Nha Trangski

Bit of a slow day today. Had a late breakfast; this is obviously a bit of a businessman's hotel, because there's a lot more native food available for breakfast.

We waited for the rain to ease off before heading out for a walk down the beach. Jonah elected to stay in the hotel and do teenage things. We bought some ponchos from a tour booking place - one for everybody. They're a bit fragile but hopefully they'll last more than a day.

Stopped in at The Sailing Club for an espresso while the boys expended some energy kicking a ball about. The prices there are pretty steep but cheaper than home. It's a bit of a walk, but we might start using their toilets instead of the hotel's - they have voice activated flushes that even understand Australian. Bit of a contrast to the cardboard walled huts in Sapa (where apparently it's snowing now).

Headed back to the main drag for lunch, which was our cheapest yet. $3.50 for pork rolls and some sticky rice for five from a street side stall.

One oddity is the number of shops and hotels bearing poorly faked snow. We can't work out whether this is for Christmas, or to make the Russians feel at home. There are heaps of Russians here, puffing their smoky way around the streets; unfortunately a lot of the Russian women insist on wearing bikinis.
Most restaurants have Russian and English versions of their menus. I guess this must be some hang over from the time when the USSR was one of the only countries left supporting the communist regime.

One benefit of that communist regime is that there are obviously not a lot of lawyers here. The pavements around here are dotted with pot holes and ankle twisting angles that would bankrupt an Australian council through public injury claims.

The girls went out in the arvo for a $3 pedicure. Ruby was cured for nothing and still managed to have flowers painted on her big toes.

The kids jumped in the pool later after another kick around on the beach. The pool was freezing and had waves on it from the wind.

Went out for dinner to Salina Restaurant. Bit of a long walk in the rain but it looked promising when we passed it in the morning.  Unfortunately it didn't live up to the promise. The service was pretty bad and they messed our order up and tried to charge us for things we didn't have. All worked out well in the end. We figured it must be a money laundering front for the russian mafia. 

Stopped off for some Italian ice cream on the way back to the hotel and found a really cool t-shirt shop with excellent quality shirts: Ginkgo.

Apparently there's a mid season sale on from tomorrow, so we're going back to buy then.

Heading off for some mud baths in the morning, which should be fun; hopefully we won't be sharing a tub with a bunch of Russians.