Beaches of Nha Trang

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After a busy couple of weeks and limited internet access we are a bit behind with our blog, we have now found a good internet cafe so we can now attempt to catch up.

We arrived in Nha Trang after a very delayed train from Hoi An, which was supposed to be a day train to see the Vietnam countryside but turned into a night train, arriving into Nha Trang at 3am. We had to wait at the train station in Danang for 6 hours, luckily they had a coffee bar and somewhere to sit and even a tv to watch... although they had a DVD playing over and over again playing the same music every half an hour!!

Nha Trang is a beach resort, and we found it to be really touristy with a promenade and lots of touristy shops, not at all what we expected or anything like the rest of Vietnam we had seen. Maybe we didn't see the best of Nha Trang, as the sea was brown from all the flood waters but at least the first day we were here the sun was shining.

We visited a few sites while we were here, such as the Cham Towers which were built between the 7th & 12th century and are similar in style to Angkor Wat, which we will be going to see later in our trip to Cambodia. There are only 4 towers left so the site was only small but they still had incredible architecture so a great warm up to the huge sites at Angkor, which we can't wait to see. We also walked up to a giant Bhudda which looks over the town and gave us a great view from the top.

We spent one day taking a boat trip to visit a fishing village just off Nha Trang, unfortunately it decided to rain again that day so back on with the ponchos (such a fashion accessory!!) The rain cleared by the afternoon so we were able to visit a quiet beach, but by the time we got back to Nha Trang the roads were flooded. It feels like the rain is following us, maybe just to make us feel at home :-)

As the rain continued all evening, the overnight train we were due to take to Ho Chi Minh was cancelled so our only option was to take an overnight bus. It was an experience that we do not really want to repeat.... although I'm sure that we will have more overnight buses on our way. Hopefully on coaches rather than a mini bus with seats that don't recline, no suspension and on flooded roads!

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