Nha Trang: June 2015

Nha Trang

We needed a vacation, so we spent a week in Nha Trang. 🙂 Thanks to accumulated points, we were able to stay in the Intercontinental and enjoy some luxury. When we arrived, we were hungry. We grabbed a sandwich at the airport, and asked a girl if we could share her table. She looked uncertain at first, but after looking around and seeing that there was nowhere else for us to sit, obliged. We started talking to her. Her name is Minh and she lives in Nha Trang. We peppered her with questions like where to eat and how to get to our hotel. She told us the cheapest option was to take a bus, but the fastest and easiest was a taxi, but warned us that it was a long ride. She also wrote down a couple of recommendations to eat. She was very shy at first, but started to open up the more we talked. We told her to get in contact with us if she is ever in California, and we’re now Facebook friends. Ha! We opted for the cab ride. At first we thought our driver didn’t know where he was going, but then realized we had mapped the route from the wrong airport. There are two airports in this small city. Go figure.

Nha Trang goodness

We were so happy with our hotel. The breakfast was to die for. It was typical big international hotel buffet, but with a Vietnamese twist. We looked forward to breakfast everyday, and honestly, it was the highlight of Nha Trang!

We went for the beach. This is one of those places people go to stay in a 5 star hotel right on a beautiful beach, for next to nothing, relatively speaking. Our hotel had a beautiful pool overlooking the beach, a very nice gym, and all the comforts we were looking forward to.

We did very little. The only tourist activities we did was visiting the Long Son Pagoda to see the reclining Buddha, and the Tháp Bà Ponagar temple. At the reclining Buddha, a man was following us, asking if he could be our guide. He gave us this schpeal about working for an orphanage, and the money goes to the kids. I’m sorry. We didn’t believe him. Maybe he was telling the truth, but we are very leery in these parts, politely said no, and moved on. Only, the man didn’t move on. He kept following us. As we walked up the steps to the Buddha, he finally backed off, and tried his luck with someone else. After taking pictures with Buddha, we climbed some more steps to get to a temple. As we were walking up, we saw the guy looking at us and talking on his phone. When we arrived, we noticed other men loitering. When we emerged, they were staring at us.

Long Sơn Pagoda

We came up with this conspiracy story that they were communicating with each other, and they were going to rob us, or badger us. There were maybe 5 men in all. There were very few tourists up here. We didn’t feel comfortable, so instead of approaching the temple, took a couple pictures from a distance and returned.

The following day, we stopped by the Nha Trang Cathedral before heading over to Tháp Bà Ponagar. Who would have guessed Nha Trang had a Cathedral? It was small, but well kept. It sits on a hill, overlooking the city. It was a nice stop. We then moved on to Tháp Bà Ponagar, which is a Hindu temple built by the Cham people. There are several towers with different goddesses inside. The towers are built using baked bricks, which gives it a warm reddish-brown glow. We both found ourselves sitting on a bench in the shade just admiring the beautiful views.

On the walk back to the hotel. Javier decided to get a haircut. It was a local place, and while I waited, there was this horrible dog cry coming from across the street. It sounded like it was dying, which it might have been. My first thought was that they were killing it for food. I must have had a troubled look on my face because when I looked up, the barber was smiling at me.

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Nha Trang

The rest of the time we were at the pool. We went to the beach once, just to say we went, but when given the option of a gorgeous pool, or a crowded beach, we chose pool. We ventured out of the hotel for lunch and dinner. Sometimes we would just snack by the pool for lunch. After all, we were stuffing ourselves at breakfast. 🙂

We found a pho place (of course). The weather here was better than Hanoi. Still hot, but not nearly as bad. So, we’d still sweat while eating dinner, but it was worth it. We tried some of Minh’s recommendations. Our first night, we went to a barbecue place. We were the only tourists, and weren’t sure what to order. We learned the word “beef” and went ahead and ordered it, since that’s usually a safe bet. They brought out a plate of marinated beef strips, which we happily barbecued and ate with our rice and veggies. Success!!

Nha Trang

I introduced Javier to Melona bars in Nha Trang, and subsequently, we picked one up almost every night on our way home. It was to the point, where there was a different worker at the store we were frequenting, and when she tried to overcharge us, we were able to argue with her. We actually enjoyed walking around the neighborhood at night. We found small stores where we bought snacks and water. We earned some funny looks when we walked up to the hotel with a 5 liter bottle of water, loaded with bags like we were coming home with the weekly groceries.

Nha Trang is a big destination for Russian tourists. I always find it interesting when certain groups of people flocks to specific places. We heard Russian everywhere we went. Many of the tourism workers are Russian, and several signs are written in Russian. It was interesting.

Nha Trang

We visited the night market, which was your typical market selling souvenirs and clothes, but there was actually some diversity, which made it kinda fun. We found a Baskin Robbins. Javier was so happy until we went in and realized they didn’t have mint chip. We told the workers, “You’re Baskin Robbins, how do you not have mint chip?” They just looked confused. We left laughing but a little disappointed. As we were walking down the street, I spotted someone with a boba drink. We were on a mission. We found the place, and I was able to get my boba fix.

Nha Trang nights,

There was a cute cafe next to our hotel. We spent a few afternoons there drinking Vietnamese coffee (our second of the day) and eating desserts. The whole week was relaxing. Even with hiding under an umbrella most of the time, we were a few shades darker than before, we were healthier thanks to the wonderful gym, and we had happy bellies thanks to all the delicious food. We wanted to stay longer, but sadly knew we should move on. We realized it was cheaper for us to live in this 5 star hotel, than to live in our last apartment in Marina del Rey. Incredible.

To see more pictures of Nha Trang, click HERE.