Little Girl. Big World.: "look at that backpacker showing his dick, does he think Vietnamese don't have dicks so he's showing off?" (or my trip to Nha Trang, Vietnam)

The quote above was heard from my bus driver as we drove by a backpacker taking a piss on the side of the road. I thought it was hilarious, but after a week of being here, I don't know why he would be upset when everyone does it, men and women. Stopping by the side of the road to relieve yourself apparently is the norm here. I have seen several guys traveling in groups taking a piss together some spaces apart, and definitely have seen some old ladies squating not even in bushes with their butt cracks hanging out. I was too polite to pull out my camera and take a pic, but now that I think about it, maybe I should have.

Anyway, hello my loyal reader, you know who you are :)

It's about to be 10pm right now, and the entire house of my relatives are asleep. Early to bed, early to rise I suppose, it is the country side after all. Now that they're all asleep and not trying to feed me food, I finally have time to update this blog. Getting to this city was about the furthest up north of this country I have been. I have only heard about this place as a popular vacation spot, I finally got to see it for myself.

Nha Trang, Vietnam faces the ocean just like Rio, Brazil or Brighton, England, and if you keep going down on one certain street, you will hit the ocean. There are plenty of night clubs and bars around the beach front for a lively night. I actually did very little tourist things while in Nha Trang, and instead got to experience what locals my age would do, which I can tell you is a quite more relaxing and less expensive than what tourists in Nha Trang would experience.

It was a 6 hours bus ride from where I was before to the center of Nha Trang. As I've mentioned before, the distance actually isn't that long, it's only because there is only one main high way for all the vehicles so the entire drive is trafficked.

The main method of long distance transportation between places beside motorbike is by bus. Back when I was a kid, there was only one type of bus, a regular sized bus slightly smaller than the public school bus in the states, and it would stack on a bunch of people and go. They were all the same in term of size and service. What I learned is that, today, there are several types of buses being offered in various sizes. Big one, regular one, van-size one, and they all come with AC, some with sleeper beds and blankets and music for your entertainment.

First day:

For my trip out to Nha Trang, I got to try the sleeper bus for the experience since I figure I could use a laying down for a 6 hours drive, and since I have never been on a sleeper bus before and only heard about such thing from Harry Potter. The bus itself is the size of a big public bus or tour bus in the states, it has complete AC and a pull 2 mini TV screens. Instead of seats, there are 20 bunk beds, so 40 single bed total with blankets. Once you get on, you have to take off your shoes to walk down the isles to your bed. Each bed has a seat belt, but no one uses it except for me. Vietnam isn't much of a seat belt culture, and I think that's how they tell foreigners from locals is that foreigners would use the seat belt. It was kinda cool except it was cramped, and I got really naseous sitting on the top bunk since it swayed a lot due to the driver doing lots of swirlving.

It's sort of like camping in a moving cabin

Us stopping at a train track and me inside with a seat belt. That's pretty much how parking is around here.

Second day:

My cousin took me around to show me the city, and to Diamond Bay or know to locals as Song Lo (or Lo River). Diamond Bay, I think is the name for tourist. This area is the place where the Miss Universe 2008 was held, and I can only imagine how glamouros it was since the place screams extreme resort/spa/vacation glamor. It was pretty quiet while I was there though since right now is off season for tourists though I did spot some vacationers with sunburned face roaming around the streets later on.

We're so close to the divider, there is only one lane, she didn't even use two hands at some point and everyone were really fast, of course I had to take pictures and not hold on tight