Aaah...Fresh Air in Nha Trang

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Yesterday we arrived we took a 45 minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to Nha Tran which is North East of HCMC and also the place where they held the 2008 Miss Universe pageant. Upon landing it wasn’t much to look at, but the sun was shinning unlike the very polluted HCMC. We boarded a bus for another 45 minute ride into the city of Nha Trang.

Nha Trang is definitely not as crowded, polluted or dirty as HCMC. We are staying a place that my parents has stayed before, nothing fancy but clean and with air conditioning and free internet access, my room is costing me $10 a night and we are a short walk away from the beach. There is a cool breeze that comes by every once in a while. This town has a lot more Australian, French and Norwegian tourist that HCMC. They are every where and there are also a lot of back packers. We will be here for 5 days before heading back to HCMC so that my parents can shop for things that they want to bring back to Hawaii. Looking forward to leaving Vietnam.

Today we went to an amusement park called VinPearl, you had to take a 10 minute ride on the sky tram that went across the East China Sea to a peninsula. The ride was very beautiful and the water was an amazing color. We could feel the ocean breezy blowing through the tram and the air was fresh…aaah! The park itself for nothing to write home about other than it was VERY clean and well kept.

The plan tomorrow is to go to another part of the island and do a mud bath….very interesting. A little worried about all my cracks and crevasses! Hope that I don’t bring anything home from there.

The unfortunate thing is that you still can smell the sewer, not nearly as bad has HCMC but its still present. Oh, by-the-way the bathroom is where you make it, a tree, on the beach, behind the corner. Also, there aren’t a lot of street vendors compared to HCMC but they are really persistent.

Nha Trang is known for seafood, so tonight I treated my parents to a fabulous seafood dinner that cost a total of $55 (included desserts and drinks) that included a huge platter that had scallops, HUGE prawns, calamari, crab (small and strange looking), mussels, 2 different types of clams, a whole fish and a huge lobster. All the seafood was grilled fresh. In my past lobsters have never impressed me, I preferred Dungeness crab. Let me tell this was the best lobster I’ve ever had, it was sweet and tender. Wow! The price for the entire meal was an add bonus.

Until tomorrow…when you get to hear all about the mud bath that my mother is dying for me to experience.

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