Night market, water blasters!

We're having a scoff and a browse at the night market after (yet) another day at the beach and water park... Lovely Vietnamese food, beer, sugar cane juice and chips... The kids like a break from rice and noodles once in a while!

Now dinner is over (for the kids, we adults are still scoffing) our kids are running laps over the bridge and back around by a path. They're giggling and most onlookers think it's great, but it's funny how some people look with scorn when kids are running around having fun. Some would rather (and do) give their kids a phone or tablet to zone out with than let their kids let off steam and have good old physical fun. I know what I'd rather see our kids do!

We bought the kids water guns with money kindly given by Nana and Grandag (as a rear for great swimming and behaviour), then took a golf buggy taxi home... Another fab day!

From Russia with love

There are mainly Russian tourists here in Nha Trang, but Lily never let's the language barrier be a barrier!

Big day out!

We got up and headed out early yesterday. The destination was a billionaire's playground on an island off Nha Trang called Vinpearl. You pay a relatively large entrance fee (for this country), but everything (apart from food and drink) is 'free'. The world's longest cable car (apparently) whisks you across to the gold sand beach island:

The ride itself is well worth the money

The view back to Nha Trang was cool

This shows only some of the huge park. We were too busy having fun to take pics of the amusements.

We spent about 10 hours riding rides and slides in the huge water park. We had to pass on most of the adult slides and rides of course, but I did get a few slides and rollercoaster rides in by nipping off for a few minutes at a time. Fortunately there were no queues.. It would have been exciting to be there just as a couple so we could have gone on the many rides and slides we missed, but of course it's about the kids, who had a thoroughly awesome day and came home truly knackered... We do look forward to having grandparent support soon though!

A massive thank you to our kids' third grandparent; Chris MacDonald, who made this happen. 

We're now well rested and are roughing it at the normal water park... It's Friday and the DJ is playing this afternoon!

Crocodile rocks!

Will has been doing pretty well at eating Asian food, but has become addicted to crocodile kebabs at the water park! It's a great way of getting salad into the boy and he now loves the stuff too.

Now the rest of us are about to eat dinner at the cheap restaurant near our hotel, will is having some great fun with another addiction; Lego... Or at least the cheap Asian version!

Beach, bus, pagoda, pictures

We swam in the pool and braved some huge waves on the beach in the morning. We also built our own temples in the sand.

Lily is getting good use out of the cocktail bucket we were given by Liad in Thailand!

The bus driver let the kids sit up front as we drove through town 

Staring out to sea

After a belly full of fish noodles we walked to a pagoda

Warrior Will!

We were then treated to some traditional dancing and drumming which was cool, but very noisy!

This is a scene that is played out many times a day. Lily being hugged, kissed, photographed and given food and sweets by adoring ladies!

She has become very used to the attention. People stopped photographing the pagoda to snap this scene when the dancers all descended on Lily Bell!

Madly Indian!

After a day of being cheap-skates, we treated ourselves to a break from Vietnamese food as we have been teased by the lovely smells from the Indian restaurant around the corner each day. Having lived in the east end of London, we've eaten plenty of good curries and this was right up there.

Will has grown up heaps during our trip. When we arrived in Bangkok 6 weeks ago he found the new sights, sounds and energy too much and acted silly in restaurants etc, but he has come a long way and truly does us proud:

Big walk

Each day we get a good few kilometres of walking in. Partly to get the kids exercising, partly to see what's around town and partly to kill time doing something for free.

Today we walked to the port area to visit an oceanography exhibit which was really cool. Lots of vivid reef fish, sharks, giant Moray eels, and rays. I kind of ticked off one of my dreams; to see turtles, but it didn't count as they were in captivity. There were also two seals in a tiny enclosure which was quite sad. I hope they release them after rehabilitation.

On the way there we saw many shops selling sea horses. One lady explained how they boil them up to make a health drink, which seems a bit weird to my western tastes!

The fascination with western world fashion produces some random wording:

Street food is always a weird and wonderful experience. For just over £1 I got to eat four crêpes loaded up with squid and prawns and accompanied with a sweet chili soup. I thought I had paid for one, but they kept loading me up with more and more, delicious! A lady skilfully cooked them over hot coals:

Will had to touch the sharks as they swam by! It was quite an unnerving feeling. The tanks were large and deep, you can't help imagining somebody falling in!

A pufferfish kept swimming up to him and spat water at him... It obviously didn't like his stick!

The turtles were very inquisitive... Sadly they must be terribly bored

A fin whale skeleton was impressive too:

We splurged and took the bus home... for about 40p all in... I do take after my father! 

Free food!

Our little charmers keep getting given free food by the ladies at hotels and restaurants, usually nice fresh fruit like these tomatoes and bananas.

After breakfast we made the most of the windy weather by flying a kite... We're off to the aquarium next. It's nice to have temperatures back down in the twenties again after a series of scorchers, but we miss the sun.

Challenging take away...

For the first time in 6 weeks of travel, we didn't eat all our dinner and took left over's back to our rather basic hotel. I went to eat the lovely veggie noodles for breakfast only to find that the restaurant had provided me with a flimsy knife with which to eat... This is going to be a challenge!

Lovely Lily!

She always tries to keep up with her brother and has made huge progress towards swimming without buoyancy. She has also been making lots of Vietnamese friends who ply her with food, attention and get her involved in their fun and games. It is lovely watching both kids play with local kids despite the language barrier... What barrier?!

Will ordering another crocodile keebab!

The resident DJ plays nice house music all through the afternoon;

Wave your hands in the air... if you want to eat crocodile!