OnTheRoad

Calling in from Nha Trang!

Had my most blatant attempt at a ripoff last night, but all worked out in a reasonably entertaining manner. I sat down for a beer or two at a small local place - San Miguel Beer, one litre, $NZ0.6. I sat at a table with a few local folks, all cyclo drivers. They were pretty good folks, and they invited me to come to dinner with them at a cheap local place, good seafood apparently. The food was indeed good, and the beer flowed freely while we ate. Crabs and shellfish mainly, very tasty though. Crabs take too much effort to get at the good stuff, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, the bill arrives, and, surprise, surprise, my friends suddenly have no money and expect me to pay. I had suspected this was coming anyway, the way they were trying to get me drunk was something of a clue :D

One of the people at the table next to me helpfully translated to the owners that I was paying half the bill, which I did, and the cyclo drivers were left to sort out the rest themselves. I'm not sure how they did, as I left after paying my part.

Of course, they were a little pissed that their scam hadn't worked, and they managed to hunt me down as I was walking back to my place. They jumped off their cyclos and tried to start a fight, but as they were both very drunk and not so big, it was more of a laugh than anything else. As I didn't want to build any lasting resentment I escaped on to a passing motorcycle rather than getting into a serious fight, and haven't seen them again yet. At the moment, I'm keeping a careful eye on any cyclo drivers I see though!

As you can see from the post, I'm currently in Nha Trang. Did a little diving, but it isn't as good here as on Koh Tao, which I do want to go back to some time before I leave. Planning on heading north from here after the weekend, possibly to Hoi An, possibly to other beaches en route to other places.

Added a few more photos to the Dalat collection and am uploading Nha Trang photos as I write this. Should be visible in an hour or so, the net in Nha Trang is inexplicably shite compared to everywhere else in Vietnam.