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Published: January 31st 2007
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Along we traveled up the coast of Vietnam en route to the capital city Hanoi. After Mui Ne we arrived at Nha Trang, which is a more upscale fancy beach town. We luckily found a hotel with a huge balcony up on the 5th floor overlooking the water for as cheap as we could ask.
In an effort to better manage time, we’ve adopted a new philosophy of “see and do things right away so we can party later!” With that in mind we tried to actually plan out the limited number of days that we spent in Nha Trang, trying to fit in a trip to the mud baths, a boat trip, a day of scuba diving, and of course lazy time.
First off we hopped in a taxi and headed for the mountainside mineral mud baths. We got a 5 person bath/pit which was quickly pumped full of sloppy mineral mud for our comfort and wellbeing. We frolicked in the mud bath for the good part of an hour, allowing the “minerals” to do their work. After a quick jet shower, we were ushered to another bath embedded into the rocky mountainside where we relaxed in sizzling
Me, Mud
The minerals seeped deep into my epidermis ... hot water. At this point we were more than comfortable, but decided to up the ante and sign up for a steam bath massage. The petite Vietnamese masseuse walked all over my back, giving me one of the best massages of the trip.
The following day we hopped on board a party/sightseeing boat which toured us around the islands just off the coast. After some early morning snorkeling and a view of a floating village, the 20 or so travelers were itching to start partying. We enjoyed the many beverages aboard the boat, and an impressive fresh lunch of noodles, spring rolls, shark, shrimp, fruit and much more. In the afternoon we were introduced to our first “floating bar” which is truly just that. Behind our boat attached to a rope was a pontoon on which our tour guide floated and handed out wine. With a slight current, everyone had to hold on tight to the barge while he dispensed tiny little cups of rice wine, which was horrible to say the least, but “we had to get our money’s worth!”
After all that drinking, we docked on a cool island where a nice beachside volleyball court lured
Breezy Beach
Early morning at Nha Trang's beach, as we wait to be picked up for our scuba session. us to play. I bought a cheap volleyball, and rounded up the masses for a huge Canada versus the World volleyball match (we picked up several other Canadians on the island). While most of us were minorly/heavily inebriated, the match was more fun than normal. As far as I know no score was taken and we all just had a blast. We retreated back to the shelter of our rooms where we tried desperately to hydrate and nurse our sunburns.
We woke up early the next morning and hopped into a van which took us to our pre-hired scuba boat. Having just taken my PADI dive course in December it was fresh in my mind; Jason and Ryan though haven’t dived in a while, over a year for Ryan. After sliding into our full body wet suits (it was a “cold” 25 degrees in the water) we geared up and went for another underwater exploration. The visibility was better than Thailand, allowing us to see much more, and overall the dive was fun. For only $14 per dive, we decided to go for two, and the second dive was even better; the guys were back in the scuba-zone and
Floating Village
As seen on our boat trip. got an extra wetsuit each to stay warm. After 2 hours of total underwater time we’d had a great time and puttered back to town for our free lunch, which turned out to be a genuine feast which we had trouble finishing, but of course did in the end.
I really enjoyed Nha Trang but we had to keep moving in order to get to Hanoi to meet Trevor. Our next stop was Hoi An about 5 hours north, which was effortless after having booked one open ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi a week or two back. We booked into an old Chinese style hotel and discussed plans for the city. Hoi An is a shopping haven, and apparently the most expensive place in Vietnam, though I had trouble believing that when I got several paintings for 10 dollars. Everyone got something tailor-made, from shoes to silk pajamas, all at a fraction of the cost of home. I opted out of the shopping spree though, seeing as how my funds are quite scarce. We spent a few days here, enjoying the different foods we found (it seems that the food is changing as we get farther
Boat Beerman
This guy was very punctual with the deliveries of more Tiger beer. north).
We found a restaurant that had fresh baked goodies, and we took full advantage by eating there a few times. We also had a nice balcony at this hotel and had a bit of a party with more Canadians from Alberta, and more Vietnamese wine (it’s getting to be a habit…) The following couple days didn’t compose of too much more because after buying so much stuff, nobody wanted to spend anymore money in the town.
After a few days we boarded a bus bound for Hanoi (a dreaded 18 hours away) and were on our way to meet Trevor. The ride was just horrible, I didn’t sleep more than 30 minutes and the speakers radiated dreadful Vietnamese pop music, which almost made me go crazy. After requesting the driver to turn it off, he would simply turn it down, and then slowly raise the volume until it was back at full blast throughout the whole cabin. Arghhhh!!!
Next update will be on Vietnam’s capital!
(the blog update e-mails aren’t being sent out to everyone, so you might have to check the website manually to see the newest ones… the last few may have been
Dive Site
On an island off the coast from Nha Trang. We saw some awesome trumpet and flute fish! missed 😊
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jann
non-member comment
Vietnam looks great!
greetings to my adventurous nephews...thanks for sharing your travels with we folks in snowland. Early Valentines kisses to you...and don't let too many people walk on your back!