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Nha Trang was next on the itinerary, rather than take the overnight sleeper train we opted for a soft seat on the day train. The train service in Vietnam is great, they don’t suffer from too many delays and it’s a comfortable journey compared to the long distance bus, actually a pogo stick would be more comfortable than the bus!!!
We were well prepared for the 9 hour journey, we had books and Ipods to keep us amused and a pack of playing cards, we also had food with us because we’d discovered on previous journeys that the free meals on the trains aren’t really that great.
Arriving in Nha Trang at 10pm we decided to seek out a hotel tout and go with him to his hotel for one night and then maybe move hotels the following day if we didn’t like it. We were surprised that there was only one tout at the station because usually you have to fight them off, anyway he seemed like an honest enough lad and he even agreed (with some arm twisting) to pay the taxi fare if we took the room - which we did. The hotel was nice enough, very
Crab lady in Nha Trang
For such a tiny woman she's got some strength....those pots are HEAVY!! clean, air con and balcony included, the only problem was that it wasn’t in the right location so after one night we decided to move on. The second hotel was really lovely, we got a room on the 4th floor with a massive terrace that had views of both the beach and the town……we drank quite a few vodka Redbull on that terrace over the next four days!!!
Nha Trang is Vietnam’s most popular beach resort and it attracts both foreign and domestic tourists. The beach itself is long and wide and has lots of beds and umbrellas for rent, you can have a massage on the beach, buy souvenirs and the best bit of all was that you could buy fresh crabs or lobster and have them barbecued and served up to you on your sun bed. The crabs and lobster were kept alive in a pot of sea water which was carried in one of two baskets by the vendor, in the second basket she carried a small BBQ which was ignited whenever she got an order. We had three crabs for lunch they were served with a sauce containing salt, pepper and lemon juice…..absolutely delicious!!! we
How's that for service
£1 for three, what a bargain!!
And they were cooked to perfection paid 30,000 VND, approx £1……..you can’t get a packet of frozen fish fingers in the UK for that price!!! Nha Trang had a good selection of restaurants and it was difficult choosing where to eat. We tried sea bass one night in a nice restaurant on the beach road but my personal favourite was Carlos Restaurant, they did the best egg noodles with chicken and veg that I’d had, and I’ve eaten a LOT of noodles so far on this trip.
We spent two days just chilling on the beach trying to top up the Sapa tans which were now fading, and catching up on some reading. After two days though we were a bit bored so thought it’d be a good idea to go to the local water park……what a great couple of hours!! There were no other adults there and hardly any kids so we made the most of the slides and the lazy river…..we were a bit too scared to go down the death slide, I suppose that’s middle age creeping in!!! It was the best £2 we spent that day. The hotel receptionist organised bike hire for us so one afternoon we went for a
Answers on a postcard..........
No idea what type of fish these were but they left a lot of blood behind after them roam around. Nha Trang is quite small and there are not too many attractions but we enjoyed getting out and about. We stopped off at the fishing port and watched a couple of ladies chopping what looked like blubber……no idea exactly what it was but it looked disgusting!! We also went to the cable car station to have a closer look at Vinpearl - an island off Nha Trang owned by Russian Business Men. It has a massive Hollywood style sign fixed into the hill - a horrible blot on an otherwise beautiful landscape, the island, we were told, is a massive leisure complex complete with fairground, nightclub, restaurants and shopping complexes……not at all what we imagined Vietnam to be like. You can get to the island by cable car (another horrible blot) or boat, we decided not to bother - it looked and sounded OTT.
Nightlife in Nha Trang was quite good, every single bar gives out flyers that promise “Free Cocktails”, “Buy one get one free” etc, our favourite was the Red Apple bar - a bit noisy but it had a nice atmosphere. There were loads of Europeans working in the bars who had found Nha
Fishing Boats Nha Trang
"can you remember where we parked ours?" Trang the ideal place to stop off for a while on their round the world trips. Alcohol in Vietnam on the whole is quite expensive - a standard spirit measure is 20ml (how tight fisted is that!!). Compared to what we’re used to in Goa (60ml), it’s tiny and costs about three times as much as it would in Shooters. Even more tight fisted but quite funny in an unhygenic kind of way was what we witnessed in one bar - a staff member going around giving out “free shots”…….just like shooters but he walked around the bar with a jug of the pre-mixed shot and ONE shot glass which was used by the whole bar…….disgusting!!! For god's sake buy some extra glasses or at least give out free cold sore remedies to your poor customers!!
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June
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Lovely Photo
Awww - what a lovely photo of the two of you in Nha Trang. Still loved up after all these years! Looks like you're having the trip of a lifetime. It's raining in Wimbledon by the way - in case you're interested :o))))