$3 Boat Trip

Goldfish on a bike - will the wonders never cease?
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We were surprised that the bus stopped at a decently priced hotel. Because the open bus tickets are cheap, they make their money by collecting commissions at restaurants and hotels that they stop at. Normally they're overpriced but the Ha Huong Hotel ($6) was really good.

There were a few hours left in the day and we decided to check our Long Son Pagaoda. We can't say that it's a must-see but there is a big reclining Buddha and a big laughing Buddha. Normally we successfully avoid having to pay more than required but a monk (of all people, they're not always saints!) got us and we parted with D20,000 as a donation.

...Sean sculled about an eighth of the supplies...

Us and the reclining Buddha statue
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We were going to see the cham towers but it was getting late. The beach sounded like a good diversion, except that it was absolutely packed - not the quite typical NZ experience. It looks like everyone heads to the beach when the sun starts setting, whether this is to avoid the sunlight (they mustn't get dark skin!) or for some other reason, we don't know. We were pleased to find D2,000 ice cream and frozen yoghurt 5 min walk from our hotel.

The main reason for coming to Nha Trang was the $3 boat trip (half price because we bought it with our bus ticket). We were crammed like cattle onto a boat with 30 Vietnamese and 3 other whities. Really good food, interesting conversation and the "boy band" saved the day. The snorkelling was terrible (we spotted spritacus bottlus amongst the few fish that were around) and we didn't bother about the aquarium, only 45 min but costing D50,000. Our ship's crew became the boy band at lunch and provided some excellent musical entertainment! There was also a free floating bar, but not much booze - Sean sculled about an eighth of the supplies i.e. half a bottle.

Nha Trang beach. Yeah right!
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From what we heard, Nha Trang can be good, but we preferred Mui Ne (quieter, less people - are we getting old?). There are plenty of bars but you need a scooter to get away from the crowded beach. After our day trip on the boat we caught the overnight bus to Hoi An.