Nha Trang trip

Trang and I took the bus (8 hour trip from Saigon) to Nha Trang, which turned out to be my favorite place I visited in Vietnam.  Nha Trang is a beach town with many different types of restaurants serving all types of food,  so most people could find a restaurant serving t.  It was here I found out the best ice cream is Vietnam is Fanny’s (http://www.fanny.com.vn/en.html) ice cream, particularly the dragonfruit flavor.  We stayed at the Diamond Bay resort (http://www.diamondbayresort.vn/en-US/default.cco) which was pretty nice.

Although I amazed I don’t have any pictures, Nha Trang is famous for the natural hot spring mud bath place Tháp Bà Hot spring http://www.thapbahotspring.com.vn/index.php?ha=home which we went to.  The mud bath wasn’t really what I expected though, as it was like getting into a shallow lukewarm medium tub of kinda a muddy liquid that had the consistency of really soapy water, but it wasn’t soap.  You could also float in it (although it was hard because it was only like a foot deep), like the salt water of the dead sea.   I kinda thought it would be deeper, warmer, thicker, & in a bigger tub.  Surprisingly, although the mud bath isn’t too hot, everything else you do there is decently hot (not burning, but hot) spring water.  The rinsing area, the washing off bath, the entire pool, they’re all hot.  Finally there is a normal pool at the end which is kinda nice because Vietnam is a hot place and you don’t really want to be in a hot spring water pool, under the hot sun, in a hot place.

Also in Nha Trang is scuba diving.  It is like $30 for one dive or $60 for 2 dives from http://www.scubazone-vn.com/tour_e.html .  Some foreigners worked there which I thought was kinda cool, because it was something other than teaching English for a cooler job.  We went for 2 dives and it was fun.  I jumped off the top of the boat, diving into the water.  It is a little scary doing that though as if you slipped or didn’t jump out far enough you’d definitely hit the deck of the boat below you head on and probably hurt yourself pretty bad… so of course I jumped off twice as the first time wasn’t caught by the camera.   you can also take a Gondola/cable car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondola_lift out to the islands, which I thought was odd and cool at the same time.

Lastly we saw the Thap Ba (Po Nagar Cham Towers) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po_nagar .  They’re old and kinda unique looking.   It was kinda odd that they seemed to be making a lot of new replicas (or similar towers) of these towers along the road the bus took to Nha Trang.

There was a once a month beach party at the Sailing club bar http://www.sailingclubvietnam.com/ which we went to. They have a cover charge of like $6 or something.

You can get a lobster along the cement walkway along the beach cooked for you for about $5.  It was good, but I have never had lobster so I have nothing to compare it to. I also ate it in like 4-5 bites.

The old King of Vietnam’s palace is here up on a hill.  Visiting it was not interesting at all.  The view of the boats from up on the hill was the best part.  Also there is some restraunt and a beach down a hill from the palace, which, I’m not sure, but it seems you can only get to if you pay a little bit to tour the palace area.  I don’t think it is worth going to the palace area though, it is like a big old run down building with no one around.