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Other entries in Nha Trang

Beach side fun

We arrived very early in the morning and started looking for some where to stay. It seemed to be just like the east coast of Aus, most places were booked up, we sat down for something to eat and gradually the rooms started to free up as people were starting to check out. The rooms were very comfortable, the usual AC, Sat TV and ensuite. Somebody had said that Nha Trang is like Thailand used to be before it got very touristy. I can understand them, as there were very few new finished big hotels but lots of half built ones and foundations going in for the rest of them. There were plenty of resturants all touting there menus, and the food was heaven. Sea food of every kind, some cheap and some just as expensive as back home.

We spent the first day on the beach, the water here, as well as the air temperature, was a lot warmer than at Halong Bay, so spent along time in the water swimming out to the bouys and surfing the waves in the shallows. The island just across the bay had a huge sign on it saying 'Vinapearl' just like the Hollywood sign. We could only guess that it had something to do with the pearl industry in Vietnam. There was a cable car that ran from the main land out to the island. We found out later from our dive instructor that it cost $6million dollars to build and hardly ever worked. Might have had something to do with cable cars not working in the wind and the seaside is usually windy, im sure they would have thought about that before they built it unless the KJB were getting to close. He said it was built by the Russians as a 5star holiday resort. He said that it didn't having anything to do with laundering Russian Mafia money :o) .

Christina and I had already done some diving before so we booked onto 2 fun dives the next day aswell as a refresher course as it had been a long time since we had dissapeared below the ocean. Line and Jan hadn't dived before, but we managed to convince them, or bully them, to go for a try dive to see if they would like it. We met our friendly dive insturctor from South London, Jeff, and we began our days adventures. It was strangly familiar to be under the sea again with fish and bubbles for company even tho it had been almost 2years since the last time. We didn't see anything that intresting down there, the usual colourful fish and a few corals, but I didn't seem to be bobbing up and down as much and crashing into things so much, well, coming close to crashing. The 2 dives were over very quick even tho it was almost an hour each time and we started to make our way back to the harbour.

When we landed we were taken to a local cafe for dinner and just before the dinner I witnessed my first actuall crash. Now im guessing the Cray Twins (Very notorious gangsters of a few years back for those who haven't heard of them.) were from south london, cos our dive instructor, Jeff, managed to knock over a moto as it crashed into him. I don't know how he managed not to break anything or start bleeding everywhere, but the bike came off worst. Bits of plastic and the gear change were left all over the road. The bike was going way to fast and Jeff did a full sumasult over the top of the bike. After that he had a few choice words for the moto driver that was dazed and shocked and walked off to by a can of Coke. When Jeff came back to the cafe, the moto driver came up to us and demanded that Jeff pay for the damage to the bike. We all laughed at him and he dissappeared.

Top Tip: don't mess with South Londoners.

We had heard of an Island called Monkey Island just a short way down the coast so we booked on to a tour that would take us to see some of the local sites and across to the monkeys. It was a small island givern over almost all to tourists with a very annoying go-karting track right in the middle of it, apart from that you could have been any where.The monkeys were very inquistive and got very close, the LP had warned about dissapearing sunglasses and hats but none seemed to get that close. The seas around the island were very warm as well just ready for swimming after a hot day looking for Monkeys.

The trip back was a long hot one and stopped off at some of the impressive local sites, one being a huge white female Bhudha that could be seen from the surrounding valley and the other was a hindu temple that was distinctly different from everything else that I had seen in the rest of Veitnam and China.

We hired bikes the next day and headed off in search of the Oceanarium at the other end of town it was very difficult to find as is the case with most places out here, signs don't stand out very well or are hidden by everything else thats out there. It was a very different aqauriam to those back in Europe, most things here seemed to be stuffed or pickeld with the odd living thing dotted here and there for good measure.

After we had had enough of pickled fish and birds and seen the exhibit on natural disasters around the world it was time to find the mud baths. These as it turned out were at the other end of town from which we had just cycled. It took some finding as well. The name of the mud baths in the  LP was completly different from the one that was part hiddern on the side of a building. We eventually found it after some hunting and the cool mud felt very refreshing after the Hot Mineral Shower. This much to the dissapointment of the staff turned into a mud fight. After quite a bit of mud ended up out side the bath and over most of the passing staff they said it was time to wash it off and then soak in the Thermal pool for an hour. It was just about right. As hot as NZ but, thankfully hotter than up in Sapa, unfortunately it seems that Danish people can't stand the heat so I had the hole tub to my self for most of the time till it cooled down a bit. After that it was time for a swim in the pool that was cooler than the Thermal Pool at 42C but still wam at 30C. Its ashame the muscles were so relaxed because they weren't working very well whilst swimming and  the ride back to the city, took a while to get balanced and cycle in a straight line. The very loose handle bars weren't helping much either.

The next morning it was time to say good bye to the Danes and catch a flight back up to Hanoi, it was only delayed by 4 hours and was a pretty uneventful flight. I made a few last minute shopping trips before sending everything home and saying farewell to Vietnam.

Wow what a country, Iwould definitly recomened this place to anybody, and will definelty come back agin, enough services to keep those of you who like home comforts happy and still rugged enough to be still picturesque. They also know how to do tourism out here a lot better than the Chinesse.

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