Part 15 : Bad Scooter

As we continued on through what would to become a 7 day party week we thought that we should do a little more then get drunk and Nina wanted to go to the mud baths we kept hearing about and seeing pictures of and also because she had become burnt as red as a lobster of the last few days. So to make it more interesting we decided on hiring scooters and biking it there since we hadn't done that yet. So far so good.

Greg, damn you, said "yeah yeah yeah, all good I know where it is. I got directions, you all just follow me" famous last words. It was also the last day before jules and tim were to head off up to Hoi An so it ended up being the six of us. Greg, Jules, Tim, Nina, Amber and Myself all biking through Nha Trang to go to these mysterious Mud Baths.

At first it was awesome and I have no idea why we had not hired scooters up until this point but I was so glad we did. I teamed up with Nina because she wouldn't let me drive, tim and jules took turns and greg and amber. We were cruising for a good half hour and managed to lose each other twice before gathering together at a restaurant for directions. This we found out that greg had no ideas where to go and that we had actually driven a good 25 mins in the wrong direction. We then drive back and finally see a mud bath sign. I give directions to greg to turn right while were all stopped at a traffic light (which greg your meant to stop at FYI) and the the boys and my bike managed to turn ok but greg had disappeared. Apparently he thought I signalled that the mud baths were just there and pulled into some building, waited for 20 mins then came to find us when they realised we hadn't shown up.lol. that was the last we saw of them till we got back home.

Jules and Tim did manage to stick with us for a few more minutes hilariously turning the wrong way at the temple round about and then having to do a U-turn through a busy street which was hilarious for both teams. Kudos Nina for not killing me btw. Then we were cruising down a main street and our bike started to stutter and die. The boys were ahead of us and then we were alone. We travelled along the busy street before we need up pulling over and then bike wouldn't start anymore. I was busting to go to the loo and this nice lady came out from a shirt store which was also her home and see if we were ok. We were luckily across the road from a petrol station. I asked nina if she thought there would be a toilet at the station with a "nah I don't think so response" so I asked the lady and she offered me her toilet for 10.000 dong. Yep I paid to pee, the equivalent of 50cents. and it was good.

We got to the station and no one could speak english at all, fair enough, and the one guy hat did help only helped us conclude that the bike wasn't working. We were stuck for about 10 mins before we hired a bike driver who after 5 more mins we figured out would push us to the mud baths. I jumped on the back and Nina drove our broken scooter and he literally drove behind her and with his right foot gave her a little push every now and then. classic!

Instead of driving to the Mud Baths he drove us to someone he knew who spoke english. :( who then told him that we wanted to go to the Mud Baths. We thought to gave the bike another go and who'd a thunk it it worked. He escorted us to the temple, told us it was the Mud Baths. The same temple with the roundabout that we lost Jules and Tim at. boo. we were not happy. It was also a freaking hot day and we were both getting burnt. Luckily we got some really good directions from a temple guy and realised our earlier mistake. We shouldn't have stuck to the main road and taken a little sneaky left instead which you then followed for 15 minutes on a broken pot hole ridden dirt road and eventually, eventually …..bam! fing Mud Baths.

Yes. Mud Baths here we go. non of the other made it to the Mud Baths in the end. Just me and Nina. I have to say that after all the effort in trying to get there, there was no way I want going to go in. Mud Bath 1 hour. like a giant pool of brown cool exfoliating cream. with a leaf thrown in every now and then. Oh and you floated so well in there. Then 1 hour hot water bath. The water was the perfect temperature. sooo hot but not burning. 1 word. Amazing.

Part 14 : Nha Trang

Nha Trang. We basically came here because in Lonely Planet it said, beach, and party till 6am. How could I not. The plan was to come to Nha Trang and then up to Hoi Ann but after arriving here we started going out and drinking with the other backpackers in our dorm. yes found the backpacker experience. and ridiculously cheap and nasty beers and cocktails. Me and greg, because Jules decided to go to Mui Ni instead, then also signed up for our PADI open water certification.

The nights to come came like this. Dinner, Get drunk, crash in bed at 3am, wake up 7am for diving, dive 2 times, sleep, study. repeat for next 3 days. My body is actually punishing me right now for abusing it in such a way. I am really glad that I did sign up for the PADI but at the same time I kinda wished that I went party, party, party then dive dive dive. and not mixed it all together.

Diving. It was pretty cool. The hardest part was swimming the 200 meters to qualify fitness. Im not really that big on swimming 200 meters in one go. I can physically do it I just think I get bored or I stuff up the breathing. Oh and by the way the bottom of a swimming pool, well this one in particular is disgusting. :( no good

Diving in open water went pretty good and I got all my skills up. At the end of the course you do a 50 question test and I have never stressed out of a test for years. the drinking and diving just made my brain not work any more and I really struggled to hold and retain information. Its also really hard to study when theres this much partying going on. Peace

Part 13 : Ho Chi Minh City

The trip from Darwin to Ho Chi Minh was a simple 4 1/2 hours. Not too bad. At the airport we met Jules who funnily enough had the same backpack as me. But it wasn't until we had to wait in line for the Visa on arrival that we actually started chatting. Visa on arrival FYI sucks balls and makes you end up waiting at the airport for an extra hour of your time. I also forgot my passport photos and had to pay for new ones.

Me Greg and Jules ended up sharing a cab into the cities backpacker district. Pham Ngu Lao. We walked around checking out a for a backpackers dorm or share room where we can all get drunk meet new people and have a jolly good time. We didn't find it there, so we just ended up booking a 3 bedroom for about $10US a night each. not too bad considering the other hotels were around $15 a night each.

We then headed out into the town. Beer at the crazy bull face pub and its rival across the road meant a lot of backpackers, locals, prostitutes and drug dealer pimps on bikes swarmed to the place. We tried multiple shops selling Pho and many beers. The second day was a bit more interesting visiting the Previously named memorial for american war atrocities now named just the War Memorial and then headed out to get hammered on the town at a few nightclubs wed found online. The best way to explain the night would be messy. We started at dinner with 5 beers for 135.000 dong, which was a great price for the city, and then moved on to different clubs and cocktails. At some point we dropped greg off and went out to another dingy night club in-between there and the hotel spent about 2.000.000 dong and lost my iphone. :( boo hum bug.

It was clear that Ho Chi Minh was just like any other big city. just in asia with Pho. Not really the backpackers experience I was searching for but I knew it wasn't too far off. And cycle drivers and haggling with them over the price of a ride is a lot of fun.

Part 12 : Kakadu Day 3

The tour managed to push us around to some rock art at nlunga ??? not sure how its spelt exactly and then on to south alligator river. The group was getting along much better now and it was like we were all a small family. The basic make up was me, an older couple from england, 2 sisters from england, 2 sisters from netherlands, 2 friends from denmark and kathrin who was the only other person travelling alone.

The last day started a little more painful then the previous. The lack of sleep was catching up to me as i couldn't sleep the first night because I was terrified of spider. yes. im a woosie so sue me. and the 2nd night i was bitten by a combination of mosquitoes and bed bugs. :( left my inner liner at greg place. boo. The 2nd night was also the booze night where were needed to finish off the remaining case and a half of beer we bought. Interesting conversations came out of the evening but the most entertaining was an annoying british buy from brixton with a little scooby doo toy. He eventually left but it was awkward while he was there.

The last day however ended with a 3km trek through the bush. quite fun choosing to take the more exciting walk over log over river or jump over large patch of water options then the safer dryer creep around the edges route. We made it to the bridge and karl, the tour guide took us for a trek up to what they call 'Castle Rock'. The hike as fun, the group was fun, the view was amazing, It was all worth it. And even some of the group who were terrified made it to the top of the rock. It did take a few minutes to convince everyone to actually start the trek getting down but it was such a good climb. I think I actually like the idea of mountaineering even though i have seen 127 hours later and the thought of having to cut my own arm off still haunts me.

We slowly bused it back to Darwin and made our way home. We got cleaned up, did our washing because everything was wet and smelly by now and then went out for dinner and tis surf and turf and then for 1 beer. which became 3 beers. But in the end everyone was pretty tired and sleep was much needed. It could have been a bigger night but most of the girls were heading to alice springs the next day and needed to be up by 5am.

Cheers girls and i hope you all the best on your travels. Thank you for making my first tour group one to remember. :)

Part 11 : Kakadu Day 1

After I arrived in Darwin and down 2 local beers, I spoke to greg who was now going to be busy with a new job and decided to do a Kakadu tour thing. Its my first tour and I wasn't really sure how the whole group thing was going to pan out, being by myself and all.

I found a package for $550 4 day tour back on thursday night. Package included Lichtfield waterfalls and 2 other falls which were apparently closed because its rained too much and the crocs like to come up when the water is high, wall paintings of rock art and some climbing and crocs on a river cruise. Sounds awesome.

Early start, 6 am. and after we all get on board the bus I run off at the last minute to throw away my coffee. I look in the back and see they're all full up. then I jump in the front cab and get the whole middle cab section to myself. At this point in time I then realised, oh crap. im that guy in the first ep of survivor that has distanced themselves from the main pack and is going to get voted off first. boo. I thought. later I found it was ok and quite nice to have the room to lay down and sleep, which became the norm for times on the bus.

The first day had Lichtfield falls and a trek through 1.6km of bush. we did a little trek first and it seemed ok, then on to the massive 1.6km part. I thought. its all good, I will leave my smaller pack back in the cab and just go with my water bottle. About 5 min into the trek it starts pouring down torrentially wet season darwin rain. once i was soaked I didn't care much other then my camera. then I felt like a kid who is out playing in the rain waiting for mum to come and tell me to come in other wise i could get sick.

The group slowly moved through the track and then at some point we all stopped and wondered where the track went across this small river in front of us. I ended up leading us all through it which was a lot of fun for me and for a long time there I hoped i wasn't leading us through to the middle of no where. As the trek went on the rain just kept on coming and coming and small little walkways were slowly being filled and turning into small little rivers. We all got pretty wet on the first day. little did we know that the rain will bless us each and every day of the tour and in the end we formed a tight knit little bunch of tourist walking, climbing in the rain.

Song: Not original music of my creation.

Warumpi Band "Black Fella White Fella"

please purchase if you enjoy it.

cheers

Part 10 : Wake Boarding

In celebrating the birthday of JoeTek. We had decided on going wakeboarding. It didnt end up happening on his birthday so we went the day after.

It surprised me how much more difficult it actually was. it looked really easy, and since i used to skate and snowboard I thought i would pick it up really easily. The trouble we found was the launch. The hardest part was just getting up and on the board, in the water and pulled by the cable. We had bought 2 hours of cable park hire which involved the vest helmet ticket and board of your choice, but there was no limit to how many laps you could do before coming off so if you got 5 or 6 really good riders you would never get a go. Then when you come back and have your go, you crash out trying to launch and then you have to wait another 15 minutes before you get another chance, and by then your trying to remember what you did last time.

My advice is to go when its not busy, because I think that if it was a matter of just jumping in again and again really quickly then you could nail it in a few goes. The wait is a killer though.

oh and happy Bday JoeTek. Good luck next time. :D

Song: Not original music of my creation.
The Game feat 50 Cent "How We Do"
please purchase if you enjoy it.
cheers

Part 9 : Pool Party

We decided that we needed a pool party for JoeTek's bday. :) sounds good right. right? Well….it was pretty cool. You know a party is going to be ridiculous when everybody there rocks up with their own bottle of vodka. OMG!!! yes this was definitely my kind of party. Vodka :D lots of girls and a pool.

So part 1. Vodka. Check. other then I was still hungover from the night before. didn't get home till 4am in the morning, by the time I started drinking I had to pour myself normal portion drinks instead of the standard, chesh/kate/kylie portioned drinks that I have become so accustomed to.

part 2. lots of girls. yes. yes there were. more girls then guys. yes yes there were. but…..and heres the killer. every single girl. I mean every single girl. had a kid. ok I know that sounds bad, and if you knew me then you know that that is not a issue with me. but…..every girl there was a little bit older then me and they all had issues. It was a bit weird. at one point it was like a school dance where the girls were all at one table having a big chat and the guys were all at another table. In the end I stopped thinking about it and upgraded my drinks back to standard proportions. :D part 1 fixed.

part 3. pool. pool was awesome. I do believe at one point I left and was done with the pool. After the reinstating of proper proportioned drinks the night turned out to be a great night. lots of dramas and issues but the good thing and thing I was most grateful about, was that none of those issues were mine and I was left unattached and around to enjoy myself. In the pool. yeah somehow I ended back in the pool around 3 am??? don't ask me how that happened.

Song: Not original music of my creation.

Far East Movement "Like a G6"

please purchase if you enjoy it.

cheers

Part 8 : Pre Night Club

After spending a week sweating my ass off in sunny Noosa at JoeTek's place watching movies, playing xbox and ps3, I figure that it was friday night and hell why not I'm heading out for a drink.

The night starts out with JoeTek, Tink and myself all heading to bistro bar for some cocktails. It ends up being vodka and we decide on a bar crawl. In my mind I'm thinking awesome! this night is going to be good. We move on to the pizza place across the road, Zaccharies which does mini pizzas and drinks. The couple have a disagreement and end up having a time out while I wait for the pizza downing some vodka. :D Tink ends up getting sick with a possible drink spike (naughty bistro bar maybe) and so I end up spending the next good part of 2 hours chatting to some french tourists while holding a pizza I don't want to eat.

The night progresses and the pizza place shuts and I eventually head off to the infamous local night club called the Rolling Rock. The place actually sucks and if I lived in this town I would shoot myself if that was the place I had to go to each weekend to find any kind of relationships be it a dirty one nighter or life long partnership. If you've been to The Crapitol in wagger then its worst then there.

Anyhow I actually had a really good night. Not because the venue was good but because it was so bad, and that I knew I would never see any of these people again and didn't care. It was the first night I actually felt like I was a backpacker travelling the world. I eventually met to brisbane dudes Luke and Jackson (yep his first name was jackson) and I spent most of the night downing yagerbombs and coronas while trying to coerce them into sleeping with a 42 year old married woman. I wont get into detail but it was hilarious. :D

Song: Not original music of my creation.

Montel Jordan "This is how we do it"

please purchase if you enjoy it.

cheers