The place is run like a kind of camp where all your meals are included in the daily rate and everyone eats together. This was a new experience for Kate and I as we were used to doing our own thing, but the plus side is that you get to know all the people who are staying there. At the time we were there, there were about a dozen to fifteen people, many of whom were working in Vietnam as English teachers. A group of oldies from NZ were there for our first night and one of the old girls had actually lived two streets away from where I grew up in Christchurch, Edinburgh St represent! Most of the nights were spent drinking the 50 cent bottles of beer and yarning to the others staying there.
They also had a table tennis table and Jake and I had many good games of which I must confess I usually won. Full credit to Jake though, he finally did get one back off me on the last night, after about twenty beers and twenty straight games of trying!!
Jungle Beach also had another surprise in store, for me in particular. Surf! Alright so it wasn’t exactly Bells beach, but if you throw a starving man a morsel he’s going to think it was the best damn food he ever tasted and this kind of sums up how I felt. The waves were small and clean and there was certainly no-one other than Jake and I surfing. The only drawback was that the boards that the camp had would probably been rejected from a surf museum for being too old. They were just about unusable. ’Bertha’ the long board had a busted nose that would flap back and hit you in the head if you tried to duck dive and this board was the best of the bunch! Like I say, starving man and all that so I was out there anyway and I did have a lot of fun. It was actually very clean and surfable so I even got up for a ’dawny’ on the last day-around 8am! The only trouble was that due to Bertha’s poor state of health and her being basically toxic she gave me the worst rash on my chest and backs of my knees. Oh well, no complaints here, at least I managed to get about a hundred waves all to myself-stoked. On the last night Jake and I even got a night surf in the piss warm water of the South China Sea under a full moon which I must say was a pretty awesome experience.
Surfing aside there wasn’t a whole lot of activities to do other than chill on the beach under one of the camp’s special bamboo shade sails that some poor bloke had to set up on the sand each morning. The girls were definitely pretty happy with that but as usual I, and normally Jake too when he wasn’t chilling, needed a little more to keep me occupied. As luck would have it there was a nice waterfall complete with cliff jump about thirty minutes walk from the camp so off we went.
The first time we went to this place there was a group of about twenty or so Vietnamese people having picnics and, of course, a lot of beers for the men. The boys were pretty much smashed when we turned up and greeted us like long lost friends. In an instant I had a beer in my hand and a whole swag of new best friends to pose for pictures with. They were all very friendly, but it is a little sad to see that most of the beer cans and rubbish got turfed straight into the pool below the waterfall. Oh well, I guess conservation and protection of the local ecology hasn’t quite taken off in Vietnam amongst a lot of the locals yet, hopefully one day I suppose.
The waterfall was actually pretty sweet and you could swim right underneath it and let the water caress your big bald head and…well anyway, you get the picture. You could also scale up the rock wall and have a jump off a ledge about five metres above the pool. There was a jump a lot higher above the pool but in order to reach the jumping spot you had to climb over a rock that I, unfortunately, was just not nimble enough to get over. The locals however went up there like spider man and were literally raining down on the pool like a tropical afternoon shower.
We actually came back here the next day and met a group of kids that were the definition of rambunctious scamps. They dived, bombed, and laughed their way through the entire time we were there and took great delight in beating each over the head with a polystyrene chilly bin lid. Pieces of this they used as floatation devices to stay afloat as they weren’t the most competent swimmers but, unfortunately, all the broken pieces stayed in the water and floated down into the lower pools.
So Jungle beach was a pretty nice place to chill for a few days and we all had a nice time talking to all the other guests from around the place about their experiences teaching and/or travelling in Vietnam. After three nights it was once again to pack our bags, say good bye to new friends and move on. This time we didn’t have far to go as we had decide to go back to Nha Trang to stay for a couple nights. We had passed through on our way to Jungle Beach from Da Lat so we were keen to see what this well known amongst the locals tourist destination had to offer. Once again we were in for some surprises but more about that next time. ’Til then.
Strange insect or moth we found on our walk to the waterfall. There must have been at least 100 of these insects on the tree. Very stange!
Tim on the cliff {on the left} before his jump.
Tim and the little kids at the waterfall. They were having a fight with pieces of polystyrene. Many of the locals cannot swim so they use the polystryrene as a floating device.
Tim surfing.
Someone found this tiny green snake near or in their bungalow. It is very poisonous so the workers at the guesthouse killed the snake and then threw it into a nearby bush.
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