Nha Trang And Da Lat Via The Valley Of Love

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After a few hours sleep in the hotel our recent bus journey became something of a blurred memory. Like a nightmare. Only worse. We rose about 11am and set about deciding what to do in our new destination.

Nha Trang is a coastal resort of Vietnam that has the feel of a Mediterranean island. The people are friendlier, the food tastier, the booze a bargain (drink responsibly) and the hotels better value. In light of this we decided to put culture on hold for a few days and spent our first afternoon visiting the island resort of ‘Vinpearl’ by cable car. The cable car ride was over water and very scary. I’m not afraid of heights, but it nevertheless had Dave and I forming a contingency plan in the event of the car breaking from the cable and plummeting the 100m or so into the waters below (I don’t remember the exact details of the plan but it was something like ‘scream and then die’). Thankfully we didn’t need to call our decisive plan into action and were gladly reunited with land in the form of ‘Vinpearl’. I’m not altogether sure how best to describe it. Think Disneyland combined with Barry Island but set in Vietnam… and you’re pretty much there.

It had a waterpark, which we wandered through while listening to Westlife and the Backstreet Boys playing out of speakers disguised as mushrooms. Bit weird. We then went to the man-made beach and paddled and then onto the aquarium, which was brilliant! The best bit was standing on a level escalator (like the ones in airports for lazy people) and being taken through a glass tunnel with sharks and turtles and stingrays and countless fish swimming all around us. We tried to take some photos (Dave’s camera has an ‘aquarium’ setting don’t you know) but our subjects didn’t really seem to understand the concept of remaining motionless in order to have their picture taken and as a result the photos were all blurry. Stupid sharks (I didn’t say that to their face).

We had arranged for motorbikes to collect us on the other side of the cable car journey and had a bit of time to spare so went to the games section and tried our hand at various arcade games. They were all a bit crap and old (including a 4D Imax simulator where we were typically devoured by a large fish) but they were also all free so no complaints from us. There was one good part though - they had one of those punch bags that you whack as hard as you can for it to give you a score - and I did better than Dave. The weed. (Dave: Only to begin with and as I wasn’t hitting it straight, by my 3rd attempt I beat Helen!)

After that we went outside where there was a magic show underway. The magician was a grumpy middle-aged Vietnamese man that clearly thought that as this point in his career he should be playing bigger gigs than a tacky tourist trap accessible only by cable car.

We then got back onto the cable car (which was probably more scary than the first journey because it was dark: if we were to plunge into the sea below how would anyone be able to find us?!) and then onto our motorbikes and to a bar in the centre. We promptly ordered two ‘buckets’ of cocktail for the bargain price of just over one pound, took a big gulp and were immediately drunk. They were so strong! It took us maybe an hour to finish our one drink (Dave developed hiccups towards the end that lasted for around 45 minutes which didn’t help) and made our way to an Italian restaurant where we had a really lovely meal. We think we did anyway. Can’t really remember…

The next day we moved to a better hotel for the same price and decided to go to the mud baths about 5km away. We needed motorbikes to get us there so started asking around about prices. One man, to whom we took an instant disliking, seemed intent on getting our business - to the point where we followed us, continuously lowering the fare with every step. Eventually we caved but when we got to the baths he asked for more money than we’d agreed! Cheeky beggar. We paid the price we said we would and looked forward to never seeing him again.

The mud baths were amazing and we had some photos taken that were later delivered to our hotel. First we showered and then sat in a bath of mud (as the name would suggest) for 15 minutes before we lay in the sun to let the mud set. Then we showered again to wash (scrub) it all off and went and sat in a really warm bath, walked through a series of pressurised jet streams and had a swim, again in blissfully warm temperatures to top it all off! Great way to spend the afternoon. With our skin revitalised and glowing (not really - couldn’t tell the difference) we got a taxi back to the town and spent the rest of the day eating and drinking. We also spent £15 loading up Dave’s iPod with 100 music albums and TV series from a music shop owned by an English guy from North London. Told you we decided to put culture to one side.

We waved goodbye to Nha Trang early the next morning and set off on a 7-hour bus journey to Dalat. Dalat is a popular honeymoon destination for the Vietnamese set high up in the mountains and promised cooler temperatures, views of the surrounding countryside and a curious little gem called “The Valley of Love”.

We arrived in Dalat mid-afternoon. We found a hotel (this took us a very, very long time) and went back out to book a tour for the following day and have a drink. A tasty meal for dinner served up by a very nice waiter (that Dave wanted to ruffle the hair of - draw your own conclusions) and then bed.

The next morning we were set off on an organised sightseeing tour. We first went to a waterfall, which was good and then to a monastery set in beautiful grounds. We also visited a palace built by the French and a hotel called the ‘Crazy House’. It has so far taken the owner 18 years to construct and will be a further 2 years before it is complete. Each room is themed so you have the ant room or the tiger room and so on. It was certainly odd but maybe not enough to warrant it’s ‘crazy’ appellation.

Onto the part we thought would be mind-numbingly dull - a visit to an embroidery workshop. We could hardly contain our excitement. But (and I don’t know whether this is a good thing or not) we really enjoyed it. I wanted to buy one of the pieces, yet as it cost several thousand pounds Dave said no, the miserly man that he is.

Then it was time for the “Valley of Love” - best just to look at the pictures I think. There were many golden photo opportunities. Dave was upset that we didn’t get to see the ‘golden hamster’ that he had read about but we left content nevertheless. Lastly we visited a flower garden. Very pretty. (Not much you can say about a flower garden).

That evening we wandered the streets of Dalat looking for a decent restaurant. We stopped to peruse the menu of one place (the enthusiastic staff member standing outside looked so pleased at the prospect of customers) and he introduced himself to us and said how he was learning English. We decided to eat in the restaurant (more because we liked the boy rather than the food) and sat down at one of the many empty tables. It was another rather unsuccessful dining experience. I ordered a glass of wine that never arrived, the pizza I ordered was frozen and Dave’s “bolognese” was infact a curry, sat atop spaghetti. And the nice boy outside asked Dave to do his homework for him and left his exercise book on the table! We left after our mains and went to a much better place down the road for pancakes.

It had been a few days since a long bus journey so of course the next morning we were due one. This time bound for Ho Chi Minh City.

The bus journey was largely uneventful. As most bus journeys are I suppose. It did breakdown at one point but here that’s more common than a bus not breaking down. Dave had an annoying French kid sat in front of him that kept trying to recline his seat as far back as possible; seemingly considering Dave’s knees as an irritating obstacle that could be overcome by pushing the seat harder. We had to ask him to move it back several times. We stopped off for lunch where a couple had just got married and were having photos taken at the service station. Each to their own I suppose. Our lunch was an odd meal to say the least. Dave ordered ‘fried beef and potato’ while I settled on Singapore noodles. So far so good. Then the food arrived. Dave’s was a few bits of beef poking out of what must have been 5 roughly chopped onions with soggy crisps (yes, crisps!) sitting in a kind of thin gravy and mine looked like an omelette-come-spaceship.

So we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City hungry but excited nonetheless. Dave will tell you all about it soon. Stay tuned for a picture of him in the bath. It’s worth the wait!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas,

Helen and Dave xxx

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