Clarification: Nha Trang is not a valley. It's actually the most popular beach tourist destination in vietnam; however, it's where I felt a little lower on this trip. After leaving beautiful Mui Ne and the peace and calm and good people we met, we were greeted once again by the bustling city life of Nha Trang. I have to admit that every vacation starts off wonderfully before hitting a bit of a brick wall, and this was it. There was no air conditioning on the bus for about an hour, which was exhausting. All the hostels were booked up at first so we took a double room for three people. Fortunately the food was good and cheap. I think the lack of sleep and the heat and the people were just getting to me.
And how true it was. Yesterday was an amazing day full of coincidences. Ice cream for breakfast. Looking for a tour guide we met in Mui Ne, who we finally found. He was a bit pushy Mr. Huy but he did take us out of the city a little into the traditional "canoe" - it was a round boat with a heavy paddle - not very maneuverable at all - fortunately we had canoeing expert extraordinaire Paul Lore with us - we made it to a little Buddhist island. Just before we finished touring the island and as we were preparing to leave we ran into a lady who told us all the food was vegetarian and it was all free, since yesterday was a full moon. We sat down for a "snack", which turned out to be something like 20 dishes for the three of us!! And while we were eating we met a Nha Trang university student Thuy who invited us to tour her university.
After leaving the island via the boat and paying off Mr Huy - 30,000 Dong each, which was way too much but we were ready to move on at that point (it still only translates to about $5 USD for the three of us). Nha Trang university was nice, and we met Thuy's friend Vien and also another vietnamese english teacher Thu, who turned out to be our interpreter. After some drinks we agreed to meet up for some dinner that night - our treat, they being students and all.
We ended up spending our next couple hours swimming at the beach, playing with the crabs that were floating through the water and taking a much needed nap - there was no power at this time, as there are rolling blackouts in vietnam. As well, yesterday was a partial Lunar eclipse which was pretty striking as well! We ended up going for dinner at a great Vietnamese open air restaurant with no english menu - definitely a locals spot = and had amazing food and amazing company - I'll try to post some photos soon. Paul even tried a bunch of the really spicy squid -= he wasn't great with the tentacles but ate everything else! What a meal...followed by Karaoke! Asian Style! Our own room =- this was Paul's first experience with this -= and it was great. Also great to be serenaded in vietnamese as well. It was truly an epic night with some local vietnamese people who were just so happy and so much fun to be with. Great food, great company, great singing - for a total cost of about 500,000 dong - less than $35 USD to pay for everybody for the whole night...wow ;-)
So we're moving on tonight to Hoi An - I've heard they've got great vegetarian food and a slower atmosphere. Looking forward to this, and some new suits, and just being for a few days. We're realizing we're starting to get tight on time so it will probably be followed by a plane ride back to Ho Chi Minh and a bus ride to Phnom Penh in Cambodia - we unfortunately will not have time for Laos at this juncture of life. We've decided to take it slower and be a little less ambitious.
Recommendations: Pho Bien Hotel in Nha Trang - it was 20 USD for a three person room in a very nice location by the beach and great front desk staff.
Food - cafe des amis - across the street from the hotel - great little restaurant with reasonable prices - more around the corner from the hotel and across the street.
Hope all is well in world - see you all soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment