It seemed a good idea!

Yes it did as we had a couple of days before flying to Hoi An, I didn't want to waste anytime so I found a place in my notes and looked in the Lonely Planet to find they also felt it was worth a visit. We were told we had to take a bus from a bus station the other side of the city to get to Ho Coc so we took a taxi to the station as we have been avoiding scooters (if you saw the crazy traffic here you would understand). We approached the daunting bus station armed with our note in Vietnamese explaining we wanted to but a ticket to Ho Coc. Inside there were , as with our large post offices, around 50 or so points at which one could purchase tickets, above each point was a list of the destinations covered, we were unable to find ours so we asked and were directed to point number one. We had given the lady our note and were halfway through the transaction when a local thrust a note through us and onto the counter whilst shouting, which they all seem to do all the time, the details of his expected purchase. Giving him repeated dirty looks seemed to achieve nothing, when he had been served the lady continued with our purchase. Armed with our tickets, costing us 3000VND each, 10,000 is 35 pence, we made our way outside to find hundreds of buses waiting in rows. We were then jostled to a bus and told to sit down. We showed our tickets and asked again for confirmation we were on the correct bus. A couple of ladies were already sitting down, one was asleep, the aircon was not on, it was baking, several street sellers boarded the bus with their wares, we decided to ask what time the bus left afterall we knew there was one each hour. It was 10.22 the lady opposite told us 11.30! We managed to locate the driver who was of course seated in the open 'cafe opposite eating and drinking , he told us it would be half an hour, so we had a walk round and got back for 10.55. At 11.38 the bus pulled out! The bus next to us had left and returned, each time using his reversing lights the tune 'Happy Birthday' played! Amazing..........anyway three hours later the bus stopped. It was a dirt track crossroads with the usual small gathering of men and a couple of scooters parked. We were told in no uncertailn terms that this was our stop, but it is the middle of nowhere we exclaimed, 'where is the sea' we signed. You can imaging half the bus thought we had gone completely mad. A young girl who luckily was also a passenger spoke a little English and she told us this was the nearest point, Ho Coc was 6 klms down the side road. We got off and asked the men to call a taxi for us. No Taxi they replied and suggested our only mode of transport available is the scooter. We refused to get on so after some deliberation we started walking. They all thought this was hilarious and followed us slowly on the scooter assuring us that we could not possibly walk it. This was a particular inconvenience as I , after three hour bus ride and 2 litre bottle of water, was desperate to go to the loo. Anyway at the end of the lane (1Klm) we came across several children playing in their garden, we said hello which prompted the whole family to emerge from somewhere, one of the teenagers could speak good English. She was informed by our scooter riding escort of our predicament and she explained again that we could not possibly walk.............anyway in the end, and it was a long time, we decided to travel by scooter the 5 klms left to our destination. That was a little hairy but some time later we saw the signs and arrived at Ho Coc. We could see the sea, it looked gorgeous so peaceful. The scooter pulled into a Village Resort 5 star hotel, where I guess he thought he would get commission for taking us. We needed change to pay the scooters, well that was a huge problem. Three people at the reception desk and not one guest to be seen, we asked if thy were actually open and they quoted us about 36 pound for one night! I don't think so you guys must take us for suckers! They finally managed to sort out some change, cos of course the bikers conveniently had insufficient change.

We strolled out of there and up the beach, still no-one in sight until we found an alternative. It was a chalet type set of accommodations with several large open resturant and seating areas. We found the reception, a hut, and took the chalet for one night . It appeared basic but a good price and fine for us. (3.50 pound each) We took a stroll and found some Vietnamese, then more of them, it seemed this was a resort for the locals, untouched by foreigners! To cut a long story short we found the place was a ghost town, the locals left around five and by six we were the only people apart from a couple of staff who were obviously waiting for us to retire! The food was inedible we asked for chips and they managed that so we had our chip dinner and water and thought we may as well go to the chalet, catch up with blogs, tv and books then get an early night. The room by then was warm and we found the AC didn't work, neither did the TV, there was apparently no password for wifi as there was no computer facility, the sheet on my bed was dirty, which she said was caused by the drips from the ceiling........mmmm you can imaging how that calmed me! We changed to another room, where the mosquito net did not fit properly etc!

Today was a pleasant day on the beach, a gorgeous untouched spot but requiring just a little attention in the accommodating area. More people arrived this morning so there were around a dozen of us in the end on this massive site. We arranged a taxi to take us back to Ho Chi Ming, a three hour journey and a sheer luxury at 1,000,000 VND a luxury we just could not avoid as the mere thought of scooters and bus ( I forgot to mention the number of times the bus stopped to pick up furniture, people from a broken down vehicle, live chickens and a new tv stand from a factory) all the revenue gained from these illicit stops was naturally pocketed by the three members of staff it takes to run one bus!) Also one of the staff clearly felt he should sit where we had settled and shouted for us to move towards the back. We pretended to not understand and stood our ground, this action merely prompted him to sit on the metal bar in front of our seat most of the way, which actually meant he was practically sitting on Maries lap, most unpleasant!

Our taxi driver tried to up the price when we arrived, the chalet resort tried to hold our passports until we paid, but as we had already decided to reduce the fee by half we made sure they returned them this morning before we checked out. The tailor had made one dress for me , which need a little adjustment before being accepted but the other outfit was different to the model one, we had a half hour of them trying it on, you get used to it in the end and stand your ground, it can be very wearing but when they finally agree to your demands or price they then relax and smile again, its almost like they enjoy the haggle!

I forgot to tell you the taxi driver was stopped by the police. To be fair I thought he was a very good driver we had been on the road for three hours with scooters buzzing past overtaking and undertaking, nobody takes any notice of the lane markings when there are any, everyone constantly beeps cos the scooters do not have wing mirrors so have no idea what is behind them, they are often carrying a piece of furniture on the back, today we passed one with a freezer on the back, The children all go on as well so more often that not there are two adults and one or two children all on one scooter! He seemed to placate the policeman we tried to see if he paid the police money but were unable to.

We just had a lovely meal down the road from here, our hotel, we are back here for one night then I am here again on Friday night, we came back to do this blog to find a pipe about 10 inches diameter all the way down the middle of the road, the road is only like a lane in the middle of district 1 which is the backpackers area, we have to straddle the pipe to walk down the road to get to here, apparently it is the pipe for' when you wash your hair' so I guess thats the waste water.

Seems everyone has gone to bed so I guess I will say again... Goodnight

XX