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Published: August 8th 2007
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Village just off Nha Trang
Crystal clear waters and beautiful colours. The Overnight train from Saigon This was to be our first of 3 overnight train journeys, travelling from south to north Vietnam. We waited at the station with some trepidation at what our bed for the night might look like and, more to the point, how bad were these trains going to be? We'd come fully armed with snacks, drinks and our new gastronomic discovery, the fresh spring rolls from Saigon (Blog:
Playing chicken with the traffic in Saigon). We'd been warned off the on-board food...the tone of our local guide's warning was enough for us to heed it. The last thing you want is to have a dodgy tummy and only have a train toilet (actually, a hole in the floor) for relief!
As the train pulled up, the moment of truth arrived. The trains were average, not too bad - although apparently this was a newer one! The cabins were for 4 people, complete with bedding - although the blankets were more like thin curtains. The cabins do have locks, which made everyone feel a little more secure. We'd be sharing with Matt and Victoria, with us couples designated to one cabin, Mary and Sarah in the cabin next door with Quan. We
The beach at Nha Trang
Watch out for the touts! all gathered in our cabin for a chat and some card games, although Quan was still not feeling too good, so bunked up in the neighbouring cabin. Matt insisted we looked familiar - he was sure he'd seen us before somewhere. Both he and Victoria had done an almost identical route to us, via Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Thailand, so it was likely we'd crossed paths somewhere. We soon worked out we'd actually been at the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur queuing on the same morning (blog:
Kuala Lumpur / Malaysian F1 Grand Prix). Some good laughs and a few card games later, it was time to attempt some sleep. Again, as the train rocked, rolled and clunked its way up to Nha Trang, the decent ear plugs were a godsend - probably the single most important item we had brought with us for our travels. We all managed a few hours sleep. The 10 hour journey had actually been a lot of fun, but that had everything to do with the company, our fellow travellers.
Nha Trang Arriving at 6:30am into far too much liveliness at the station for my liking at that hour, we were able to check into our hotel without
issue. Despite not sleeping as badly as we'd feared on the train, we were still a bit lacking, so took the opportunity to get an hours sleep in, on a proper bed before an excursion.
It was another sweltering day in Vietnam. We caught a boat from Cau Da dock to one of the islands just off Nha Trang. This was my first time on a boat since the disaster that was the Whitsundays...but I wasn't going to be on it long enough to turn green. We soon stopped to board a bamboo raft to the shore. Waiting for the rafts to pull up alongside us gave us a moment to take in our colourful surroundings; the primary colours of the blue sky and red, blue and white painted boats shimmered in the crystal clear sea. As Sally, Victoria, Matt and Quan tentatively boarded the first little bamboo raft, fitting 6 of them onboard, I began to wish I'd learnt to swim in case the rickety craft capsized! It was fine though - apart from then locals that paddled us to land being fairly insistant on getting more money out of us.
The walking tour through the island
was fairly unnoteworthy, save for a glimpse of how the locals live on this fishing island. We soon emerged out the other side, then caught the boat out to swimming and snorkelling waters. This was then followed by a couple of hours sunbathing on another island, but by now it was almost too hot to be in the sun. A pretty forgettable trip all in all.
Nha Trang itself is unashamedly a beach resort, but not one that has yet become too commercialised - although it is trying hard. The beach is beautiful, but it does have a plentiful supply of touts. We didn't find these too annoying though. The town is well equiped with good restaurants, bars and shops. It is impossible to walk around town without being bombarded with more fliers for bars and restaurants than you can carry.
A group mud bath Easily the most memorable moment for us in Nha Trang, was our trip up to the Spa on the outskirts of Nha Trang where the 6 of us decided to go for a group mud bath! We'd never had a mud bath before, so didn't know quite what to expect. As the pool
filled up and submerged the 6 of us in goo, this certainly wasn't any ordinary mud. I'm not entirely sure where it had been sourced from, but ignorance was definitely bliss. Several showering downs later, I headed off for a massage. This was pretty good, although not as good as the $6 massage on the beach in Sihanoukville (Blog:
Sihanoukville) and I really didn't fancy the sauna at the end - it was sweltering enough outside. Rather sensibly, none of us fancied getting our cameras caked in mud, so there are no photos, which is a bit of a shame. All in all, if it's too hot to sunbathe on the beach, this is a great half day out. We were now ready to face our second overnight train journey!
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