Day 54 - Funky Monkey of Nha Trang

The early morning view from the Nha Trang hostel.

Day 54 - 16th August

Arriving in Nha Trang early was never a good thing, but we only had one day there, so we had to make the most of it. We'd done enough relaxing in Hoi An and we're ready for something a bit more active.

My memory of Nha Trang will always be dominated by 'FUNKY MONKEY, FUNKY MONKEY' being yelled at me as I boarded the boat tour for the day with the other four. 

We were told with no beer, came no money, no money, no honey, no honey, no baby. That was enough to convince me not to drink too much. I wasn't prepared for the responsibility of the end product.

After boycotting a fishy (forgive the pun) looking aquarium which drove me to an early beer, we headed out onto the open water for our second stop. We were able to swim and snorkel in the nearby reefs. It was actually pretty cool, as I dived in from the top of the boat with Jordy, Sèbastien and Anne whilst Julie dropped in lady like from the lower deck.

When snorkelling, I saw some great fish and even a number of water snakes. It was so cool just watching them go about their business, seemingly oblivious to our presence above them. Some guy dropped his sunglasses and they were efficiently fished out by one of guides, who dove straight in with a snokel on.

Look at that lot.

Lunch was impressive, with a table filled with seafood, pork, tofu, noodles and of course steamed rice. Afterwards, the hosts had each nation stand up and sing a song from their country with him and his band, The Funky Monkeys. Of course, England's was Wonderwall and me and four others sang our hearts out to get the show on the road. 

A drunk Scottishman wanted to sing his own song, not seeing himself as part of the UK contingent. More for him.

The Funky Monkeys.

When we were finally getting relaxed, the host yelled out 'Happy Hour. Everybody to the water bar.' The bar was a water ring with a guy inside who handed out plastic cups of orange and vodka to everyone floating by on a water ring. It was a crazy fifteen minutes with people bombing and splashing around whilst trying to dunk each other.

And finally, we reached stop three. The beach. Not normally one for sitting in the sun, I was ready to relax after being sleep deprived again. It was a nice relaxing hour before we headed back to shore.

Dinner at a vegetarian restaurant convinced me I needed to try it more often and then a walk around the beach area showed us what Nha Trang had to offer.

The gang.

Before we knew it, we were inside a Karoke booth singing classics. An hour of fun brought a lot of laughter. For Sèbastien and I, our night was complete when we found Don't Stop Until You Get Enough by Michael Jackson. We had been doing Rush Hour 1 & 2 quotes non stop since Halong Bay and now we had the chance to do Chris Tucker's rendition of the song in the Triad club in ahi g Kong. Sadly, it didn't beat the group's version of Smooth Criminal which received a 94% accuracy rating. Shamon!

Another great place but we were off to Dalat in the morning, another early morning start!