Rain Rain Go Away

Eva dared Rob to wear his mask & snorkel on the street, which he did of course
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Nha Trang is to Vietnam what Durban is to South Africa - a coastal resort, party town, and water-sports mecca.  With its beautiful stretches of long curving beaches, its off-shore islands and Marine Protected Areas, its hot mineral and mud spas, its amusement and waterparks, its temples and pagodas and its plentiful nightlife it has fast become the Vietnamese playground for locals and visitors alike seeking a slice of the good life - especially those interested in scuba diving in Vietnam, for whom it has become the premier dive spot in the country.

Lots of rain on our first day in Nha Trang
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We arrived in Nha Trang after an 11 hour overnight bus ride from Hoi An.  Eva, the German girl who we had met on our day-trip to My Son (see our Hoi An Blog entry) travelled with us and together we declined the offer of the bus company to check-in at their company hotel (stopping as they do in Vietnam at their own hotel first - usually over-priced and poorly located).  Instead we shouldered our packs and walked further into the centre of town.  Denise and I had originally thought to stay at the Perfume Grass Hotel (recommended in the Lonely Planet) but, after looking at both that and the Countryside Guesthouse (see seperate review) there was no competition - we check into Countryside and were so glad we did - it was perfect.

We Dived Vietnam...and Ate Way too Many Lobsters

So we chilled at the Sailing Club
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Our first order of business was to check out our scuba diving options - which we knew would be limited to non-existent considering the fact that it had been and was still raining quite hard.  Rainbow Divers had their HQ right over the road from our hotel, so we ducked through the rain and asked about fun diving - the answer, as expected, was that visibility was reduced to almost zero so the fun diving wasn't much fun!  We decided we would stay a few days anyway and hope that the rain would clear up.

Playing pool...
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Eva dared me to go out onto the street wearing my diving mask and snorkel - saying that if I did she would buy the next coffee- always up for a dare I did, and we ran from the hotel, through the pouring rain, to the nearby Sailing Club - a great, upmarket bar/restarunt/beach resort right on the beach.  There we met up with Nick and Claire, a couple from the UK, and their friend Nick - and ended up playing pool and enjoying WAY too many liquid refreshments until the wee hours of the next morning (Happy Hour 'buckets' at 25 000 Dong each are dangerous!). That night we also met up with Marty (from New Zealand), who Eva knew from Sa Pa - he mentioned to us that we might be interested in the lobster lady he had eaten at that night...150 000 Dong for a huge lobster of more than 1kg - barbequed right on the street corner, served on small plastic chairs and tables with free crabs and prawns!  We agreed it sounded heavenly and that we would try it out the next evening.  We ended up dancing the night away at the Sailing Club until well past 01:30 the next morning - joined by Lachy and Lisa (the Aussies from our Halong Bay trip)whom we had also met up with on the streets earlier.

with friends (Nick, Eva, Denise & Rob)
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Saturday was another major landmark for us - DAY 200 of the trip!!  It was still raining hard so we walked over to the nearby Guava Bar for breakfast (can't recommend them highly enough - especially the 'Howard Burger' - bacon, cheese and egg burger with fried potato wedges and mayo!).  The girls went shopping (which became a major activity for us in Nha Trang) and then we caught a taxi to the famous Thap Ba Nha Trang mineral springs and mud baths (don't pay more than 40 000 dong each way for the taxi - we got ripped off).  The baths were great - and we spent three hours louning in the warm mud, hot water, mineral waterfalls and swimming pools.  It was actually a perfect activity for a colder, rainy day - since the water and mud is so hot.  After a quick change and long shower back at the hotel we found the lobster lady and gorged ourselves (3 huge lobster between two!).  Later in the evening we met up with Lachy and Lisa and together with Marty and various others we sampled the beers at the Louisiane Brewhouse (another very nice, upmarket beach club) and then moved on to the Sailing Club again for another late night - the last act of which was to head back to the Guava Bar for the tail-end of their Halloween party.

Rob & Marty
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Sunday, not raining, started with another Guava breakfast, more clothes shopping and another visit to the dive shops - Rainbow Divers advised that with 8-10m visibility we might be able to have a decent fun dive the next day - so we paid and reserved our places, after which we hit the beach to enjoy the very rare sun!! We ended up back at Louisiane for sun-downers, followed by more lobster!!  Then back to Louisiane for a dip in the pool (quite chilly), more games of pool and back to the Sailing Club to end off the evening.

Denise & Eva
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Monday was a diving day!!  Sunshine, decent weather and an ocean that looked much less muddy than for the 3 days before!  The Rainbow Divers were very professional - the boat and equipment and even the lunch was all great - but our experience was ruined by the dive guide they assigned us.  'Viet' was introduced to us as their 'Most Experienced' Vietnamese dive guide - he may have been experienced as a diver, but as a dive guide he was terrible! Our first dive site, Debbie's Beach, looked good from the surface, but his dive briefing was very patchy (no route info, no 'lost buddy' review etc.).  His next blunder was to pair Eva, the least experienced diver, with Alex - their local dive photographer - who was more interested in getting good pics to try to flog back to us later than in staying with her - the result was that she actually surfaced during the dive and neither the guide nor her buddy even knew!  The visibility was very poor - 1-2 meters but at least we saw our first Lionfish, a moray, a cuttlefish and a few other notable sightings.  The second dive, at Moray Beach, was even worse.  No dive briefing at all and at 18m Viet managed the amazing feat of losing all of us!  We surfaced to find him floating more than 30m away!  All in all he was the worst dive guide we have ever had - but at least we did see a few new marine dwellers and got to say we dived Vietnam!  After a much-needed afternoon rest we treated ourselves to some pampering - I had a full-body massage, Denise had a foot massage and Eva had a manicure and pedicure.

Drinking Happy Hour buckets
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Tuesday was our last full day in Nha Trang - so we were determined not to allow the ongoing rain spoil it for us.  We caught a taxi to the famous Long Son Pagoda with its monks, reclining buddha and massive Seated Buddha atop the hill.  After the pagoda we walked down the road to the nearby Long Thanh Gallery - where the black and white photos of Vietnam's foremost photographer are displayed.  The works are stunning - with incredible mastery of light and the life of the Viet people.  We even got to meet the artist himself - it was an experience highly recommended to anyone even vaguely interested in photography.

...and dancing with our friends Lachy and Lisa from Halong Bay
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Nha Trang was a truly suprising place.  In spite of all the rain we had no trouble finding tons of great things to do and to explore, and it was, without doubt, one of our best stops in Vietnam.