Vietnam - Nha Trang and Mui Ne

Nha Trang


Off we went to get the dreaded sleeper bus again!! This time we had got a right result and were seated at the front on a newer version of the bus. This meant we had a lot more leg room and we were very happy about the 12 hour journey ahead. Unfortunately, with this added room came a lot more space to move, and the bus drivers out here take corners at stupid speeds which meant we were being thrown around all over the place. Luckily due to the inability to sleep we got to see the most beautiful sunrise over the mountains - well worth it.
We arrived in Nha Trang at about 8am- 2 hours late as usual, and went off to find our self a hotel - finialy deciding on St Paul hotel. Nha Trang is a beach resort with copious hotels and bars set up for western drinking carnage. A bit like the Costa del Sol of Vietnam. We headed off to get some food and have a wander. Ended up in lovely bar on the beach called the Louisiane Brewery. They brewed their own beers which was good, I made my way through their list while Zo decided to go for the passion fruit beer - surprisingly nice! We headed back to the hotel to put on our Speedo’s because the bar had a swimming pool and you could get a lounger on the beach as well. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the crazy heat, drinking some more beeros and cocktails. That evening we met up with Steve and Roberta at ‘Why not bar?’ for a few drinks - got pretty out of hand and ended up in the Sailing Club drinking buckets of cocktails, B52s and attempting to play drunken pool. The first time the girls got close to beating us!

The next day was a huge right off as I had the hangover from hell - must have been the red bull was what I kept telling myself. We headed off down the beach where I slept on a lounger all day, very boring for Zo! Met up with the guys again that eve but they were hanging as well so had a couple of beers and headed off to bed early before our busy day ahead. Up nice an early and got a cab to the Alexandre Yersin Museum - it profiles the life of the swiss-french scientist who travelling to SEA in 1889 as a ship’s doctor. He was responsible for the founding of Da Lat (place in Vietnam). He discovered the plague vaccine in Hong Kong and founded the institute in Nha Trang which is still active today. We then got a taxi to take the cable car across the water to Vinpearl. Vinpearl is a luxury 5 star resort on an island 2 miles off Nha Trang, costing $70mil to build and has the largest pool in SEA. The guy who owns it is Vietnamese and lives in the Ukraine - supposedly he is Vietnamese mafia and uses it as a way to launder money - that’s what we were told anyway!! We got to the cable car, which is the longest cable car going over open water - again costing about $17mil to build. It takes about 15 mins to cross and was quite scary for me due to the height. We arrived at Vinpearl where they have also built a theme park and a water park. It was like going to a empty Disney!! There was nobody there. We went to the aquarium which was amazing, you go round on an airport baggage carousel watching all the fish and sharks. Zo shat her pants when a massive stingray went over us - very funny! We played on the free arcade, bumper cars and rides and walked down loads of stairs to the water park. It was massive with about 20 slides and a wave pool. It was empty too! We played around for a few hours, in the lazy river and I have never seen someone laugh as much as Zo did on the wave machine. So much so, that it still hurts her to laugh now! We walked back towards the cable car passed the 5000 seater amphitheatre with movable stage and realised we were going to have to climb a lot of stairs to get back. I said to Zo jokingly - I hope they have put an escalator in the side of the mountain - as we get round the corner, the escalor comes into sight. Result! We then got drawn into watching a horrible talent show with dogs and monkeys. They were treated so badly and obviously didn’t want to do it so Zo and I left and got the cable car back as the sunset!

Next day we were up early again to go for a boat trip. Taken out on a boat with a load of westerners with our guides - Funky Monkey and Bar bell. Very funny guys and cracked us up with their broken English jokes! We stopped off at the first island to see an aquarium - no way near as good as yesterdays. Got back on the boat and moored up to have swim. The water was so warm but forgot how hard it is to tread water!! Back on the boat and that was when the boy band came out. Funky monkey and the deck hands came out and nailed some classic songs - savage guitarist, Eddie van halen eat your heart out. Very funny and then they started to call people up from different nations to sing songs that represented them. Who got called up from England, no other than our own Zoe Russ. She had to sing The Bangles, Eternal Flame - was brilliant. We then got up on the seat, ducking so we didn’t hit out heads, and danced away to la bumba, sung buy the Spanish girl! The band was the highlight of the trip. The boat stopped again for happy hour and we all jumped in, we were given rubber rings and off to drink at the floating bar. Free rice wine cocktail for everyone and you had to down yours if you said ‘No.’ Good laugh except for a Aussie twat! Back on the boat a bit more tipsy and off to one more beach for an hour. This was where Zo did parasailing - she wasn’t up for long but loved every second. She’s going to do it again when we get to New Zealand but guessing it won’t be as cheap. Back on the boat and back to land to have a quiet eve before our early bus.

Mui Ne

Up early for our 7.30am bus to Mui Ne - a luxury beach resort town where people tend not to leave their resorts. The bus was a sleeper bus for a day journey which was a bit uncomfortable. We got to Mui Ne at about 1pm and Zo went off to look for some cheap accommodation - hard task in this town. She managed to find some and we got in our hotel just before the heavens opened. Not much to do in a beach town in the rain. Went for as few drinks at Sankara, very pretentious and full of western staff drinking all the profits while the Vietnamese staff work their arses off. Didn’t stay for long and went to chill at hotel before going for dinner and then a few more drinks at Jibes with an English and an Irish couple we had met in Nha Trang.

Up earlish to see if it was raining because if so we were going to get the bus today. Beautifully sunny and hot so went to get some brekkie. Bought some dirt cheap Abercrombie shorts, both of us. We got a moto taxi out to the sand dune, pretty much the only interesting thing to do and went sand boarding in the dunes. Great fun except the kids who lend you the boards were a pain and asking for more money! Got back and chilled for a bit in a hotel with the best air con, then the heavens opened and we were glad we were leaving the next day, nothing worse than being at a beach town in the rain!! Headed off for dinner and more drinks. Up early for our bus to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon to locals like us!!!

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