* Friday, Saturday
Early Friday, we arrived in Nha Trang in style on our bumpy night bus with bunk beds!!! We awoke whilst still on the road about 05:30 when the sun comes up (about an hour earlier than we've grown used to in Cambodia).
Early Friday, we arrived in Nha Trang in style on our bumpy night bus with bunk beds!!! We awoke whilst still on the road about 05:30 when the sun comes up (about an hour earlier than we've grown used to in Cambodia).
The sunrise was brilliant as usual. Ame undid her window and took a good little picture as we cruised along the east coast.
It was about 07:00 by the time we got to our hotel and we understandably had to wait a while before we could get our room. So we had a little brek at a nice restaurant opposite the sea and beach. First impressions of Nha Trang, were that it was a lot more set up and used to the needs and desires of the Western Tourist. The beach was very pretty, there are a couple of places to hire comfortable sun loungers like the Sailing Club and Louisianne Brewhouse. It is compact place and has a square of streets with good restaurants and nightlife etc. To be honest, after a few weeks of traveling, we were ready for a little bit of beach life. However, we took the decision to only stay here 2 days and 1 night as there doesn't feel that there's as much to see and do here and we're eager to get up to Hoi An. We might have been tempted to stay if we had the volunteering crowd with us from the past 6 weeks, but not enough to keep us here for just the two of us.
So with that decision made, we checked into our very good, spacious clean hotel room with sea views (for a whopping $14 for the night) and decided to have a potter about. We had traditional rice noodle soup for lunch and then headed off for the local on-beach water park for a little fun on some slides. We had a beautiful walk along the beach to the park.
Strangely, the park was completely shut. It was like a ghost town. With no explanation, we thought, sod it, let's go and lounge about on the beach at the Loisianne Brewhouse sun beds. This place also had a swimming pool, which you need when you've got a huge ocean in front of you; well I do anyway.
We lazed, read, slept, I listened to the "Utterly impartial history of Britain", went in the sea and the swimming pool.
It was all very relaxing and well worth the stop off in Nha Trang just for this.
We went back to the hotel and freshened up for the evening. We had a few happy hour drinks in the bars and then had traditional clay pot stew, which was very, very heavy on the fish sauce. Nice to try, probably not again though. With that, it was time for beddy byes after being awake since 05:30.
Today, we got up, had brek in the same gorgeous place as the day before and checked out (leaving our bags until the later night bus). In order to get over all the stress of laying on the beach the previous day and to prepare to endure it all again this afternoon, we needed to spend the morning in a thermal spa. So off we went about 5km up the road to the Phap Ba Thermal Spa.
Having already researched that we could get the house special private thermal mud bath for 2 for the mere price of $20 for an hour, it was an obvious choice.
So up we went to our bath. It was not quite as private as imagined - they pack quite a lot of people quite close but can't complain really as it was all very serene. Ame got in first:
Then myself. So covered in mud, we sat and enjoyed the scenery. Apparently it was doing our skin good. To me it was just out and out a good laugh and a good experience. Can't imagine I'll do too many mud baths, other than all the Hen do's I'll be invited to in the future...
For our price admission, we were free to use the pools, jucuzzi's and waterfalls (my particular favourite).
As it was Saturday, the place was packed with Vietnamese people as well so you knew this one weren't just a cynical tourist trap. Because of this the restaurant was very reasonably priced and we had what was probably one of the best meals we've had since being here. We shared Sesame Pork with Chili and Ginger and Spinach with Oyster sauce. Scrum.
So with all that relaxing under our belt, we felt that we might just have the strength to sit at the Sailing Club for the rest of the day. I finished my audio book, we swam again, and I typed this blog entry. All in all, can't really complain. Nha Trang has been very pleasant to us. As I write, there is "Rock Storm 2010" warming up for tomorrow, with badly sung metal songs by Vietnamese bands being played, and a stage being set up tonight at the sailing club called "Insomnia"... They've just been sound checking here and playing funky house tunes.
The 18 year old US girls near me look fairly excited. We are a little disappointed to be missing the beach party but we're telling ourselves it's going to be fairly expensive, loud and late and its not as tempting without the others for company. I hope the KIDZ enjoy it. Hoi An, and my dream suit, here we come...
So with that decision made, we checked into our very good, spacious clean hotel room with sea views (for a whopping $14 for the night) and decided to have a potter about. We had traditional rice noodle soup for lunch and then headed off for the local on-beach water park for a little fun on some slides. We had a beautiful walk along the beach to the park.
Strangely, the park was completely shut. It was like a ghost town. With no explanation, we thought, sod it, let's go and lounge about on the beach at the Loisianne Brewhouse sun beds. This place also had a swimming pool, which you need when you've got a huge ocean in front of you; well I do anyway.
We lazed, read, slept, I listened to the "Utterly impartial history of Britain", went in the sea and the swimming pool.
It was all very relaxing and well worth the stop off in Nha Trang just for this.
We went back to the hotel and freshened up for the evening. We had a few happy hour drinks in the bars and then had traditional clay pot stew, which was very, very heavy on the fish sauce. Nice to try, probably not again though. With that, it was time for beddy byes after being awake since 05:30.
Today, we got up, had brek in the same gorgeous place as the day before and checked out (leaving our bags until the later night bus). In order to get over all the stress of laying on the beach the previous day and to prepare to endure it all again this afternoon, we needed to spend the morning in a thermal spa. So off we went about 5km up the road to the Phap Ba Thermal Spa.
Having already researched that we could get the house special private thermal mud bath for 2 for the mere price of $20 for an hour, it was an obvious choice.
So up we went to our bath. It was not quite as private as imagined - they pack quite a lot of people quite close but can't complain really as it was all very serene. Ame got in first:
Then myself. So covered in mud, we sat and enjoyed the scenery. Apparently it was doing our skin good. To me it was just out and out a good laugh and a good experience. Can't imagine I'll do too many mud baths, other than all the Hen do's I'll be invited to in the future...
For our price admission, we were free to use the pools, jucuzzi's and waterfalls (my particular favourite).
As it was Saturday, the place was packed with Vietnamese people as well so you knew this one weren't just a cynical tourist trap. Because of this the restaurant was very reasonably priced and we had what was probably one of the best meals we've had since being here. We shared Sesame Pork with Chili and Ginger and Spinach with Oyster sauce. Scrum.
So with all that relaxing under our belt, we felt that we might just have the strength to sit at the Sailing Club for the rest of the day. I finished my audio book, we swam again, and I typed this blog entry. All in all, can't really complain. Nha Trang has been very pleasant to us. As I write, there is "Rock Storm 2010" warming up for tomorrow, with badly sung metal songs by Vietnamese bands being played, and a stage being set up tonight at the sailing club called "Insomnia"... They've just been sound checking here and playing funky house tunes.
The 18 year old US girls near me look fairly excited. We are a little disappointed to be missing the beach party but we're telling ourselves it's going to be fairly expensive, loud and late and its not as tempting without the others for company. I hope the KIDZ enjoy it. Hoi An, and my dream suit, here we come...
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