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Published: December 12th 2010
Quy Nhon
Long Khanh PagodaSuzanne here...
On to another beach town, but Quy Nhon has none of the facilities or tourist trappings of Nha Trang. Surprising really as there is a large stretch of sandy beach. Still, we were ready for something a bit more 'local' and less touristy.
Budget hotels were few and far between, so we decided to splurge. We chose the 4* Saigon Quynhon. At £30 it was about three times what we'd usually pay. Might sound cheap to those back in England, but we're on a budget. Still, we decided it was worth it on this occasion. The hotel was not the most luxurious we've ever stayed in, but certainly one of the best on this trip (not counting the Saigon apartments of course). The room was large, modern and clean, and had sea view.
It really wasn't beach weather so we had a bit of a look around the town. Everyone was really friendly, we're used to kids saying hello by now, but here it was all ages. In the evening we headed out for dinner. We had no idea where to go, but passed a large open-air place packed full of locals. We sat down and
Quy Nhon
Big Buddha at Long Khanh Pagoda a girl came over looking rather hesitant. She had a menu in her had but seemed a bit reluctant to hand it over. We knew what she was thinking. "This menu is in Vietnamese and there is no way this pair will be able to read it". Well, of course she was right. However, we did have a few dishes translated in our guidebook so thought we'd give it a go. Unfortunately, none of the dishes in our book were on the menu. At this point a friendly but rather drunk chap came over to 'help'. Sadly, as he spoke all of about three words of English his help was not actually that helpful. Although his animal impressions were amusing. All he really accomplished was to get us some beer, and as beer in Vietnamese is 'bia' I think we could have managed that. Luckily, we had the word for pork, beef and vegetables in our book, so pointed at random to a dish from each of those sections and hoped for the best.
The first thing that arrived was a vacuum pack of peanuts. Had we ordered these? Oh well, we ate them anyway. Then came out a
Quy Nhon
Decoration at Long Khanh Pagoda kind of beef salad, pork in a broth, noodles and a plate of steamed vegetables. All were delicious. I only wish I could remember what we'd ordered. A great success. Our friend came over to check that all was ok (we didn't even notice the beer fumes now we had downed a couple of our own!) and seemed delighted that we were happy with our food. We rounded off the night with a bottle of Dalat red wine in our hotel, looking out on our sea view while listening to some excellent music on the MP3 player.
The next day we pottered around town, visited a pair of old Cham towers, and made the most of our posh hotel room. In the evening we went to a tiny little Pho (noodle soup) shop. The owners seemed very surprised but delighted to see us. They didn't bother trying to ask us what we wanted, just plonked a bowl of Pho in front of us. Delicious. Another successful meal. On the way home we popped into a little local shop. The girl ran into the back to get someone who spoke English. No need really, David only wanted a 7up, which
Quy Nhon
Eating with the Locals was on display. The woman was very friendly though. What I found hillarious was the five or six teenage girls who came to stand in the doorway, looking at David and giggling. Very funny. he said goodbye as we left which led to more shy giggles and waves. We finished off with a couple of soft drinks (early bus the next day) at the hotel rooftop bar.
Would I recommend Quy Nhon for a holiday? I think that if you want a beach (and there are even nicer ones just out of the town) without the tourist trappings, it might just be the place for you. So long as you go at the time of year when it's beach weather. For us, as we are on a year long trip, we were quite happy just to spend a couple of days in a non-tourist town full of friendly people.
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