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Published: March 16th 2012
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Nha Trang is a beautiful city and the beach capital of Vietnam. Mountains lie behind the city and the beach stretches for kilometres along the coast. The water is clear blue from the beach out to meet the islands facing the city. It almost looks like the whole bay is enclosed by green hills, just heavenly!
Nha Trang is also a place to chill, party and meet others who are either coming down from Hanoi or up from Saigon, all on the coastal route that is now becoming one of my favourite of all the countries.
We spent four nights here and the place sort of seduced us. Between relaxing to planning our route into Laos, figuring out Vietnamese visa issues this place will still stand out as somewhere where it would be easy to go and live. We met lots of expats who are having the time of their lives there but I think if you were an addictive personality the alcohol fuelled lifestyle could suck you in and maybe not in a good way.
The nightlife here is one of the best so far with the bars being really lively,
everyone is in flying form after their day by the beach, on an island tour or after coming back from the booze cruise.
On our second night in Nha Trang we spontaneously got roped into the Booze Cruise. John was getting his hair chopped and I headed into the bar named Booze Cruise (funnily enough) and the next thing I know an American had enticed me to head out on a four hour cruise with all drink and food included in the price. I found John in a nice comfy position in the hair dressers after being powdered, approached with an old style razor blade looking a bit dazed but she did a good job, next thing I know we are on the boat!
It was brilliant fun, free drink (we didn’t know what was in most of it, even when you wanted to order a drink the bar maid would offer her surprise version). The people we met were a great laugh and it was an international boat to say the least with Scottish, welsh, swedes, Canadians, Australians, Irish, Americans, Indian and English. Everyone was in top form, the music was blasting and
the chat was flowing. The strangest part of the night was when two or three of the men decided they wanted to be butt naked and wear only life jackets. Ill not say too much but it was an hilarious two hours with them naked cruisers, the poor men on the boat were not impressed but it was fun and when the drink flowed the slagging continued. Still do not know why, never will!
The next day was tough, the hangovers I’m getting are worse and worse, I think age is now catching me and all the slagging I have done for others is going to come back and bite me big time. The next night we went out to watch the rugby and met Patrick from Wicklow (we had met him the night before but the memory of this was faint). We had a hilarious night with him, pub crawling around the city, meeting randomers and just having a laugh. I didn’t touch a drink; diet coke was all I could manage!
Nha Trang is the first time in Vietnam where prostitutes were more apparent. Some bars had them all together in the
corner, scoping out potential punters. The one thing I notice is that as friendly as they are to the men (yes they just approach westerners); I get dagger looks or get blanked. I presume it’s because I am potential removing the chance of them getting lucky with John, he he.
We did a great boat tour on our last day in Nha Trang. We visited the islands in the bay. Our first stop was at the aquarium. Probably one of the best ones I have been too. The fish/marine life they had there were cool and nothing I’ve seen before. Massive fish, turtles, a range of sharks. A few of the photos should give you an idea!
Next we headed to another island where we did some snorkelling around the coral. That was nice but it was really busy so it ruined it slightly. Off to a fish farm next. That was interesting because you could have bought a fish and had it cooked for your lunch if you wanted! Some of the fish were again, ones I haven’t seen before. It was a good thing to see too as it is very different
from farms at home, there are lots of little farms all huddled together in the bay, like a community.
While stopped here we were served a nice lunch and there was party time where the crazy Vietnamese guides on our boat and another boat led an improvisation party with all the nationalities on the boats. It was a great laugh, people were really giving it a go, singing and dancing. The highlight was definitely a Swedish man in his late 50s getting up, singing a song and doing this cringe dance while his wife was clearly not impressed!
After our improv party we had the coolest thing of all, a floating bar! Basically we all jumped off the boats and were given rings and a bar man with drinks served us wine. Pretty cool; a new concept that could easily take off in Ireland I reckon! Pity it’s too bloody cold….
Next we headed to the final beach, a secluded place facing the city with deck chairs in the shade. John and I did some swimming out to a pontoon, the water was really clear, like out of a travel brochure.Unfortunately,
all our gallivanting into and out of the water meant we got a bit burned especially on our backso we were pretty wrecked that evening and were in bed early…..
The biggest trip of all is ahead, we will travel for a few days to get to Laos. First a 20hour train up the coast to Vinh then either a bus or stay the night there to go to Vientiane, the capital. This should be fun……….
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