"Snorkeling" and around Nha Trang

Nha Trang is supposed to have good diving and snorkeling.  I'm guessing where they take boat tours isn't the best as the snorkeling was crap.  We spent a day wandering Nha Trang and have since arrived in Da Lat.  I had a paniced moment last night when I noticed my laptop although plugged in was not charging.  Fortunately we easily found a computer repair store in Da Lat (I was shocked at how easy it was) the guy replaced the cord on my power adapter and $5 later I was good to go! I felt so much better that it was fixed to easily.

Oct 28 – Boat Trip

We signed up to go on a snorkeling boat trip tour today. We were to be picked up at 8:30ish so we hit up the Pho restaurant down the street for breakfast. We were picked up and taken down to the pier. At the pier there was many boats waiting to take people out to the islands. Luckily our boat wasn't packed full of people, probably about 20 people compared to the 40 odd on other boats. Our first stop was Hon Mieu with Tri Nguyen Aquarium. The aquarium is used to breed species and study them. We saw some sea turtles, eels and lots of other fish. Afterwards we boated along to Hon Mot where we got to go snorkeling. Unfortunately the equipment provided sucked and we didn't see all that much fishwise. A bit of a disappointment. The current was quiet strong so it was easy to float away, the swim back to the boat was quite a work out. From this island we continued on to Hon Mun where we stopped for lunch. Lunch was also disappointing, we expected a sea food lunch but I don't think there was anything sea foody involved. There was some live music from the crew which also involved people on the boat singing. After that nonsense we all got in the water again and hungout at the floating bar, they were giving out free vodka fruit juice so we all got involved. The floating bar was a lot of fun. From this island we continued on to Hon Tam where we went ashore to chill on the beach. The sun had kind of gone in and the tide was high so there wasn't much beach to speak of. We played some cards with a nice Dutch couple we taught them asshole. We got back on the boat and were taken back to the harbour and the hotel. We made plans to meet up with the Dutch couple after dinner. Beau and I were craving burgers. We've been trying to eat Vietnamese as much as possible but we both were dying for a burger. We got a tasty, albeit thin, burger and some cheap beers for dinner. We met up with the Dutch couple, got some jars of alcohol and played some more asshole. It ended up being a good day and night even though the tour wasn't quite as expected.

The Aquarium

Me snorkeling

Our boat with Funky Monkey Tours

Oct 29 – Around Nha Trang

We were going to book our bus ticket to Da Lat for today but the bus was apparently full so we must wait till tomorrow. That did mean we got to sleep in! We weren't sure what to do with our day, Beau was talking about going to some waterfall but I preferred to check out Nha Trang city. It was probably a good thing we didn't rent another motorcycle because it rained on and off till late afternoon. We were undercover eating breakfast when the first down pour occurred. It was torrential. The rain stopped so we set off to pick up more sunscreen and shampoo. Don't worry Mom I'm wearing sunscreen everyday and making Beau too. After making our purchases we started walking along the beach.  It started raining lightly but we figured it would pour on us sooner or later. We back tracked to an ice cream parlour and no sooner had we sat down the heavens opened. We had some nice ice cream, I think it was technically gelato, and played some cards while waiting for the rain to stop. We set off down the beach again without any trouble this time. It was a cloudy day with a lot of wind so not idea for swimming. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll down the beach. We had to detour back to the hotel because Beau had some bites on his foot and his sandals were irritating them, so we went back for Afterbite which turned into a nap. After having a little snooze the weather had cleared to reveal some sun and blue skies. We continued our wander down the beach and then came back up through the city. We found our way to the restaurant area and after checking out several menus we settled on one. It had good prices on food and beer. I had fish in a clay pot, it was sooooo good. Beau had a burger again which was also good, much meater than the night before but apparently not as tasty. I think I had the longer stick on this one. We ate pretty early since we hadn't had lunch so we wandered some more. We found another restaurant with inexpensive beer (I think we all know what our priority is, but it's cheaper than anything else) and settled down for a couple. The bar across the street had a costume party going on. I keep forgetting it's almost Halloween, Beau wants to dress up though. We had some onion rings to go with our beers, I was majorly craving them. We went back to the hotel but not before picking up some bus snacks for tomorrow. Our bus picks us up at 7am and doesn't arrive till 2pm. Tomorrows going to be a bit of a wasted day :(

View from Nha Trang beach

View from Nha Trang beach

A little sand crab, actually one of the larger ones we saw

My Son and Nha Trang

We've had a couple of early mornings and long days.  We got up before the sun to go to My Son just outside of Hoi An, got on an overnight bus to Nha Trang, sort of slept on the bus, arrived in Nha trang around 7am and explored the city.  It has definitely felt like more than two days have passed with all the stuff we did!

Oct 26 – My Son and bus

We were up before the sun to go on our My Son tour, pronounced Me Son. Part of the attempt to draw in tourists for this early morning tour was to see the sun rise at My Son. We didn't get there in time for the sun rise but fortunately breakfast wasn't too bad, eggs and a baguette. We arrived at My Son after the sun had risen but it was nice and quiet with just our group of 20 there. Our guide actually guided us around to the different sites explaining some things as she went. My Son was a Hindu place of worship, it was abandoned by it's Cham builders several hundred years ago. The Vietnamese people pushed the Cham's out of the area. My Son suffered much destruction during the American/Vietnam war. You can see bomb craters in the earth. It's very sad that some of history was destroyed during modern war. There has been some reconstruction of My Son, some before the war. Archeologists still do not know the recipe to remake the bricks or how the bricks were stuck together as no mortar was used. The difference between the bricks is striking. The new bricks are blacked with moss and are much rougher on the surface, while the old bricks have little moss growing on them and are still smooth. It's very cool to see ancient engineering besting modern engineering. We didn't spend too long at My Son but it was enough to see everything. We got back on the bus just in time, it started raining. The rain had stopped by the time we got back to the hotel. We had a little nap, checked out, and got some breakfast. We headed down to the Central Market, something we should have done sooner and checked out pearls, fruit, and food. I picked up my dress, it now fit properly and had the embroidery finished. We escaped the heat by getting some 3000d draft beers and some spring rolls. We wandered Hoi An some more and beaded back to the market for some very cheap food. We bumped into Christina and Mark on the way to the bus and said our good byes. Hopefully we'll get to see them again somewhere. The bus to Nha Trang wasn't too bad. We did have to stop for a bit to change a tire though. At least the bus had A/C when it was running and the windows opened.

My Son

 

 

My Son

My Son - New brick on left, old brick on right

Hoi An River Side

Oct 27 – Nha Trang

We arrived in Nha Trang this morning and surprisingly had actually been able to get some sleep on the bus. I did get to see the sun rise over the ocean. We found a hotel with little trouble, the bus dropped us off in front of it. We weren't all that sleepy so we set off to find breakfast. This was harder than we thought it would be. There are a ton of hotels around us but not too many restaurants. We found a little place selling rice and whatever you wanted on top. I got egg and Beau got squid. It wasn't bad and it was cheap. We rented a motorcycle, again, first we went the Long Son Pagoda behind which was a huge seated Buddha. It was super hot out. Afterwards we headed to the Po Nagar Cham towers. These were built by the same people as My Son but seemed in better condition. There had been 10 towers at one point but not only 4 remain, they were built between the seventh and twelfth century. I like My Son better, it had more character, especially being set out in the jungle, these are right in the city. The Cham towers were very busy with worshipers and tourists. It was only noon so we set off to find Bai Dai Beach, a nice beach 20km south of Nha Trang. We actually found it with only a little bit of driving around. It had beautiful white sandy beaches and minimal tourists. We went for a dip to cool down and then got some lunch. We had BBQ clams, crab and noodles. Yum! We hung out on the beach for a bit and then went swimming again. There were some good waves to play in, a few people were surfing. It was fun just bobbing around. We dried off and headed back into Nha Trang. We got cleaned up and headed out for some dinner. We had seafood hot pot. It was delicious. The staff seemed to think we didn't know what we were doing so they dumped all the food into the hot pot for us. We were going to cook stuff as we ate it but apparently that isn't right. It turned out very nice though.

Big Buddha

Cham Towers

Cham Towers

Bai Dai Beach

mmm Sea Food Hot Pot