Vietnam - The lowest point

I think when you are in a foreign country, sometimes it is best to do as the locals are doing. This is what I kept telling my friend over and over again one afternoon in Nha Trang before I reached the lowest point of my holiday...

I am usually quite calm and easy going, but I reached my boiling point in Nha Trang City - probably assisted by the fact the temperature was in the high 30's and humidity was in the 80% range so I didn't have to go that far to literally boil.

It was peak temperature at around 12 - 1pm and instead of heading for the beach, the pool, the shade, the comfort of an air-conditioned room, my friend decided this would be the perfect time to walk a few kilometres and go shopping.

Now, anyone who has ever been to Vietnam will realise that during the afternoon and peak heat it is not 'shopping time', it is more like 'lets get the hell out of this heat' time. Locals all go inside and nap, the streets are deserted and every now and then you see stupid western tourists walking around thinking why it is so quiet and sweating from head to toe. This day, we were those stupid tourists.

My friend wandered from shop to shop, each time walking in and waking all the staff who were all napping on the floors. After doing this for the fourth time I tried to state the obvious that 12 - 1pm was in fact not a great time to go shopping and that it was quite apparent that everyone was sleeping because in the extreme heat it was probably the smartest thing to do. My words fell on deaf ears and we continued on our merry way. If merry means covered in sweat, thirsty and overheated.

I was starting to reach my limit in one particular shop, after she tried on bikini after bikini and I decided to stand outside as even though it was over 35 degrees outside, it was even hotter and more stifling inside. However a new element had been added to the heat and humidity and it started to get quite windy. I was absolutely miserable and feeling sorry for myself when a big gust came, blowing a garbage bag into me, over my leg and depositing a lovely large pool of liquified garbage juice on my feet. Not just any garbage juice, lovely fruit peel plus used tea bags and tissues - oh no this was Vietnamese garbage juice, god knows what was in there but oh my it REEKED.

I barrelled into the shop and demanded that we leave and, thinking it couldn't get any worse while I was walking back to the hotel surrounded in my garbage juice stench, I made the quick decision that I would run into the beach to wash the offending stench off my feet. In my frustration I also dropped my lovely leather sandals into the water and they will forever smell of the stench of garbage plus the saltiness of the Vietnamese beaches.

The moral of this story is simply, do as the locals do - and for gods sake just because you need to sightsee and do touristy things doesn't mean that you can't take a midday break when it is the most sensible thing to do.

Hot empty streets and the lone tourist