Nha Trang

I left Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday evening, catching a night bus north to the coastal city of Nha Trang. What many of the bus companies offered were open bus tickets to Hanoi as you couldn't get there in one go. All you had to do was declare your intended stops en route to Hanoi. My original plan for the 30 day visa was to do Ho Chi Minh - Mui Ne - Dalat - Nha Trang - Hoi An - Hue - Hanoi, and then once in Hanoi do a couple of side trips to Sapa and Halong Bay. I didn't have time on a 15 day visa to do all that, so I decided I would instead do Ho Chi Minh - Nha Trang - Hoi An - Hue - Hanoi, and give my planned side trips from Hanoi a miss. What I essentially did was remove the four rural destinations I planned to visit and set my focus on the visiting the five urban areas I planned to visit as in terms of getting to Hanoi you had to change buses in Nha Trang, Hoi An, and Hue irregardless. I basically ensured I had the minimum possible bus time, which was still around 1700km!

The bus ride was actually really comfortable, as I paid a little bit extra to take VIP buses instead of local buses north. The main reason I did that is because Vietnam is meant to be a little dodgy for muggings on night buses, and taking a VIP bus meant that risk was reduced. It also meant instead of trying to sleep in a seat, I got my own bed on board and there was even free WiFi! I arrived into Nha Trang at 4.30am in the end which was a lot earlier than the 6am arrival advertised. I therefore went down to the beach to watch the sunrise, and it was surprisingly really busy with people doing things like aerobics classes both on the beach and in the sea. It was a really nice sunrise, and shortly after I went to my hostel where the owner kindly let me check in early, which allowed me a couple of hours of proper sleep before going out to explore the city.

I was originally only planning to spend about a half a day in Nha Trang, being one of the cities you have to change buses in to catch your next bus north towards Hanoi. As I didn't have the opportunity to visit Mui Ne and Dalat prior and arrived there directly from Ho Chi Minh instead that plan would have given me two consecutive night buses which was very unappealing. That's why I decided to spend the night in Nha Trang effectively giving me two days to explore before catching another night bus north the following day. I went for a walk along the beach first thing which was incredibly clean by Asian standards, Nha Trang city basically lieing on a 7km long strip of sand. I followed the beach all the way to Hon Chong which were these rocks you climb on, giving you great views over Nha Trang Bay and some of the outlying islands.

I then headed to the Ponagar Temple, which were some ancient ruins sitting on a hilltop by the Cai River. It basically consisted of 4 towers all of which you could access, as well as a few outlying relics. The view over the river looking towards Nha Trang was nice from the top too. After crossing the river I visited the Dam Market although it was little disappointing, so I therefore went to the Long Son Pagoda which was this Chinese temple sitting beneath a large white Buddha statue, which again had great views from the top. By this point it was incredibly hot, so I went to the shopping mall for lunch and the air con, before heading back to the hostel via this gothic style Cathedral.

Come evening I went and checked out what was going on the beach, which was very busy with street entertainers and a particularly lively nightlife scene. I found it particularly interesting throughout the day the amount of Russian tourists in Nha Trang, and there was no exception in the evening with their opening world cup game on. From what I understand during the Cold War they built a military base nearby which still operates today, and because of that Russians like to come to Nha Trang on their holidays. I would have watched the football as many of the pubs I passed whilst out were bouncing with rowdy Russian's, although I was absolutely exhausted by that point!

The following day I just had a beach day as that's essentially what Nha Trang is all about. The beach had several bars hiring out deck chairs and stuff, although before relaxing I took a walk south towards the port and this lighthouse. Unfortunately when getting to the lighthouse the road up was closed which was a shame, but it was still a nice walk. I spent the afternoon at this place called Happy Beach which had things like old cars and bicycles on the beach. I found myself a nice hammock and stayed there for a few hours. Later that afternoon I had a look round some of markets and shops before catching my next night bus north to Hoi An that evening.