If its NhaTrang, then it must be right.

So in Nha Trang, a medium sized Vietnamese town/city more than 10 000 km from Glasgow, you wouldn't expect to run into many weegie, would you? But when I got up in the morning, in the bunk above me was Lisa, a girl from Clydebank I'd met in Hanoi (OK, technically dubious whether this is Glasgow, but bear with me). The two of us went a wander to see what there was to see in the town. If I'm honest, the answer is very little.



Nha Trang looks to be a town where the tourists live on the beach (or under the sea as its 'nam's diving capital) Neither of these have much appeal when there are warning signs all along the front telling us to stay out of the water. So somewhat deflated we returned to our hotel to claim the free drinks we were promised.( As an aside I don't deliberately stay places where they offer free booze, it just happens)



Now I'm not sure if the choice of "Ghost Town" by The Specials was deliberate as we played pool in the empty bar (which has 8 staff and a sign asking for more) but it felt very apt. After the freebie and one of THE most manly cocktails I've ever had, we moved on to another bar, which promised free cocktails on entry and two for one spirits. Now we had a few hours here, during which I made spirited attempt to get the American - who has hijacked the music with his own Ipod - lynched by turning the Ipod to Born in The USA. He did his best to help my quest by whooping and air punching along, but sadly the Vietnamese were too laid back to care. At this point me, Lisa and a couple of Dutch guys we met moved on to the Sailing Club, where we met Carrie, another Glasgow girl (see told you I was going somewhere) that I had first met in Hue. The night flew in, and before long it was 2am and I was banging on the hostel door to be let in.



The next day went by with very little incident, except for two noteworthy events. The first of these was that I ate 3 full dinners. The offer to pay for a fourth was quickly withdrawn as I called for a menu. The second event was a story I was told by a guy called Ben, and of all the potential scams I've heard in South East Asia this ranks at number one. He was sitting in a bar, and got chatting to a girl who said she was half-Malaysian, Half-Philippine. She was living in Nha Trang with her uncle because her family had moved to America, but as she was over 21 she could not be on the same visa form. Her and Ben played a lot of pool, had a laugh and he asked her to go for a drink that evening. She declined but offered him lunch the next day. It turns out she wanted to cook for him so they went to her uncles place. The girl ate her meal quite quickly and excused herself, saying she needed to call her mum. This left Ben and her uncle alone together. Now, gamblers, you'll understand why I've tagged you in this note. I want views and opinions, both on what you would do, and where you think the catch is. Her uncle told Ben that he was the pit boss on a new floating casino opening later in the week. He then explained that all casinos in Vietnam are rigged as the house will choose people they believe to be compulsive gamblers to win, so that they will return and lose more than they were paid out. He went on to say that the casino was planning on dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on opening night so that it would appear to be a "lucky"casino. Then came the ruse. He suggested that Ben should take some of the uncles money, play tables and be one of the "lucky"winners. The uncle would OK this in his role as pit boss and Ben could leave. The money that they won ( the target was $40 000 - big enough, but not enough to be suspicious) would be split 75/25 in favour of the uncle. By the time I saw him, Ben had been thinking this over for 24 hours, and was saying he thought it was too risky, but was still off to meet the niece again. Unfortunately I didn't see him again so didn't get closure on how the story ended.



Having given it my own thought, I would have walked away from this. BUT there was a tiny part of me that would have liked to have gone for the big score. Booked the 8 am bus to Saigon, and an evening flight from Saigon to Kuala Lumpar, taken the whole $40 000 and run. I realise this means that I would probably not be able to go back to Vietnam, but if I was ripping off a casino - probably at least in part mafia run - then I'd be worried to go back anyway.



The next day I headed for Saigon, to meet Lisa and Saul - another guy from our dorm. There was glorious sun - after a week of clouds while I'd been at the beach. I think travel agents, by virtue of their bulk buy policy, book out entire cabins on these trains thus explaining why for the third journey in a row I''m the white guy wit huge bags in a carriage full of Vietnamese families, while the next carriage is full of white Westerners. Not that I mind - its an insight to Vietnamese life and the family I'm with are lovely. They don't speak any English, but this hasn't stopped the grandmother from talking to me for about ten minutes - in response to which I pull the black father Dougal face and look confused. The kid is pretty cute though - when he stops crying that is....