and order a cake for a friends leaving party. 4 pounds for a fully decorated self-designed 15 inch cake! I went to Sarah and Rasmus' house where the furniture they had been waiting for for the last 2 weeks was being delivered. I helped them move it then we went for dinner at 'Good Morning Thailand.' I ordered my curry not spicy but it was unbelievably spicy, even more so than Sarah's whose was ordered medium spicy. Nice though. Then their friend Dennis arrived from Thailand, so we all went to Guava to watch the football then went to Sailing Club afterwards.
Saturday I went to a bakery I recently discovered to buy some cakes for lunch. I took them back to the hotel to eat and then played with my shuttlecock for the first time with the girls from the hotel. That evening was a BBQ at Guava, all you can eat. It was really good and the first all you can eat I've had in ages. Beef, pork, (disappointingly no chicken), tuna, garlic bread, pasta, corn on the cob, potatoe salad, etc. There was a hot dog contest too which I was supposed to enter but couldn't face after the BBQ. Then we watched the England game - very annoying. I went home at 2.30am and and literally everyone in my hotel was watching the Brazil - France game! The Vietnamese go really crazy on their betting; easily betting a weeks pay on one game, some betting a months pay, a years pay, or even their motorbike or house. Most bet on Brazil as they see it as a safe bet, so a lot of people lost a lot of money when Brazil lost. That means the price of everything in town is going to drop, as people have no money to spend and need to make money everywhere they can.
Yesterday I spent the whole day at Sarah and Rasmus' watching films! We watched Inside Man, White Noise and The Matador, I enjoyed all of them. For dinner we got a curry takeaway which was really good. My banana shake came in a bag and looked like poo. Tasted ok though. Today I played tennis for the first time in ages. We played in the middle of the day so it was really hot and we sweated like pigs, mmm. They tried to rip us off after but I can read a little Vietnamese now, at least enough to know that the big sign said 20000 Dong per hour not 80000 Dong per hour. Idiots. Gonna go and see Phong now and get some dinner. I owe her a set breakfast in the next couple of days too as a result of the England - Portugal game!
A group of 20-25 of myself and my friends went to Karaoke last week. We stayed for about 2 hours, singing all the classics from Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You to The Beach Boys' Surfin USA to Bryan Adams' Everything I Do to Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise! For the 2 hours there and about 5 beers it cost me a pound.
Before the Karaoke we all went to a restaurant called Lac Canh. Our group sat round one massive table which took up pretty much half the restaurant! We had four mini BBQ's on our table, used to cook all of our own food. We had all different meats and seafoods with different rice and breads. Despite the heat and smoke from the BBQ's making it difficult to breath and see, it was an amazing meal. And for all I could eat and a few big beers it cost 2 pounds 50.
Sunrise on the beach the morning after a big night partying. All the kids were out playing and the adults exercising. Some of the exercises were very strange to say the least. 
The party was for Guava's (the bar I worked in) 3rd birthday and had a beach theme. I wore red shorts to stick with the Baywatch theme I knew some people were going with. That's Gil next to me.
Me and all the Baywatch girls. 
A vodka bottle each, personalised with tipex pens! 
Around the table outside early on in the night. 
We all love Vietnam. 
Me, Sarah, Dennis and Rasmus (in order). Sarah and Rasmus are my good friends who've rented a house and are living here for quite a long time. Dennis is their friend who came over from Thailand where he lives to visit. Rasmus is wearing a wig by the way, his hair isn't that long. Oh, and he doesn't actually have boobs. 
A typical beachfront vendor's 'shop' - a bicycle swarmed with every possible inflatable/kite/beach toy you could want or need.
A man going for a swim in a river out in the countryside. 
Myself and my friends Ti and Phong on the night of the World Cup Final at the Sailing Club.
Full moon between the buildings on a busy street.
Dinh Tien Dat - the most famous rapper in Vietnam - performing at the Full Moon Party at the Sailing Club. Himself and his two dancers were good breakdancers, I've bought their CD with some clips on since seeing them... and meeting them!
