Andre and Jill's Adventures: A week in the sun

The past week has slipped by at the mercy of sun, sand and plain laziness.

Not a lot has happened since our last post. We met some new friends from Brisbane on our way home after dinner one evening. We stopped for a drink with them..and one thing led to another. We played pool and did a bit of bar-hopping, landing at "Why Not Bar". Well, I'll tell you Why Not!! After ordering drinks and beginning a new game of pool, Andre was drawn to a sign on the wall for the Why Not Bucket. This so called "bucket" was comprised of a large cooler (you know the big Gatorade cooler jugs that are always dumped on football coaches when they win?? That was our "bucket"), a bottle of vodka, 2 bottles of rum, half a bottle of gin, pineapple juice, 7-up, some ice, and a ladle... This may have been a brilliant idea at the beginning of the night (which Andre mentioned the next day), but after midnight, and many drinks, perhaps not so much. So, we all chipped in for an 800,000 VND (around $40) Why Not Bucket...this might not seem like that much, but if you equate it to Vietnamese valuation, one beer is usually around 16,000 VND... Anyway, I'm not certain I even had a full glass before disappearing to make my contribution to the Why Not Bar. Shortly thereafter, and a total of about 6 drinks out of the bucket, the 4 of us made our way out of the bar...Andre, very conspicuously, carrying the bucket. I'm not sure what we would have done with it if we had made it past the doorman. If I remember right, he took it from "us" and said he would "make it to go". We didn't wait around for it...it was time to go home. We made it safely home and both passed out (Andre on the bathroom floor, me tucked in bed), and didn't rise until Valentine's Day afternoon. A very unromantic, but memorable Valentine's eve and day!

With our friends, Jo and Pete (note the glass of Why Not Bucket Drink in Pete's hand)

The last few days spent in Nha Trang were more quietly spent on the beach. We also took a day boat trip to see 3 surrounding islands and enjoy some snorkeling. Obviously the details of these days are far less interesting than the last! The snorkeling was not bad. The water was quite murky in places, but we did see one vibrant reef with numerous fish and a very large, blue starfish. An underwater camera may be a worthwhile investment at some point. We also saw 2 larger fishing villages with homes on land and in the water. We also boated past Vinpearl Island. Vinpearl is home to a very luxurious resort, water park and amusement park. There is a large gondola from mainland Nha Trang to Vinpearl Island..a very cool sight.