Nha Trang? Nah!

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Boat trip Dear reader,

in between uni work I am grabbing the opportunity to continue the story... As you remember from the last blog entry (Dune), we were in Mui Ne i South Vietnam and had just jumped on the bus to Nha Trang, a ride that was extremely uncomfortable. That's what you get for going with the cheap and easy option, that is, a bus that comes to your resort and pick you up and costs 4 dollars! However, for more comfort, it might be a better option to get a minibus but at a higher price and a bit more organising efforts.

Nha Trang is a beach. Yes, it is a city of about 300 000 people, but you don't go there for the city itself, you go there for the 6 kilometres of beach with turquoise water, for fishing, snorkelling, or scuba diving, and to eat lobster or scallops cooked in front of you while you're resting in your sunbed with an icecold beer. However, is that really so fantastic? Nah!

Having lived in Australia since 2000, I need more than just sun and water - like a surfboard, for example. To Remi's and Anne-Line's great surprise, and my own, I left them to their sunbeds and went for a run down the beach and back before swimming a lap or two. I then went back to the others and Remi and I bought some wonderful king prawns in lime pepper sauce! They were clearly overpriced, even after haggling, but who cares just then. A good life indeed.

The next day we went on a boat trip to some of the many islands off Nha Trang. This is definitely worthwhile doing, compared to just slacking around at the beach. On the way, we passed a giant gondola that ran between the mainland and the nearest island. We never found out what it was for but an educated guess told us they were mining something on the island, maybe salt, and used the gondola to transport it back to the mainland.

The boat crew were a jolly bunch of people, and after we stopped and had a great lunch with different kinds of seafood and beef, they cleared the tables and set up a a little stage. They then continued to perform a few songs for us, like CCR's Proud Mary and Scott McKenzie's San Franciso, with the captain on an electric guitar, the first man playing on a very improvised drum set, the chef dressed with coconut tits keeping the rhythm, and the guide doing the singing! It was hilarious, and when they started playing La Bamba, all the passengers joined in on the tables, dancing and singing along!

We also did another stop to do a bit of snorkeling. There were some nice corals and fish but the visibility was only so-so. Remi and I took the opportunity instead to do a few dives and backflips off the boat to impress the girls on board, however, none of them seemed to notice - or maybe it was just our lack of style... Or maybe I am being too modest, because we later stopped for a drink in 'the bar.' "So where is the bar," someone asked, and the guide just gestured towards the water. There, one of the boat men were sitting nice and relaxed in a floater with a case of wine bottles between his legs. "Jump in!" we were told, and so we did. Everybody except myself (I managed by treading the water) got their own floater and gathered around the 'barman,' who filled up everybody's glasses with strong 18% red wine almost as quickly as he filled up his own glass. It didn't take long until all of us had turned into happy faces, and some British girls now dared to approach us even if Anne-Line did her best to mark 'her territory!' Ok, I might be exaggerating... but just a little bit!

We later went to a beach on an island were you could visit an aquarium. According to the Lonely Planet, this 'aquarium' is more of a fish farm and not really recommended to visit, so we just sat on the beach before returning back to Nha Trang a little later.

At night we went searching for night life, but do yo think we found any? Nah! Keeping the faith though, Remi and Anne-Line decided to stay for a few more days to explore the supposedly great nightlife and get some sun (in my opinion, at this time, Ms. Pink should perhaps cover herself inside a space suit and avoid sun altogether after her little mishap in Mui Ne), whereas I decided to go see some culture by visiting Hoi An, Hue, and the Demilitarized Zone. We would then meet again in Hanoi later. Thus, I jumped on a night bus to Hoi An, which once again, you guessed it, had plastic seats and poor air conditioning...

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