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Published: February 23rd 2006
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On Feb 18 (Saturday) -- we were still in Dalat. We spent the evening walking in the market area of town, where they close off cars and motorbikes. There were a lot of tourists, mostly Vietnamese, probably from Saigon. It is nice to see the people from the same country who are able to enjoy their vacations, and not just see foreigners, as in some places in Thailand.
On Feb 19 (Sunday) -- We checked out of our guesthouse and took a bus ride from Dalat to Nha Trang. It took about 6 hours. On the way, we stopped at "Muon Ngoc Pass", where we can overlook the narrow road that we are going to take. The view is spectacular. The bus ride was comfortable.
We reached Nha Trang in the early afternoon. Nha Trang is a beach resort, with many hotels and guesthouses. The beach has beautiful white sand. Similar to Mui Ne beach, the winds are high and strong at this time of the year.
We checked into a $5 mini-hotel (with 8 rooms). The room has a TV, ensuite bath and hotwater !!! This is the first time we have a TV in our room for the last 3 months. So, we sat down and enjoyed some TV viewing, and saw part of the third round of the Nissan Golf Open. (We stayed here for 4 nights and watched many English language movies).
Nha Trang is famous for its snorkelling boat trips. The snorkelling is not spectacular, but the whole experience is supposedly quite impressive. So, we booked a boat trip for the next day with "Mama Linh" for less than $6.
On Feb 20 (Monday) -- In the morning, we get picked up by a van at the guesthouse to go onto the Mama Linh boat trip. There were about 40 people on the boat, with about 15 Vietnamese, a few Australians, some from Denmark, UK, France, Italy, Germany and Finland. The boat will visit 4 islands.
At around 10 am, we reached the first island and did a little bit of snorkelling. The water is rather cold but clear, and the snorkelling is nice, but not spectacular. We paid 5000 Dong each (about US 30 cents) for "Environment Protection", but did nt see any efforts by the government to protect the environment.
After about 1 hour, we headed off to the next island and have lunch (included in ticket price). We had some shrimp spring rolls, vegetable soup, vermicelli, egg noodle with fried beef, bananas and bread.
After lunch, entertainment starts. The boat crew, who were also cooks, are also musicians. They play the guitar, drums and sang for us. They asked each of us our nationality and sang a song of each country (in their respective language). Wow ! Their efforts are really appreciated.
After the entertainment, the "Happy Hour" began. One of the boat crew took 8 bottles of Dalat Mulberry Wine and sat on a ring, floating on the water. If you want to drink, you have to get into the water. We jumped in, and have a few small glasses of wine, decorated with a piece of pineapple. It was fun.
At around 2 pm, we started heading off to the third island. It is a island with a very small beach, but with some motorized water sports, like parasailing and jetski. We paid 5000 Dong to get onto the island and just rested for a while. When we got back to the boat, the boat crew laid out different kinds of fruit for us.
At around 3:30 pm, we head off to the fourth island where there is a sea aquarium. The admission is 20,000 Dong (about US$1.25). It is a small aquarium, but with some huge fish and sea turtles. It was a nice tour.
At around 4:30, we headed back to the harbour and were taken back by mini-bus to our guesthouse. It was a wonderful day. We decided to go on another boat trip again.
On Feb 21 (Tuesday) --
When we were in Mui Ne, we saw a picture of the pictureque salt fields near Nha Trang. So, we wanted to take advantage of the photo opportunity. We rented a motorbike (for under $4) and started to look for the salt fields. We do not have clear directions.
Motorbiking in Nha Trang is not like motorbiking in Saigon. In Saigon, we dare not rent a motorbike to go anywhere, even walking to cross the street is dangerous. In Nhang Trang, there are fewer people, but in some sections of town, there is still a lot of traffic, especially where there are traffic circles.
Our destination is about 30 kilometers north of town. However, somehow, we took a wrong turn and travelled south of town for about 20 kilometers before we realized we were on the wrong direction. We headed back north. Regardless, the ride is nice, and we travelled along the coast and saw some fishing villages. It took us about 4 hours to reach the first salt fields. We realize the salt field farmers have just directed the sea water into the fields, and therefore the scenes here are not as spectacular as those on the postcards.
We kept going for a little bit more and then turned back. We reached our guesthouse in Nha Trang at around 5 pm.
On Feb 22 (Wednesday)
As we had such a wonderful time on Tuesday, we booked another boat trip, this time with a different operator (Hahn Cafe). The boat trip is pretty similar, although the entertainment is a tad of lower quality. Instead of the sea aquarium, this boat trip visited some floating fishing village where the fishermen keep their fish in cages, supported by floats. The fishermen live on the floats.
On Feb 23 (Thursday, today)
We checked out of the hotel at noon. We will take the overnight bus to Hoi An, our next destination.
We are now taking advantage of the afternoon to update our travel journal and look at some of the photograghs that Gary had taken.
Our next journal entry should be written after we reach Hoi An.
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Wallace Cheong
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$
Am I reading this dollar figure in your trip correctly? It seems things are obscenely expensive in North America.