Advertisement
Published: September 27th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Hi Friends and Family,
Meet up time 8:00 am
Today, we left the Golf 1 Hotel. The hotel itself was pretty sleek. The rooms were large and we had a double bed
AND a single bed with a very nice en-suite bathroom. Complimentary water (so very important), cable and satellite TV and very nice looking professional staff. I gather that the more the customers use the facilities, the prettier the girls who front Reception are!
Today, we checked out of the hotel and proceeded to go to Nha Trang via the Ngoan Muc Pass. The Ngoan Muc means “pleasing to the eye” and with breathtaking views we made our way down the mountain. Again, a few hairy moments on the road and an ear-blocking time for me due to the air pressure. For a few hours I couldn’t quite hear to my fullest capacity’s as my ears slowly “popped!”
We visited the striking Poklon Garia Cham Towers which is one of the remaining temples of the Cham civilization and listened to the history of Indo-China viz-a-viz Cambodia’s, Laos, Vietnam and the mother country- China- herself.
We went up the temple and bought a couple of presents
On a Roadside Stop
The Assistant Tour Leaders to take home. I do hope we get to see the Minorities in their own backyard.
Our afternoon lunch was a road stop where I had Thai-Style Mussels - mussels with lemon grass, spices and a bowl of rice - $3.5. My companion had calamari-cuttle fish- which he didn’t like ‘cos it was chewy!
We finally arrived at our hotel - “The Vien Dong Hotel” in Nha Trang.
Nha Trang is referred to as “The Cannes of the Orient”. It’s a sandy palm-lined beach resort piled high with storey buildings and bays dotted around the area.
The Majorca of Vietnam. Flashy, loud, slightly tacky but with a charm of its own. We arrived there in the afternoon so there was time to check out the facilities. The hotel is ex-Russian and government- owned. Not as classy or as new as the other hotels we’ve stayed at, but OK. It has however, been the only hotel so far, with a swimming pool and a tennis court too!
Dalat had a temperate climate and Nha Trang brought us back to the fact that we were indeed, still in Vietnam so the pool was a godsend for many.
Whilst my companion went for a swim, I searched out an internet café whilst taking care of the road and even more, of my personal possessions as this town is a Mecca for runaway bag-snatching cowboys!
After a well-deserved rest, we met up with our group for a Bar-B-Q dinner in a very popular Vietnamese restaurant.
Most Asians prefer to eat with a large group of friends and relations and Vietnam is no different. There were rows and rows of reserved places for groups or already filled up, with groups of 10, 15, 20 or even 30 people.
Our table was a long table for 16 people at the end of the hall. Our mission? To demolish the beautiful dishes presented to us.
Four charcoaled stoves were put on the table and plates of raw beef, pork, chicken, fish, giant prawns, calamari, and veggies - okra, carrots, onions, potatoes, tofu and cucumber, were set on the table with huge plates of rice and sauces. We put the various meats on the Bar-B-Q and proceeded to eat and prepare them as we saw fit. Boy was the place hot!
It was steaming and we were all
Nha Trang
The lovely swimming pool sweltering within seconds and our clothes drenched with the heat of the stoves, the spices and the accumulated bodies in the room. Our table was also slowly getting pissed and intoxicated by the unlimited amounts of (ordered) beer and a huge bottle of sherry that was initially passed around to get us all going and somehow ended at our part of the table!
Faces were red, laughter got rowdier and as for me, I was so full that I sprawled all over my companion at the dinner table and proceeded to fall asleep on his lap!
Yikes!
The poor Vietnamese Team Leaders actually thought I was drunk! But I couldn’t have been, I only had 1 small bottle of Tiger Beer and 1/5 of a glass of sherry but I was enormously tired though……!!!
Good Night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.202s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 17; qc: 71; dbt: 0.129s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb