I was in the waiting area at a Futa Bus Dalat station, staring emotionlessly into the void of our existence when a tall guy with his hair tied into a ponytail asked me to watch over his backpack while he goes to the washroom.
By the ease with which I understood him, should have guessed he was from Canada, more specifically – from Whitehorse, Yukon. He went there right before Covid started, and then was held hostage by the pandemic lockdowns beauty of local nature.
He showed me the pictures – it was, indeed, magnificent; I imagine travelling to that part of Canada would not only be breathtaking, but could also make one freeze in awe (plz appreciate the pun) by its own… aura, if you please.
He was going to Saigon, where the plan was to take a plane to Nairobi, and Nha Trang was his midway stop. We boarded the same bus, but got split up at the bus station, where I took a shuttle right to my hotel.
Nha Trang did not please me much for two main reasons.
First, the weather.
Disgusting.
Very humid, always cloudy, with that annoying type of rain which is not pouring, but still makes you take out an umbrella, and then after an hour of umbrella walking you are soaking wet head to toes.
On my first day here, I realized it was either me staying dry at a hotel, or at least trying to see something, but under the rain.
Wet clothing never bothered me anyway 🙂
I set out to the Museum of Oceanography, which featured two open aquariums with string rays and small sharks, but mainly a disturbing amount of preserved specimens in the formaldehyde containers.
I then decided to visit the bus office. Shout out to the reception at my hotel where she was supposed to check if the bus could pick me up right at the hotel, and then forgot. When I reminded her, it was late night and we agreed I would come downstairs the next day and see where we were standing. She did not warn me that the next day she was not working, neither did she warn the other girl about my request, who staring at me helplessly, and kept repeating “we don’t do it”. Guys, I hope you understand that the boomerang of karma will find you in the Booking reviews.
Turned out my destination is not super popular, but I was able to book a train instead of a bus, which only cost me 4$.
I then visited the Long Son Buddhist Temple, formerly known as Dang Long Tu. After a hurricane in 1900, it was rebuilt from scratch and moved to the footsteps of the mountain, where I found it, proudly overlooking the city.
The best decision of the day, was, however, the ruins of medieval Cham temple, widely known as the Po Nagar Towers. It had three floors to it, with the four temples (or towers), referred to according to the direction oriented (north tower, east tower, south one, etc). Unfortunately, it was the same story as in Da Lat – I was not allowed inside because of my shorts above the knee, and there was no Assia nearby to lend me her clothes 😦
Later that day, after hopping in for a foot massage in one of the spas that densely occupied the area, I was passing by the lobby and heard someone say “I know you”. Behind me was the Whitehorse guy, who took a one-night pause at the same hotel as I did, before heading to HCMC.
The coincidences did not end, as the next morning I met a friend from Da Lat at breakfast. At this point, the next person I would coincidentally meet would probably be Barack Obama.
…Second thing why I do not like Nha Trang too much is because they killed the Vietnamese authenticity. Its just a typical beach resort town, with no local culture that I love so much to explore, plus hugely diluted with foreign tourists (especially Russian; they had their own restos, stores, and travel agencies all over the place).
Perhaps due the high population and busy area, the seashore was dirty, and prices skyrocketed. I was really trying my best to see everything, and booked the tour for snorkeling, fishing village lunch, and mud bath, which cost me 750,000 dong. The tour ended at 3:00 pm. To compare, the full day at Mekong Delta which was much more packed and vibrant, cost 600,000 dong.
Snorkeling was a disappointment, and I am not sure I would be doing it again in Vietnam. The water was not fully clear, and while being a good swimmer, I am not a good diver, so I was not able to see the coral bottom nicely (which obviously required a dive). It also became quite dirty when they gave the tourists the bread to feed the fish, and gave out the fruits to feed ourselves. I really felt like instead of drinking beer and listening to party music on a boat, I would rather grab a net and cleanup the water. In Cuba, they were much more strict about it, and were trying to preserve the nature.
The mud bath was awesome, however. I am not sure how much the tickets were, as they were included in the tour price, but the place was very posh. Located on an island, they had floors with stone baths, going up the hill. The “mud” was just the homogenous mixture of water and clay; after a moment of hesitation, plunging into the warm and slippery bath was, of course, very relaxing.
Any guesses on the next stop?
romashos.blog 