Good times in Nha Trang!

Shortly after arriving at our hotel (Happy Hotel), it started raining, heavily. No worries won’t last long. We negotiated with the hotel to upgrade us for free to a sea view balcony room. To see the sea, all we have to do is stand in one corner of the balcony and lean half a meter over the rail, perfect! We showered, watched some tv and waited for the rain to stop. Finally, waiting got the better of us, we put on our poncho’s and headed out. Craving something different, we tried an Italian restaurant we saw in the lonely planet. It was good (Christine has had a bad Asian spaghetti incident in Thailand), we shared a pasta and pizza. Still raining we headed home after dinner.
Our receptionist had booked us onto a snorkeling, without us even agreeing! We woke up in the morning and it looked like a nice day. The tour was only $13 so we thought what the hell. We were picked up just after 8.30am. Promising, minibus, only eleven people. The port was only a short drive, with no factory visits on the way. Shortly later we were on the boat and cruising from port out into the islands. Only one interruption on the way out to the islands, and that is when we got pulled up and had the police board the boat. The boat had a good mix of people, a guy from Perth, a kiwi couple, Spanish couple, two English and two girls from America. At our first snorkeling stop, we jumped in and were pleasantly surprised by how clear the water was. After all the rain last night we were worried it may be a bit cloudy. The water was warm and there were plenty of fish and coral to see. After 40 minutes we moved on to our second dive spot. More chasing fish and then it was back to the boat for lunch. Our boat was actually tied to another tour and we ate on their boat, probably about 30 people all together. It was another big feast of fresh calamari and fish as well as noodles, rice and vegetables. After a bit more motoring around the islands we stopped for one last snorkel. This was cut short for some people, as there were a few jelly fish in the water which stung a little. We still had a decent swim, not knowing when we would be back again. The ride home was enjoyed with a beer in hand sitting in the afternoon sun. After a shower back at the hotel and a short walk on the Nha Trang beach we were met by Anna and Andrea, the Americans from our snorkel tour. It was their idea, but for dinner we ended up eating burgers in the Oz Café, they were good, but still looking forward to a real burger back home! The girls from NY are lovely. We finished the evening in the sailing club bar by the beach on the sand, for a pricey drink.

VinPearl was our objective the next morning. This is an island off Nha Trang beach that has an amusement park on it. We took the bus out of town and after buying tickets, we jumped on the cable car over to the island, which was an experience in itself as it has great views. We started with the rides, and soon found Anna and Andrea who had also just arrived. The rides were a bit old, but fun, there was a rickety old mini rollercoaster, pirate ship, merry go round and a few others. The main attraction is the water park, which the four of us visited next. The rainbow slide has six lanes so we were all able to race, to Christine’s disappointment Damien was the clear winner, twice.

There were a number of very cool slides including tidal wave. This we were able to ride two at a time in small rafts, into a half pipe type slide with a short vertical drop at the start. This was a bit crazy, as we weren’t expecting it to be that steep, then coming down the other side you are sliding backwards. Another crazy one was the Typhoon, which starts out quite calm in a closed slide, before falling sharply down and then spitting you out into a bowl shaped slide that you spin a few laps of before falling into a pool below. We rode a few other rides before retiring to the Lazy River, which is a slow moving river which you can swim in or ride tubes along. There is also a nice beach on the island and a wave pool that we didn’t get a chance to use. We ate lunch in the seafood restaurant, which was quite reasonably priced considering it’s in a theme park. Next stop was the aquarium which had a number of tanks filled with local sea life, much of which we had seen yesterday snorkeling so it was great to see. There is also a big tank which you can walk underneath, as sharks, sting rays and other large fish swim above you. We returned to the slides while the girls headed back to the main land. We had a few more goes on the rides from this morning as well as kamikaze, a long steep drop which you fly down before hitting a pool of water at the end. Just about done, on the way out we visited the games room, which had two storey’s of out dated but fun video games in a cool air-conditioned room, then it was back to the mainland on the cable car. After a quick shower we headed down to Louisiane Brewhouse for a beer with the girls before a late dinner. After a sleep in we headed out with a few things to do today. After breakfast we headed to the travel agent to reserve our bus seat for the following evening. With that out of the way we visited the pagoda and giant Buddha which is on top of a hill. Then it was on to a photo gallery of an artist called Long Thanh. This was quite small but all his works were black and white photographs of life in Vietnam, so very interesting. We considered walking to the market, but a bit tired we instead headed for a taxi back to the hotel. After a seafood pancake and spring rolls we headed back to the Louisiane Brewhouse for a swim in the beach and a beer. We really like it here, it has nice beer and restaurant, a swimming pool, palm trees and private beach. Service wasn’t great but we eventually got a few beers! Our evening turned into a bit of a progressive dinner, on the beach were some locals cooking fresh seafood, we had barbequed prawns and squid. We finished the evening back in town with chicken served in a coconut and dessert in the Italian restaurant. So far we have loved Nha Trang, and had planned a chilled out day before taking the night bus to Hoi An. We started with breakfast at Louisiane Brewhouse. The food was good but the highlight was swimming in the pool in the brewery. We meandered back to the hotel to check out and were then picked up to be taken to the Thap Ba hot springs.

On the way we met Sarah who’s from London, travelling by herself, she joined us for the afternoon. When we arrived we were shown to the thermal showers for a rinse and then into the mud baths. After 20 minutes of slopping around in warm mud, we were to sunbath, allowing the mud to dry, before another mineral shower. Then it was into another tub, this time full of hot mineral water. Finally it was another shower and then off to the warm thermal swimming pools and water fall. We had about two hours on sun lounges and in the pools before returning back to town. Very relaxed we took it one step further with an hour full body massage. It was so nice, and Christine had a good chat to the girl giving her massage. Leaving massage parlour we were so relaxed we were struggling to lift our feet. We had a quick dinner before being picked up for our overnight bus journey to Hoi An.