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Nha Trang, Vietnam
Nha Trang Harbour is the 29th most beautiful in the world-according to our guide who lives here....We arrived at sunset on Sunday (27 March)and I must admit the scenewas postcard perfect with the high mountain range surrounding the city in the Asian haze.
Our hotel is directly across from the beach which runs for 6 km. We all met up in the foyer and each got in a cyclo (bicycle trishaw) to make the trip to a beautiful outdoor restaurant on the beach. The menu covered all things Italian (yes Italian) and seafood which, of course, is the speciality here. We had a good fish dinner and winefor $23. Most of the others had pizza – just for a change. There is a Beer Feast (not festival) all week long on the beach across from us and our hotel has the stage and big screen directly outside, then there is the main road with 6 lanes of traffic (non stop) and then the audience on the other side!!! The whole street has coloured lights strungacross it and all the trees have fairy lights in them. Very pretty at night. Yesterday (Monday) was our boat trip - went down to the port which is very busy with lots of tourist day boats but we have our own boat. There were 3 people on board to do massage, pedicures, manicures, and hair removal using fine string, and I had the lot - all for $20!!! The boat took 1 hour to get to our swimming area off Mun Island and dropped anchor and we all jumped into this clear blue water. (Well I actually went down the ladder).
After an hour or so we then went to another island Mieu for our lunch. Now the transport from the boat to the shore was interesting, it was in one of those round basket boats 'thung chai' (like the ancient coricals) with 2 women paddling and carrying just 2 of us. Had a great seafood lunch and then walked the 3 kms through their fishing village to our boat. When we came back from this trip we went up to the Rooftop Bar at our Hotel (Yasaka) and had some cold drinks and watched the many catamarans, jet skis and parasailing offthe beach. Later we walked up to the Cai River Bridge to see the brightly coloured fishing boats which have painted eyes on the front to scare away the 'bad sea dragons' who may appear.... Some of our group went with Ross to the mud baths- something I just couldn't come at. Last night we again travelled by cyclos to a Vietnamese Barbeque Restaurant “Lac Canh”. This is very famous here and you order whatever you want and they put small charcoal barbeques on the table and you cook your own – beef, prawns, calamari, tuna fish etc. They also bring dishes of rice and vegetables to add.
It is very smokey and hot as you can imagine - perfect for a winter night in Canberra but not perhaps for a hot night here! Our cyclos drivers waited for us and then took us back. This is a fun way to travel and of course very cheap. But I think at night they should have lights! They only cost 30,000 dong each (A$2.50) and that was taking us there, waiting for 2 hours and bringing us back. We gave our guys more money (50,000 dong). The meal plus drinks only cost us $6 each. There are American Military staying at our hotel over here looking for MIA (missing in action). This is after 30 years -don't think they will find many bodies now - their T-shirts read “POW - MIA You are not forgotten”.Ross said they only find fingernails etc now but I guess with DNA testing they can still identify some of the MIA’s.
We leave here today at noon for our flight to Danang and then drive to Hoi Ann where we stop for 3 nights.We think Nha Trang is an Asian “Surfers Paradise”. It is very popular with locals as well as foreign tourists particularly Europeans seeking the sun at this time of year.
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