Chad and Sharon Moore

After the sleepiness of Mui Ne, Nha Trang seemed lively and bustling and we were ready for it !  Nha Trang has a lovely long beach but you do get bothered constantly by touts selling everything from drinks, snacks, massages to pedicures.  I have noticed that in Vietnam they tend to invade your personal space. There will be miles of empty beach and they will choose to sit within a metre or so away, and it won’t be one or two people but about 10 !  They are also very touchy feely and think nothing of manhandling you.  Aside from this, they are very friendly and trusting and go out of their way to help you. 

We arrived late on a Friday evening and after knocking on about 10 or so hotel doors, we finally got the last (windowless) room in a cheap place.  Nha Trang ís very much a Vietnamese holiday/party place so gets especially busy at weekends.  We actually stayed in another 2 places, one of which was La Suisse ($22) which was nicely furbished but our room was above the kitchen so it got rather noisy early on in the mornings.  The last place was Perfume Grass Inn ($12) which was not as posh but had a great shower, fab breakfasts and was cheaper :-)

We went on a boat trip and visited four islands which was great.  The first time I went into the sea I wore a life jacket, tyre and my float !  I could hardly move and the jacket kept sliding up to my ears!  I was so buoyant I could have saved everyone on the boat if it went under :-) We đid a bit of snorkelling first which was amazing, there were so many wonderful fish.  I did actually go into the water with just the tyre on and it was an awful lot more comfortable !  Chad and I got stung by jelly fish and I have to say, it was quite painful.  Loc (our tour guide aka Funky Monkey) put some white vinegar on me which helped.  Chad had to suffer with his as he is a man :-)

We stopped for lunch which was a huge table laden with soooo much yummy food such as tuna, prawns, noodles, spring rolls, etc :-)

When lunch was over, we were introduced to “Nha Trang’s Boy Band” which was Loc and a couple of the other guys from the crew.  They were very entertaining.

After lunch it was time for free happy hour at the floating bar.  I donned my new best friend, my tyre, and I was in the water like a shot and merrily splashed my way over for a drink or three… hic :-)  The stuff they serve is a bit strong but it is such a fantastic feeling just bobbing around in the water.  There are even cup holders on the bar.  I was allowed to take the tyre onto the next island with me which was great.  I am soooo going to buy one when we get back home.  I can just see myself at Shelly Beach bobbing around with a nice chilled bottle of Hardys…. he he :-)

We actually did the same boat trip again a few days later as it was such good fun.  Funky Monkey remembered us and gave us a free beer….. sweet :-)

 We even managed to fit in a couple of rugby matches which were showing at a local Irish bar called Shamrock.  We watched Australia lose in the Tri-Nations against the All Blacks, the bar was heaving so even though we lost, it was a good atmosphere.  I treated myself to a manicure/pedicure whilst Chad was watching the rugby and it was very cheap. 

We thought we’d have a break from the beach so took a stroll to Long Son Pagoda and climbed the 152 steps :-( to the white Buddha (14m high) which is seated on a lotus blossom and has great views of Nha Trang.  Luckily it was early evening so the steps were not too much of a struggle.

We enjoyed ourselves at Nha Trang and were impressed by how many restaurants and bars there are. 

We have bought ourselves ‘open tour’ bus tickets which take us from HCMC to Mui Ne, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue and finally Hanoi.  All of this for only $18 each :-)  We have our first overnight trip coming up so we'll see how that goes.

Next stop Hoi An which i've been looking forward to as i've heard so much about the tailors.