19 March 2008 - nha trang and our night out

We settled into our hotel in nha trang, we thought we would probably have a wk to 5 days here as it would take at least 5 days to complete the dive course we wanted to do.

We headed off to find the dive center when we bumped into Matt an American guy we had met on our bus trip from munie to dalat. He invited us to go for dinner with him and Lauren and the owner of their hotel the following eve.

We got to the dive center and decided we would go for the national geographic dive course, a little more expensive but it gives you an extra 2 dives and a bit more tuition with navigation and buoyancy techniques.

We decided to start the course on Sunday (it was Friday when we booked it) this gave us a day to look about.

The next day the weather was pretty bad so our day off was spent roaming the streets and enjoying reading our books. That evening we met up with Lauren and Matt. We waited for the owner to arrive but he didn't come, we were about to leave when another chap who worked for the hotel asked if we wanted to go out with him and his friends who were visiting from America. We agreed and got into a mini bus they had waiting. We drove out into the suburbs where we stopped at a large restaurant with karaoke (they love it out here). It was abit of a to do getting tables moved around so we could all sit together but eventually we got seated. We had a feast!!! They kept bringing more dishes out, wild bore, jelly fish salad, fish soup with a raw egg in it which was surprisingly nice!! The evening was spent eating, chatting and lots of toasting initiated by the Vietnamese. The atmosphere was great. We also got collared into a drinking game which was going on at a neighboring table. It consisted of a huge vase full of rice wine and two straws, i think the aim was to see who could last the longest without stopping, much to their delight i kept winning!!! It was easy and i barely drank anything, maybe i didn't play properly< it was fun all the same.

It came time to leave and they would let us pay, we insisted but they were having none of it, so we payed a tip instead. We left the restaurant and they took us to a nearby club. It was a good atmosphere, nothing like what you get at home, everyone was having a good time enjoying themselves. unfortunately we had an early start the next day as we had the diving course to start so we left by 11pm.