Nha Trang, Vietnam

It was our second year wedding anniversary yeterday, we woke up and went for an early mornming dip in the ocean. The water is a beautiful blue and so nice an warm! wish it was like this at home!
We had another tour aranged for us, organised by our hotel in Ho chi min. We had absolutly no idea what was involvd in our tour, as we have totally left that part of our holiday in their hands! It was quite exciting when the bus that picked us and 12 others from the hotel dropped us off at a port and we were shown onto a boat. The tour guide explained that we would be doing a island hop around the beautiful islands in this area.
The journey started with a stop at an aquarium on one island. Its an insanely built place, shaped like a shark(?) coming out of the mouintain, and then inside of the buiding is decorated like the inside of the shark (?) there was even more detail to 'entertain' humans. While the fish tanks themselves were quite empty and dull looking. Outside the aquarium, there was a cut off area from the sea, which was home to about 6 turtles (my favourite creature ever!) and small sharks who would lie on the backs of the turtles as they swam around.
Back on the boat and our leader gave us a hilarious rendition of 'my heart will go on' with his back to us standing with his arms spread on the bow of the boat. Hilarious.
The second island we went to was about 30 minutes away, through some amazing landscapes. Passing other islands which look uninhabited at first and then a few signs of life close to the shore.
One island we passed had almost street like rafts built from its shore, into the ocean, and houses built on the rafts. The islands here look very inhospitable as they are all high mountains with steep rises and no flat surfaces. So building these rafts streets is a perfect way for the locals to live near the islands. We also passed fish farms, with fish filled to the brim of the nets.
When we arrived at the next island we were give snorkelling equipment, and we all pilled into the water to check out the reef. The reef was really boring only a few fish and most of the coral was dead. But it was nice to be in the water and getting some sun. We both tired of the reef pretty soon, so went for a laze on the beach. I wrote in the sand 'happy 2nd year' and we bathed in the bautiful sun ....awwwww.
When we were called back onto the boat the chaiors had been arraneged cleverly into one large table and plates and plates of food and rice were waiting for us. Bok Choy, Pork and tofu,Shark with chiolli and ginger, Fish cake slices and scrambled turtle eggs! It was a delicious lunch, and I really learnt how to eat rice with chop sicks then!.
The next island we stopped at had watersports on it, banan boats, jet skis etc. No one was really interested in these, as we had all only just finished eating, but after about 20 mins, the on board entertainment started. The crew pulled out guitars and even a drum kit. The tour leader, and one of the male crew dressed as a ladyboy got on the mike and sang some Vietnamese songs and we were all invited up to sing a song from our country wityh his help. As my absolute terror is karaoke, I did not join in, neither did Maurice, but I thought he should do 'I should be so lucky'.
After that they turned on the trance music, and the ladyboy jumped into the water with 3 bottles of wine. He got into the middle of a circle of bouys and set up a floating bar. We all had to jump off the top of the boat and swim to him to get a shot of wine, they also provided life rings, so we could stay afrloat and keep on drinking. It was the funniest thing I have ever done on a boat!
The last Island was just to relax and chill on the beach under the shade of palm trees, by then we had got SO much sun!

Today we have seen a few markets and replaced the camera I lost on day three (DUUUUH!).