Mui Ne... then Nha Trang. Kind of it.

Well no, but in some ways it feels like that as you'll soon see..
And if you haven't seen the wedding post yet, it's below this!!
Mui Ne we left with a smile upon our faces. The family had left, everything was packed and we were just chilling out in the pool for our last few hours before the bus took us to Nha Trang. I must admit, the family leaving was a relief. As much as I love my family, I was really suffering overexposure and I'd had a couple of arguments with my dad - although I had just enjoyed a massive victory over my sister at rummy, so I was already on a bit of a high! Also, the previous night I'd confirmed with Southampton that I would be studying there come October, so I've been getting very excited about that, and also about my impending audition for a vocal scholarship worth a thousand pounds a year!! That was organised at the same time, and it's set for May 14th, when I'll head down to St Michael's in Southampton about 20min before their choir rehearsal and I'll sing my prepared aria and after that they'll stick me in with the choir and see how I fare!! And as regards which aria, he said "Bach, Handel, or similar..". Instantly I thought of Mache Dich, Mein Herze, Rein from Bach's St Matthew Passion but at nearly 10min in length I felt compelled to ask "What sort of length would you like the aria to be?" and the reply of "Doesn't matter, just sing the one you enjoy most" sent me straight to imslp.org to get the sheet music for it (BRILLIANT resource if musicians amongst you don't already know it). I am, however, starting to wonder if it might be a bit easy so I'm still investigating other routes. I just feel that singing something from Handel's Messiah would be too obvious. Suggestions are welcome!

After digressing quite considerably, the bus turned up and we were sort of on our way to Nha Trang, via some rather unnecessary changeovers! But it was all ok in the end, we got here, found our cheap hotel and had some nice food and some beers to finish off the evening. Next morning we got up with fish noodles in mind and found this place that came recommended by Jonny, by Vy and by Vy's uncle who's lived here for many years now. Shame then, that during our breakfast there I should come down with food poisoning.

Fortunately it was quite gradual, I didn't vom in their restaurant but I felt I couldn't eat any more than the few mouthfuls I'd had. We retreated to Jonny and Vy's very very beautiful flat where I started to feel worse, despite the nice breeze and cooler temperature. I then felt terrible and excused myself to return to the hotel when all hell broke loose and I felt very very ill indeed. I was in my room all day, tried eating something that my lovely sister in law delivered to my room which stayed down... for a bit. Next morning though, I felt miles better so we went for breakfast. Alas, I was a bit overambitious in my choice of food and so back to bed I went, although I felt much better for losing the breakfast, almost as though that got rid of the nasty bug causing it all so I just had a short nap in Jonny's flat while people got themselves ready and then we headed down to the beach, where I did a lot more lying around. Ate a few chips and was instantly full, having had my stomach so compressed into a quarter of it's previous capacity - probably a good thing! But I felt loads better so we all went out to supper together.

This place we went was pretty fantastic and I'd love to go back when I really am feeling 100%. They deliver a load of charcoals to your table along with raw but marinaded meats. You then cook them to your own tastes over the charcoal and it is just gorgeous. We had a multitude of pork, beef, kingfish, okra, onion, all sorts. Again, I barely ate anything, but what I managed was fantastic.

Food-aside, the beach here is lovely, there are mountains all around and it's not unbearably hot. The town is pretty and they're preparing for some massive celebrations tomorrow, to celebrate 30yrs since this region was liberated from the Americans - we've seen them practising with lots of red flags and a barge filled with fireworks has been towed into the bay!! Should get some pretty amazing photographs, if taking an expensive camera seems feasible :)

Bringing food back into the equation (sorry, but you'd understand were you here), today saw a massive seafood feast prepared at Jonny and Vy's 9th floor flat. A little bbq was assembled on the balcony, similar to that in the restaurant - a clay structure housing some massive chunks of burning charcoal - and on it went some kingfish fillets we'd wrapped in banana leaf after marinading in lime juice and pepper, as well as some prawns of biblical proportions! Quite literally a cubit in length, and the girth of a carrot from the larger end of the spectrum. As well as this was some delicious clayport pork and some slightly cremated ribs - all Fran's fault. Though possibly mine too, as I was distracting him with a game of chess. He won in the end, but at what cost??

Anyway, tomorrow is a day for snorkelling and then the celebrations in the evening and while I've been having a bit of a panic about finances thisevening - a bit of a panic you can take to mean something nearer abject terror - I'm going to try my utmost to enjoy my last bit of time with Jonny and Vy and friends before heading on up to Hanoi.

Much love to all. Sorry the photos from Mui Ne never came, but I was rather cross with myself for not spotting dust on the lense which has but some great tonking grubby marks on some of my lovely pictures and it's almost shameful.

I have however got a nice photo of a menu I saw last night which we found hilarious - bear with me, I'll have to wait for a computer with a USB port, so perhaps tomorrow morning Vietnamese time :)

Off to the bar now, tam biet! xxxx