Waterslides and electricity at Nha Trang

---

We have spent the last four days in the beach side town of Nha Trang. It is much busier than Quy Nhon but nice all the same. We did have an interesting trip via mini-bus to get here. We have found travelling around Vietnam to be quite easy and safe but this time our trip lived up to some of the stuff that we have read in Lonely Planet. It didn’t start off too well when we were dropped off at the bus station. Before we could turn around and get our stuff out of the back of the car the driver had taken off. Fortunately the bus station was also the main area for our car so we found the driver easily out the back and got him to drive around to our bus. Then we met our bus driver. Generally people in Vietnam are very, very polite and friendly. Well this bloke is an exception. He was not too pleased when he saw that we had bags. Initially he said there was no room (when we looked at the other passengers who were all locals, we noticed they didn’t have any bags) but then decided that we could chuck them in the back, and chuck them in the back he did. It is possible that a person could have rammed the bags in more forcefully than this bloke but they would have had to have been built like the proverbial outhouse (see Green Lantern I can keep it clean for the Banshees). Now we were told that this trip would take about 5 hours and in fact many locals told us it would in fact take 6. However it only took 4 hours. Generally this is a good thing but not at the expense of life and limb. This bloke took off like a shot, probably needed new brakes within about 5 kilometres the way he was punishing them, and wasn’t afraid of overtaking at excessive speed. The only time he got even close to the speed limit was when there were cops around (not too many of them out in the sticks mind you). When we went through the mountains we had to close our eyes on quite a few occasions. Apparently over taking on a blind corner in the mountains is perfectly ok. Who cares if a truck is coming the other way with a few hundred tonnes of rock on the back of it? There was more than one occasion when there wasn’t much more than a prawn shell between us and another (generally larger) vehicle. Fortunately it got dark with the last hour to go so we missed a quarter of the near misses. Now I only gave this fast, bumpy and seat of the pants trip a CF of 3 but by looking at the faces of the locals this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. In fact they were stocked to be in an hour early. Suffice to say when we were offered the opportunity to use this company again to get our next destination I just laughed, told them the drivers were crazy and got a ticket with another company.

Nha Trang is very much a place for fun in the sun. It is all about getting the beach, catching a few rays and doing a lot of the different water sports on offer. It is probably the largest concentration of backpackers I have seen during my time in Vietnam so far. Still we are not harassed by touts really at all. Because of a greater amount of backpackers it is easier to find things written in English in the hotel district. Also what it has meant is a huge range of choices in accommodation and eating establishments. Not only is there more restaurants and cafes than you can poke a stick at, the quality of the food is unbelievable. Then through in the ridiculously low prices and it is a glutens paradise. The quality of the seafood is the best that I have had, anywhere, period. There is also a huge range of quality food from Vietnamese, to Italian, Indian, Mexican and more. Every time we think we have found a new favourite restaurant we come across another little gem. We even came across a fairly good red wine from Dalat right here in Vietnam. There is even a top quality brewhouse with great tasting locally made beer. This place really is giving anything available in Thailand and Bali a run for its money. For a holiday in the sun and the surf this place really would get a CF of 8. Now if only we could keep it hush, hush and keep all those pesky tourists away.

We discovered an Island just off the coast that is a giant water fun park. Well it really wasn’t that hard considering the giant “Vin Pearl” moniker on the mountain side the size of the ‘Hollywood’ sign. Anyway we organised our tickets a caught the 10min cable car ride across to the island. Once you were in everything except for food and drinks were included. They even have a resort over there. Being a Tuesday, and with school back in session it was basically deserted, except for western tourists. If there were a hundred I would have been surprised. This lull in activity was both good and bad. Good because you didn’t have to line up for rides, bad because many were having maintenance done. Now you might be thinking that just because maintenance was being done a ride could not be operating, think again. You might also be thinking that just because you were using electrical equipment on a waterslide it would have to be shut down, well think again. Let me paint the picture for you. We went on the ‘Family slide’, you know the one where the family that plays together, dies together. Anyway basically you have a giant tube that fits in six people and you all go down together. Generally you roll your tube to the base of the steps, hook it to a crane and get it at the top and then slide down. However the crane was broken. So you had to roll it up about 30m of very step stairs. At the top, after ducking under and jumping over electrical cables you had to get past the arc welders to get your tube in. Is it just me but is it not really a good idea to have extension cords next to an operating water slide, better still if you did have to have electrical cables there you would probably make sure that they were in tip top shape and not have exposed wires. Still it gets better. For those of you who know anything about welding you know that you have to earth it to metal to make it work. So of course why not use the metal platform that everyone is walking on for that particular technicality. Also when you weld it does cause a bit of sparking and throwing off of hot metal. So do you think there was a protective shield? Nope. Do you think that the welders stopped as you went past their welding? Nope. At one stage we were below the welding and both myself and my 6 year old got hit by casts off of the welding. Fortunately we were near all that water to cool off (fortunately it wasn’t electrified either). Now the sensible thing to do would have been to give this particular ride a miss, but the honest truth was that it was too much fun so we did it a couple of times. What’s the worst that could have happened? A free first class trip home thanks to our good travel and life insurance maybe. For those of you who can remember the ‘Paul Hogan’ show you can just picture Leo Wanker up there set up a stunt, getting his own groin with the welder and then his assistant running in with the fire extinguisher. Seriously Vin Pearl was a great day out and the kids loved it. So it does get a CF of 7 for fun, but probably only a CF of 2 for safety.

---

Photos

Nha Trang sunrise
Early morning at the beach is just beautiful. It is also a time when many locals are out and about socialising, exercising and getting ready for the day.

Morning exercise
Tai Chi is a very common form of exercise here in Vietnam, especially with the older folks.

Morning peak hour traffic
It can be interesting to cross the roads during peak times. But as the Penguins of Madagascar say, "Smile and wave boys, just smile and wave".

Of course the cable car is safe
Not everyone thinks a 10min cable car ride 120 feet up over the ocean is fun. Still what is the worst that can happen?

Holding up the cable car
I know it has been used thousands of times before, but......

Vin Pearl
Vin Pearl Land, Nha Trangs answer to Disneyland. A lot of fun to be had, even with live electrical cables and arc welding.