Advertisement
Published: August 2nd 2010
Edit Blog Post
It’s been nearly two months since we left the UK and during that time we’ve hardly stopped anywhere for more than a couple of days. It has been amazing visiting all the places we’ve been but the constant travelling was getting pretty tiring. We decided after the chaos (albeit a sort of organized chaos) of Hanoi and Hue that it was finally time to head south and spend a week relaxing in a couple of Vietnams best beach resorts! Both of these resorts are sheltered by a mountain range inland and hence have a very different climate to the rest of Vietnam. Whilst the rest of the country is experiencing the annual southwest monsoon, the coastline here remains much drier. It’s been great to see some blue sky, swim in warm sea and not get drenched everyday!
Nha Trang (pronounced na-chang) The train journey from Hue to Nha Trang is about 400 miles and takes 12 hours. As the train was during the day we decided to save a bit of cash and go with just normal seats instead of a more expensive sleeper carriage. We turned up at the station and with a train in waiting promptly went
to find our carriage. All good, until we discovered our carriage looked like a prison cell - rusty, falling apart, wire mesh instead of glass windows, full to the brim with locals who were all leaning out trying to get a gasp of fresh air and definitely not a hint of the air conditioning we had been promised! Luckily, we then discovered that this wasn’t our train! We spent the next 10 minutes in fear that ours might be the same - what had we let ourselves in for?! The correct train turned up shortly after, and whilst it certainly wasn’t luxurious it was better than the previous and did at least have air conditioning. Sitting in a seat for 12 hours is a long time, especially with Vietnamese films constantly blaring out of the onboard televisions, so we were very glad when we finally arrived in Nha Trang. We were also pretty hungry as our assumption we could get some food on the train had backfired. Well, that’s a lie, we COULD have got food on the train, but after looking at what was on offer and also seeing the state of the restaurant carriage we decided we weren’t
THAT hungry!
Nha Trang is quite similar to your typical Spanish or Greek holiday resort. There is a big white sandy beach that each day is full of people swimming and sunbathing and then each evening there’s a huge choice of bars and restaurants all trying to tempt you in with various promotions. Our favorites were those that involved bottles of beer for less than 30p and free pool tables, nice!
We had two full days here so on the first day we hired a taxi to take us to Ba Ho waterfalls which is found in an area of rainforest about 20km north of the Nha Trang. We would never have found it by ourselves so were very glad of the taxi driver’s local knowledge and he even waited there for a couple of hours so that he could take us back again! It was a bit of a scramble to climb up to the waterfall (read into that hot and very sweaty!) but that just made the eventual swim in the plunge pool even more enjoyable! Following all that hard work we retired back to the Sailing Club beachfront bar in Nha Trang for a couple
of beers and then a stroll along the beach for sunset.
Nha Trang is famous for being Vietnam’s best diving location so on the second day we took a snorkeling trip out to the nearby marine park. Highlights were a large brain coral (one of the slowest growing corals in the world - this one at 4ft across would have been about 1000 years old), some big plate corals and some very brightly coloured Parrot fish. The photos were taken with Liz’s camera which has the ability to be used underwater down to depth of 10 metres. We’d never tested it underwater before so were both pleased with the pictures it took and the fact it still seems to be working correctly afterwards! It was also Liz’s first time snorkeling and after a few teething problems at the first location (mainly due to being given a broken snorkel) she was up and running without any problems at the second location. We’ve both decided to do an open water diving course in Thailand so this was all good practice for that. Yes, I know I’ve done it before but that was 8 years ago and I’ve forgotten everything!
Mui Ne (pronounced Moo-nay)
Only a few hours by bus south from Nha Trang is the resort of Mui Ne. We’re staying here for four days and have treated ourselves to a bit of luxury! Instead of our usual ₤15 - ₤20 per night room we’re splashing out on a ₤35 per night room at the Grace Boutique Resort. For this we’ve got a hotel that is right on the beach, 4 star service, fresh fruit and flowers delivered to our room each day, a great breakfast (banana pancakes, yom yom!) and a large balcony looking out to sea. There’s also an infinity swimming pool we can use and the owners two super cute dogs to play with! This is the life…
Apart from the nice sandy beach, the only real sights in Mui Ne are the nearby sand dunes and also a local fishing village. Both of these can be done in a half day jeep tour so that’s what we did yesterday morning. It was a bit of an early start, leaving the hotel at 4.30am, but we got to the first area of sand dunes in time for sunrise. This would have been amazing if the
clouds hadn’t been in the way, but it was still a nice spot to sit and enjoy the moment. The second area of sand dunes were more impressive and with the early morning sun now up in the sky they were also much more photogenic! Finally on the tour we stopped at the fishing village where the local fishermen were unloading their catches from the night before onto the beach. There was then an army of people who were on the beach sorting, packing and loading everything up onto the backs of mopeds and vans ready for delivery into the local area. It was nice to see something that wasn’t touristy, where the locals were just doing their jobs and getting on with it.
Mui Ne has been just what we wanted - a chance to relax, recharge the batteries, read some books and enjoy the beach. The only thing we haven’t liked is that because it consists solely of holiday resorts it doesn’t particularly feel like Vietnam. Where are all the crazy mopeds riders and tasty local Vietnamese restaurants? Next stop is Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) which I’m sure will have all of those in abundance!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.111s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0251s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb