The travels of Tim and Megan: Nha Trang, Vietnam

Nha Trang

We left Hoi An and travelled south to Nha Trang on Saturday. We had hoped to fly from Danang (just outside Hoi An) directly to Nha Trang, but we discovered that all of those flights for the next week or more were booked. Our other options were a 9-hour train ride or an 11-hour bus ride to Nha Trang. So we flew from Danang to Ho Chi Minh City and then Ho Chi Minh back up to Nha Trang. It was a bit more expensive, but saved us a lot of travelling time and was a lot more comfortable!

Our arrival in Nha Trang wasn't the best, as we were harassed by first a taxi driver and then two hotel owners who just wouldn't take no for an answer. They eventually drove us away from their hotels with their nagging. We are now staying in a nice hotel called the Rainbow Hotel, right in the centre of Nha Trang. It even has free internet, which is a bonus, given how long it takes us to write these blogs.

On Saturday night we had a few drinks and watched Arsenal seal a top 4 spot in the premiership with a 2-1 win over Bolton which made us feel better about Nha Trang in general. We also had a drink and played some pool at a bar called Crazy Kim's, which is a bar set up by a Canadian woman who is raising money to stop child sex abuse in the area. It's a great idea and has a cute little school at the back where street kids are taught English and Vietnamese - the walls were covered in their stories which were pretty sweet.

Sunday started slowly and didn't get much quicker, as we headed to the beach after brunch and spent most of the day there. We've included some photos to make you jealous - the beach really is beautiful and the water is wonderful. Tim hasn't been for a swim yet though! However, we're thinking of hiring a jet ski today and given our previous records on jet skis, will probably land in the water more than once.

Nha Trang is Vietnam's big beach resort and while it is not anywhere near the scale of Phuket in Thailand, it still has a bit of a nightlife going on. We decided to join the action last night and went on a "pub crawl" starting at about 4:30pm. We made it to 8 places before we chucked it in, all that sitting on the beach and cocktails of questionable strength got to us in the end. However, the excitement of the night was that Tim wrestled a crocodile! It was at least 7m long and weighed close to a tonne, the locals said they'd never seen anything like it when Tim jumped on it Steve Erwin-style. Photo below as proof.

One of the pubs we went to is a place called Blue Gecko where a waitress sidled up to Tim and complimented him on his English (!) and asked if Megan was his girlfriend. We thought she was putting in some (unsubtle) moves on Tim but the next thing out of her mouth was "she is very pretty, I like her face!". It was all very amusing, especially when she got up on a bar stool next to us (she was so small she had to kind of climb it like a tree) and lent against Megan's arm for a while. We think she just wanted to be friends.

Update on the beard vs handlebars mo...thanks for your votes, the fans have spoken and the consensus is to keep the beard for a few more days and then do the Merv Hughes...exciting times.

Our time in Nha Trang has been largely uneventful. It has involved a lot of us sitting on the beach fending off beach vendors (who incidentally, have no imagination or entrepreneurialism whatsoever - there are about 100 beach vendors wandering around at any one time, but they only sell one of three different things: books, cigarettes and massive poppadom-type things. Honestly people, use your heads, we want water, pineapple and sunscreen). Unfortunately, despite our best sun smart efforts, we have each encountered a little bit of sunburn...nothing serious though.

On Tuesday morning we got up early (about 9am) and hired a jetski down at the beach. Jetskis are expensive, but worth every cent. It was around $30 NZ for 15 minutes, but extremely awesome. We nearly lost Megan off the back a few times, but we're both still in one piece! Then we went and hung out at a "brew house" called the Louisiane Bar right by the beach for most of the afternoon. This place is awesome. They have a big swimming pool that customers can use, and they brew their own beer (they do a fantastic Belgian style wheat beer that is almost as good as Hoegaarden, but about $1.90 a handle (we just know Dave is jealous right now).

Then we hired some pushbikes and braved it riding through the city, up to the Nha Trang Cathedral, which was pretty cool, a French-Gothic style cathedral on a hill, but ruined a little by the Neon light outline around the outside of the big crucifix above the alter...very tacky.

On Tuesday night we bar-hopped again (it never gets old) and managed to find the tallest Vietnamese woman we have seen yet. We couldn't let the opportunity pass and managed to arrange a photograph of her standing next to Tim...note she was in heels as well (you see why the whole "Giant man" thing came about)!!!

Wednesday was another slow, relaxing day spent on the beach chairs at Nha Trang beach. The highlights of the day were Tim's farewell to the beard after 24 days of glory (the beard has been replaced by an equally stunning Merv Hughes handlebars moustache), and our visit to the local carnival after dinner. While there were hardly any people at this carnival, we still had a great time trying out the "flying wheel" (we were strapped into into little aeroplanes that spun around like a carousel but also went up and down while they spun - brilliant), the ferris wheel and our personal favourite the dodgem cars. Each of these rides cost us a small fortune of 50 cents each. Cheap laughs, especially as Tim's knees were up around his ears in the dodgem cars.