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Published: July 14th 2008
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Leaving Hoi An after dinner landed us in the beach city of Nha Trang just as the sun was rising. As we pulled into Nha Trang, we drove along the long, 6km stretch of white sand beach. Already, the Vietnamese were up and at 'em - hundreds of ppl, young and old were out an about doing various activities. Soccer, badminton, tennis, running, aerobic-type exercises! All before 6am! Talk about early risers.
By the time we had found a cheap hotel to throw our bags down at and walked to the beach, the locals were already walking, barefoot and dripping (they bathe in their clothes), back home with children and freshly speared squid in tow. And it was only 7am.
Nha Trang is a big city, but to be honest, we only 'saw' the beach! The first day, we literally spent under an umbrella, eating fresh fruit and reading all day. The water was clear and cool and there was a nice breeze. I couldn't convince myself to get off of my beach bed and DO something so, I didn't!
That night, we were looking to capitalize on the extraordinary amounts of fresh seafood to be had and
decided to splurge at a really fancy restaurant/club! In our wrinkled backpacker clothes, we tried to blend in with the rich (and, later as we found out, famous) at the gorgeously decorated beach-side eatery. I had a delicious shrimp korma and as we were finishing, the restaurant staff was trying to accommodate a large group and our table was in the way. We offered to move and in doing so, chatted with the manager. Apparently, we had been dining all night beside Miss UNIVERSE 2007! lol and her entourage of course. The Miss Universe 2008 competition was underway in Nha Trang of all places during the week we had happened to be there! Since we had moved tables, the manager invited us back the next night to the Miss Universe beach party 😊 oh my!
Nha Trang, in backpacker land, is also infamous for 'booze cruises' - day boat tours around the islands fueled by free alcohol. We signed up for a boat tour the day before thinking it would be populated by young, shoestring travellers. BAhahhah. Were we ever surprised when, the following morning, we got on board a tiny boat FULL to the brim with Asian tourists
and their families. The total group consisted of Japanese, Chinese, Singaporeans, Vietnamese and Korean tourists, along with Tory & I as well as two Americans in their 30s.
In the end, it turned out for the better! This is a stereotype for sure, but the majority of Asian tourists can't swim - so every time the boat stopped so its passengers could swim or snorkel, everyone on board would don lifejackets and floating rings. Then, clinging to each other and US, we all floated around, splashing and yelling. It honestly is a hilarious sight and proved to be very entertaining for us!
When I thought I had seen it all, after a feast of seafood served family-style (aka - get your elbows up and chopsticks ready and fight for the shrimp!), we were treated to 'happy-hour entertainment'! The cooks and boat hands magically turned into drummers, guitar players and singers and for the next 2 hrs, we were treated to a live karaoke show, featuring each nationality of Asian tourists. They all took turns singing into the microphone (which had the echo feature on the WHOLE TIME!) and dancing up a storm. Again - it was HIGHLY entertaining!
The day finished with everyone again in their lifejackets and rings surrounding one Vietnamese man who was also floating while holding multiple bottles of cheap red wine in a crate. We all downed shot glass after shot glass of the stuff while cheers-ing each other in Vietnamese! What a day!
That night, we headed back to the ritzy 'Sailing Club' in search for Miss Universe contestants and Jerry Springer (who was to be hosting the competition). Unfortunately we didn't spot any 7foot tall beauties but we danced the night away on the beach anyway!
Our next stop is to be the more tame and cooler central highlands - where dignitaries and French colonialists have been retreating to for many years. I expect it to be like the Cameron highlands in Malaysia which I loved since I was just so happy to not be sweating all of the time
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