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Published: July 13th 2010
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Lunch
A selection of seafood, seasoned with chilli, salt and pepper and washed down with gin! Nha Trang, 23rd - 26th May 2010
The journey like most of the other night buses wasn’t great, little sleep was had due to the constant jerking of the bus, not to mention the bus driver and his horn. Still we survived and at 6.15 am we drove into the city of Nha Trang. Nha Trang can be described as Vietnam’s premier beach destination and as we approached it was easy to see why. Long white stretches of sandy beaches and a huge expanse of sparkly blue ocean lapping at the shores. It was enough to revive any weary bus traveller. It was great to see many of the locals using the natural resources too as when we drove passed there were literally hundreds of people in the sea either washing, playing or doing a few lengths or some stretches on the sand and all this at 6.15 am, certainly put us to shame!
The bus again dropped us off at a hostel which was handy, especially as the one next door was cheaper and a lot nicer. So we checked in and were once again glad the hostel didn’t have any silly rules like no check in before
midday etc. Basically it seems that if the room is empty it’s yours. Plus the hostel was just outside of the main tourist drag so we were away from the majority of the tourists. Whilst on the bus I had spotted a hotel buffet breakfast just round the corner from us so with hungry tummies we decided to check it out, half expecting it to be a little too expensive for us as it was connected to a 3* hotel but to our surprise at £1.80 it was a real bargain. There was huge variety of food and after what must have been a five course breakfast we left feeling extremely satisfied (and extremely full).
To walk off our breakfast we decided to take a stroll down the beach front promenade and along to the train station in the centre of town. It was very nice but also very hot which probably explained why we were the only ones walking, all the locals were either zipping about on scooters or in air conditioned cars. We passed a bird shop where they had over 200 birds for sale that people could put into wicker type cages and keep as pets
which seems very popular over here. We then decided to head back to the hostel but had a slight disagreement in which was the right way to go so to solve it we were very grown up about the situation and decided to turn it into a race, each going our preferred way and the first one back was the winner. I of course was right all along and made it back about 6 or 7 minutes before Doddy, need I say any more?!
We chilled back at the hostel until about 3pm when the sun was not so intense and we thought it okay to go out again. We caught a scooter taxi down to the Louisianne brew house, a brewery with club house, swimming pool and a stretch of private beach, all of which you could use if eating there. We enjoyed a nice meal and then decided to ample one of their beers brewed on site. We asked for a jug with two glasses (as on the menu) but instead it came in a huge 1 litre glass with two smaller glasses which made it impossible to pour, so we asked for it in a jug
which the waiter got for us and promptly poured the beer in without tilting the jug or anything. This then left us with about an inch of beer and 6 inches of frothy head. Not really satisfied we asked for another one so he took it away, 10 minutes later and still no beer we went up to the bar to see what was happening only to see our jug of beer sat on the bar top, in the sun, as they were waiting for the head to go down. If this was 21p glass bia hoi from a street side cafe then we wouldn’t have minded but this was an expansive jug of beer from a brewery of all places! Eventually it was replaced with a fresh cold one that we could enjoy.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool and in the sea before walking back through the town to the hostel and booking our snorkelling trip for the following day. The promenade that we walked back along was full of children and adults flying kites, there must have been at least 20 kites in the sky and it was a great sight to
see. For dinner we indulged in some western food and a hot fudge sundae from the Banana Split Cafe just down the road from where we were staying.
The following day began at the buffet breakfast place although this time only having 4 courses as we didn’t want to sink when we went snorkelling. We were picked up at 8.30am and driven to the harbour where we climbed aboard our boat for our day’s snorkelling and met the other 2 people on the trip. Yes, with it being low season there were only 2 others (2 guys who were on a gap year before starting uni) to share the big boat with. The day was brilliant. We had a really good guide who caught a huge clam and sea snail thing which he cooked up for us to try along with a chilli, salt and pepper seasoning and washed down with straight gin. The coral was absolutely beautiful and definitely rivalled that of the Great Barrier Reef. And then there was the great variety of fish. We saw loads of different fish that we hadn’t seen during any of our other snorkelling experiences including a black and white sea snake which apparently if you are bitten by it you can be paralysed within minutes, glad we didn’t get too close to that one!
At 3.30pm we returned back and feeling tired from all our underwater adventures we chilled out in front of the T.V. in our room (the first T.V. In a long time) for the rest of the afternoon. That evening we wandered into the main tourist part of town and enjoyed dinner at a Mexican restaurant (where they put laughing cow cheese on the nachos!) and then wandered back to crash out in bed.
Wednesday morning started with yet another buffet breakfast (well it was so tasty and it would be rude not to!) The weather wasn’t great and rain threatened so we spent the morning updating the blog and completing a few other odd jobs. Having had enough of being inside we went for a walk and just as we were having lunch it began to rain, it wasn’t heavy though and was actually quite refreshing. Keen to make the most of the cheap massages on offer (and to make sure we were fully relaxed before our final night bus) we treat ourselves to a sauna and hot stone massage (1 hour for just $5). It was lovely, we had a full body massage and then they used hot, smooth stones to ease the muscles on our backs and legs. I really am going to miss all these massage treatments when I come home.
We then had a wander once more round the town centre stopping for an ice-cream and to get a movie put onto my iPod, a great way to pass the time on long bus journeys. After dinner we walked back to the hotel to freshen up, pick up bags and boarded our final night bus to Saigon. The bus was another chaise lounge style one and luckily this time the driver wasn’t so horn happy so a more peaceful night was had.
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