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Published: January 1st 2010
Happy new year! We got to celebrate it 15 hours before most of you reading this in the States. So we win!
Nha Trang has been really fun so far, starting with the trip here. Instead of taking a boring ol' bus from Da Lat to Nha Trang, we decided to ride bicycles. You actually don't bike the whole way - the trip starts and ends in a minibus. The biking portion is 70 km, with the last 34 km being ALL downhill.
We left Da Lat at 7:30 am and rode in the minibus for about an hour before stopping to get on the bikes. Steph and I were the only two people doing the trip besides the guide on a bike plus the driver of the minibus. We put our backpacks and stuff in the minibus, which also had water and food for the trip.
The first 36 km were pretty challenging. Somehow we both thought that the whole ride was going to be downhill, since Da Lat is at 1500 m elevation and Nha Trang is at sea level. But the first half of the trip seemed like it was mostly UPhill. Whaat? Our guide didn't bother going at our slow pace so usually he would wait at the top of each hill along with the minibus. There were a few long, fun downhills though, and the scenery was beautiful so we were not complaining. Well at least not right away. Neither of our seats were very comfortable, so we were definitely grumbling about that after a while. The hardest part of the ride was a 7 km uphill that just kept getting steeper and steeper. About 2 km from the top steph realized she had the option of taking the minibus up, so she did just that. I made it up eventually.
Then came the really fun part. 34 km downhill, amazing mountains with literally dozens of small waterfalls along the way. There was maybe one 1/2 mile long flat section where we had to pedal, but otherwise it was all downhill. Good road, too, with banked curves. Highly recommended. At the bottom of the hill we ate lunch at a nice little riverside restaurant before getting back in the minibus for the rest of the trip. Our guide gave us two keychains with little knitted shoes on them to remember him by. Uh, thanks... I don't know what that has to do with biking.
Our first full day in Nha Trang, we just explored the town and went "hotel shopping" (as steph called it). There are so many options here, and most of them are actually really nice and cheap. We found ourselves a pretty awesome place with a fridge, AC, TV, balcony with ocean view, for $12 USD. And of course we tried out a bunch of different restaurants, surveyed the Pho spots, walked on the beach, mentally noted where the baguette stands were, that kind of thing.
The next day we went on a "4 islands one day" cruise, which pretty much everybody seems to do. It is a great deal, only $7, and it was totally worth it. We snorkeled, went to an aquarium, laid on the roof of the boat, ate good food (steph would argue there), and saw 4 islands. Highly recommended.
The day after that we went scuba diving. It is way cheaper here than in Thailand - almost half the price. Not quite as many fish as in Thailand, but in my opinion the coral is better. We did the standard 2 dives off a boat, around one of the islands we had already seen the previous day. We did see lots of lionfish and a giant scorpion fish (both are poisonous to the touch), needlefish, a barracuda, trumpetfish, etc. etc. Probably my favorite thing was this type of soft coral that puts out little brightly colored christmas tree shaped things that retract quickly if you get close. Pretty weird.
Yesterday was new years eve so we just hung out at the beach and waited for the festivities to start. From talking to people we found out that the Sailing Club is the place to be for the new year. It is a bar on the sand - pretty nice, but too pricey to spend the whole evening. So we started at another bar called Why Not and made some friends at the table next to us before we all walked down to Sailing Club at maybe 11:20 pm. The Sailing Club delivered as promised, they had good music and a good dance floor on the sand. I was wearing board shorts so I went for a swim to start out 2010. Really fun night, I think we picked a good spot for new years.
There's still a lot of stuff we want to do in Nha Trang, so it looks like we'll be here for a few more days at least. I'm not sure where we're headed next. Probably stay in vietnam for a while longer, and then head to either the Philippines or Laos. We also want to go to Malaysia and hopefully Indo before we come back. It is looking more and more like new zealand won't happen on this trip; there's just so much we still want to do in southeast asia.
Here's some pics from the bike ride and Nha Trang:
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Aunt Janet
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Happy New Year
Hi Gabe & Stephanie, I finally caught up with your expedition by reading all Gabe's entries from China to January in Vietnam. Seems to be a heavy rivers and waterfalls theme in much of the journey. Thanks for the interesting descriptions and few photos and videos. We just enjoyed having Kate, Jef & baby John here for the holiday with Tom's sister Janice also arriving and three Garrisons - Hannah, Meg & Joe - passing through to visit with Nutters, Lowrys and Andreasens plus Ellinor (Swedish exchange student in Jane's room this year) and Jane's new boyfriend, Avery, from Minnesota and also a freshperson at Earlham College. I guess my new year's resolution that I'll keep is keeping up with your travels. Sure hope Mary & Ed get a chance to visit you. Now on to Stephanie's blog.