Island games

I’m writing this in a rush as very shortly I’ll have to get packed and get on a night bus to somewhere more interesting than Nha Trang, which is where I am now.


There’s nothing actually wrong with the place - in fact the beach is quite beautiful, as beaches go - but 48 hours here has been enough for me.

I stayed in Da Lat a week, literally chilling out, before I came to this resort. There were days when I didn’t leave my lovely cool hotel room and my wonderful wifi-connected laptop, except to visit a restaurant round the corner where I could eat marvellous Asian vegetarian food for a pittance.

But like I say, Nha Trang’s nice enough. I’ve been out this afternoon to look at its one historic monument: a set of four stone towers from Hindu times. Shame they were rubbish.

Yesterday I went on a boat trip around the islands just offshore. It was a mixed bag, really, and I got a bit grumpy when the first activity turned out to be snorkelling from a large wooden platform (I hadn’t brought my trunks so I just sat on the boat, sulking). I wish I'd done something like this now.


But I cheered up enormously when the crew laid out a delicious buffet meal - I’m getting a taste for Asian food now - and then staged a ‘boyband’ concert so that anyone who felt like a swim could let their lunch digest first.


I could photograph these fellas all day. Those faces!


The same goes for the fish, sharks, eels and turtles at our last stop of the day, Nha Trang’s aquarium.


I hope this bus I’m catching is better than the one from Da Lat, by the way. That one broke down twice on the mountain passes of the Central Highlands, forcing the driver and the conductor to get their box of tools out and fix the engine en route!