Chuc Mong Nam Moi - Nha Trang

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Day 17/18 - Nha Trang

That's "Happy New Year" in Vietnamese
Sunday began the Tet celebration (New Year).

So G slept until 11:30AM while S would have kept sleeping well into the early evening if hadn't G woke her up at 1:30PM. Since we hadn't eaten since the night before, we heading to a nice restaurant we had heard about right on the beach. The weather was overcast and the sun never did quite make it out of the clouds, but since it wasn't raining as it had apparently been the last 4 days we were quite alright. (We're sure there are no eyes are tearing up or sympathy letters being written about our overcast day on Monday from all those in the icy northeast or UK, but hey we gotta rub it in a little, right?) There isn't much to say about the city of Nha Trang itself. The beach is the only thing really going for it. Basically, its just a town with loads of scuba diving schools, western restaurants, vietnamese restaurants, oddly trimmed trees, discotheques and hotels. Oh yeah and of course, every few steps having some guy come up to and ask "need moto?"

As we were walking back from lunch, we ran into our Aussie friends we had met on the bus down to Nha Trang. They invited us to dinner, but as Steph's lunch started to settle she soon realized her illness hadn't subside, so she stayed behind and chatted on Skype with her mom. G, however had a nice authentic, cheap Vietnamese dinner to celebrate the New Year with the Aussie (and the Swede and German we had met in Hoi An). However, G left after dinner since we had an early wake up call for snorkling and boating the next day. Thinking we would hit the hay early was a stupid mistake on our part since the minute the clock hit midnight, the fireworks went off....about 15 every 2 seconds......

On Tuesday morning, with the sun shinning we boarded a mini bus to take us to the pier for our boat/snorkling trip. Somehow we ended up this boat tour with all Korean and Chinese families. The only other western's were an Austrian couple that our guide kept referring to as "Australia". But it turned out to be one of the most entertaining afternoons.

Our first stop was on Mieu Island where there was an aquarium that we opted out of since it cost extra. So we made our way on the rocks, soaked up the sun and even possibly discovered a new crab species living in the rocks. After 45 minutes, we board the boat and our guides went over the the itinerary for the day and made the worst jokes that of course we thought were absolutely hilarious. But since we were the only ones on the boat that fully understood what they were saying, we were the only one laughing as well.

Next we docked near Mun Island for snorkling. Only about 10 people actually left the boat to go, which was weird since this was a snorkling trip, but whatevs. There really wasn't much to see, the coral was nice but there was hardly any fish. S thought she was about to encounter a jellyfish but it ended up just a plastic bag (G lucked out a well then since we all know what her job would have been it S got stung). However, it was quite nice to swim and splash about in the Sea of China for a bit. After a quick and scary jump off the top of boat, we head off to the next island.

We got to Mot island and had lunch on the boat which was followed by a floating bar. The guide got in the little floating bar thingy and called for us to jump in. No one except for us stood up. So as the whole boat watched, we plummeted off the back of the boat into our little inner tubes to enjoy the wine (well S didn't) and pineapple slices. Eventually more joined in and S, G and the guide all sang Rhinanna and Black Eyed Peas' songs. Little did we know that the singing would get brought to a whole new level.

After we dried off, the guides set up a little stage where they had a drum and guitar. Then for the next 30 minutes absolute hilarity ensued. They sang all sorts of songs - English, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese. Just the conviction alone of the guides when they were singing got us into a frenzy. Then they started in with some dance moves and that just had us rolling over in laughter - it was the just the greatest thing ever to have been a part off. Another boat had docked with us, so there were some older couples now on the boat and mostly everyone was dancing away. It kindof felt like we were at a really really bad wedding but on boat where we just had to watch and old people do the congo. The guides went around having everyone sing songs in their own language. It seemed like everyone was singing their traditional county song. But when it came to us, one of the guides was like "sing 'Baby Hit Me One More Time' ". Glad to know that Britney Spears signs the "America" song. Luckily there was an American couple that got singled out by the guide with the mic. Thinking we were clear of having the responsibility to sing "for America" we relaxed, but one of us must have made eye contact with the guy behind the mic bc he pointed to us and said "where you from?" s tried to think quick of something to let us off the hook, but eventually just said "America" but kindof put a question mark on it. After he had us confirm we were in fact American ( a quick mention of Obama got the crowd cheering) he told us to sing something. Somehow this all got handed to S as G just sat there laughing up a storm. S belted out a few lyrics to "Like a Virgin" and called it quits and the guide moved on to the next nationality (thank goodness - anyone ever heard S sing - not pleasant on the ears).
The last island we went to was Tam island where we just laid around in the sun, listened to our ipods and thought about how much we love not working.

We got back to the hotel, started to feel the effects of the sun and called it a night since we had a 8AM bus ride to Mui Ne the next morning.

Till then - loves!

xx
S&G

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Photos

Dinner with Friends
G had dinner at a Traditional Vietnamese restaurant with AMAZING seafood.

Nha Trang Islands
One of the islands that is near the pier in Nha Trang. These are traditional fishing boats.

Us NOT working
This is the life for us! The sun was warm, the water cool, and the people always smiling.

Burning in Sun
Steph forgetting that she burns easily despite being a Floridan.

Comments

[Jenine Peterman]

Pretty picture
That is a really pretty picture of you Steph :) You look like a fearless explorer, or maybe a pirate, but a hot pirate!!!