Ok, true to form, I have lots of drivel to write. Nice as I am I've decided to break it down into chunks for you - in particular to brighten up the days of all those revisers out there (that's you Kate). O yeah, and there isn't that much more to come, so I'm sure you're glad to savour it.

So here's Vietnam South Central Coast: Chapter One:

Mui Ne

We were relieved to arrive at our hotel in Mui Ne without a hitch. We'd just checked in when, to my great surprise, SAGGY AND BOB strolled out of our hotel. Bumping into them for the third time was very surreal (for those who missed it these are Durham folk who I also came across in New Zealand - TWICE). It took a few minutes for us to catch up before they went off to grab food; unfortunately they headed up the coast the next day so that was all I got to see of them.

We had a very nice couple of days in Mui Ne: hailed in the LP as the "best all round beach in Vietnam". The LP slightly let us down again, though, as our hotel actually didn't have a beach when the tide was high. Though the view from the pool of the South China Sea and the Vietnamese fishermen in their little round boats more than made up for it. We spent most of our time sunbathing, although we did venture out to see the local sand dunes. I was the only one determined enough to want to bother trekking to the top of one of the dunes to sledge down it. Feeling very lightheaded at the top, and without back-up from Abi and Rachel (who were watching, and no doubt laughing, from a distance), I changed my mind when I saw how steep (pretty much vertical) the slope was, and tried very hard to back out. But the kid who'd sold me the plastic sheet (my sledge) was having none of it; he pulled me to the edge, piled sand on the plastic, ordered me to sit down, and pushed me. Naturally I screamed, flew half way down the slope, lost my balance, lost the plastic, and tumbled the rest of the way. Very fun though. Only drawbacks being the walk back up, and the time I had to put in scrubbing sand off (literally) every inch of my body.

We also had one of the best meals we've had all trip in Mui Ne. We went to a shabby-looking-plastic-chair joint on the beach and, for the price of a McDonalds, had incredible prawns and the best calamari I've ever tasted before getting stuck into a very ugly (but very good) lobster - was a bitch to take apart - none of those little plier things. All to the sound of the sea in the background. LOVELY.

We spent our last night/morning in Mui Ne getting very very excited about the election (as I'm sure you're all aware), before we hopped on another bus up to Nha Trang.

Was very excited when we boarded to find it was one of the sleeper buses we'd heard so much about. It literally took seconds for Rachel to refer to the Harry Potter night bus. The bus had aisles of bunk-beds rather than rows of seats, and was surprisingly comfortable. An hour out of Mui Ne I was tucked in, with Now 75 blasting in my ears, happy as larry... until the bus broke down. BRILLIANT. Black smoke billowing from the engine we decided it was best to get off and stand on the road. For half an hour we watched all the male passengers stare at the engine, and the oil that was leaking out of it, as if they knew what was going on. The driver stood over the oil smoking a cigarette (while the Westerners huffed and puffed) before he brought out a pathetic and decrepit tool box. We began to despair: we had no phone signal and seemed to be on the road to nowhere; the driver gave no signal that another bus was coming, and it was looking very very unlikely that he'd be able to fix anything. After half an hour in the heat we watched in astonishment as he cut a small piece of plastic, shoved it into the leak, started the engine, and gestured for us to climb back on board. We should never have doubted him, it became very apparent that this happens all the time, and the rest of the journey went without a hitch.

More tomoz. xxxxx