When we put together our itinerary for Vietnam, we recognized that we’d want to “settle down” somewhere for a bit because we would have been traveling a lot (three nights here, two nights there etc.). We also thought that it sounded like a good idea to spend Christmas on the beach. We booked ten nights in coastal Nha Trang because it looked like a decent beach and I had heard that if you want to go diving in Vietnam, this was a good spot. We were aware of some mixed reviews, unpicturesque tall buildings and that most of the other tourists would be Russian.
When we first arrived in Nha Trang it was pouring and the forecast showed no signs of stopping for the next ten days. I was cranky and miserable about this. It was raining incredibly hard, the kind of weather where if you are outside for even one minute in a raincoat or with an umbrella, you’re drenched. You don’t go to Nha Trang for indoor activities. Luckily our hotel was nicer than we expected and the wifi was good. This allowed us to spend the first few days planning future details of our trip (Hong Kong, Japan, Tasmania!). Then, three days before Christmas, something magical happened: the sun came out and never left! We headed over to the beach and were disgusted. The water was brown, not beautifully blue like the pictures we’d seen. Also - the beach was covered, absolutely covered, with trash: clothes, empty plastic bags, shoes, bottles, cans, etc. Gross. We had read reviews of other beaches in Southeast Asia (Phu Quoc, Vietnam for example) and decided to skip them because of how negatively people talked about the beaches: beautiful sand and water covered with enormous amounts of trash. It was so bad in Nha Trang that I attempted to cool off in the water, but couldn’t even get myself to go in because as I entered, my legs were being bombarded with trash. This is just not what the beach is supposed to be like. We wondered if this unexpected disgustingness was due to the storm? Fortunately, it was. By Christmas eve all of the trash was gone and the water was returning to its pretty shade of blue. We spent a few hours on the beach each day, including Christmas (and had Christmas turkey dinner at the Cheers pub, the meal and service were great).
Other travelers we met had raved about a multiday motorcycle tour they did through the Vietnamese countryside with a group called Easy Riders. We enquired about doing a one day adventure since we had already paid for consecutive nights of accommodations in Nha Trang. We went out for the day and it was fun, but we stayed local to Nha Trang which means we didn’t get to witness the countryside in that region like I had hoped for. This was a reminder to me to be very clear about what you want in a custom itinerary and understanding whether or not it can be accommodated. Oh well. Two men on motorcycles picked us up at our hotel and we set off.
First we stopped by the Po Nagar temple, then a fish pier and our last stop before lunch was the Ba Ho waterfall. Walking around the local fish pier was cool but it was also kind of gross. Of course it smelled fishy which isn’t exactly pleasant and it was a mix of awesome and disgusting to see the fish coming off the boats and being separated into various categories and covered with ice. There were numerous types of fish, including sharks, squid, rays etc. It made me hope that before I order fish at a restaurant - it has been cleaned, really, really, really well.
If you’ve been looking at our pictures and following us on Instagram (_no_permanent_address_), you know that we’ve seen a lot of waterfalls on this trip. I can think of ones we saw in Scotland, Norway, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. This one was the best! It takes the top spot for three reasons: not only was it really beautiful, but there were hardly any other tourists there and we could go swimming. Not having swimsuits with us didn’t stop us from taking a dip!
Ba Ho waterfall near Nha Trang, Vietnam
Next we stopped in a local village to see two women making mats and placemats out of hemp. It was interesting and we picked up some souvenirs that we have no room for. We haven’t been buying souvenirs on this trip because we don’t have space to carry them around and don’t want to deal with finding a post office and shipping things home. This is starting to make me sad at times because I do want some mementos from our travels. Most of the time I just remind myself that we have beautiful memories and photographs so when we return, I’ll just need to frame some favorites.
Handmade hemp mats and rugs.
Our last two stops were to the Long Son Pagoda where we saw the biggest Buddha we’ve seen so far, and to the Oceanography Institute. At the Institute we saw lots of fish that we had seen diving in Thailand. As always, seeing the sea turtles are what made me smile the largest.
Jake developed a head cold during our time in Nha Trang but luckily I didn’t and so I went diving. A divemaster we had met in Koh Lanta recommended Rainbow Divers in Nha Trang so I went with them and had a great time. The day on the boat was very professionally run which is exactly what I needed after our horrible experience in Koh Lipe with Forra Diving. I dove with an American divemaster, Mike, and two guys originally from the U.S. who now live in Kuwait and Dubai. Mike was incredibly excited to take us out as they have very few American tourists in the area. At the surface, we constructed a dive plan I was comfortable with and I told Mike that I was nervous. I downplayed how terrified I actually was to get back in the water. It didn’t help when we jumped in and I looked underwater and saw how poor the visibility was. I remained calm and as we descended I realized that the visibility actually wasn’t bad and in fact it was better than what I had expected it to be in Vietnam. After the descent, and during the entire 48 minute dive I had zero anxiety. I was back to enjoying diving like I did during my time on Koh Lanta. The diving wasn't quite as good as in Thailand but we saw a lot of beautiful coral and fish. I spotted one of the two nudibranch (sea slugs) we saw and the cuttlefish which resulted in me gaining the nickname “hawkeye” on the boat. The divemaster couldn’t believe that I spotted them and was telling everyone on the boat that I was a hawkeye and that they should go diving with me. My Dad would have been proud. Nudibranch are relatively stationary creatures and the one I spotted was probably about 1.5 inches long. The cuttlefish was something special too because usually they are skittish and this one hung out with us for awhile changing its color several times. Exactly why they change color is unknown, some believe that it is to communicate with other cuttlefish. Do I look like a cuttlefish? It was the first time I saw black saddled toby fish and saw a few dozen of them. They are less than 10 centimeters and so cute! I also saw a harlequin sweetlips for the first time which was my favorite sighting during the two dives.
In the end, staying in Nha Trang for ten days worked out well for us. We got some trip planning done, relaxed on the beach, had fun playing in some really large waves, enjoyed our rooftop pool, swam in a pretty, refreshing waterfall, ate some great pho and other vietnamese food and I got my fix of chicken tikka masala too.
Overall, I think that the itinerary we planned for Vietnam was slightly amiss. However, we are very fortunate that this is the first time in six months that I’ve felt that way. We decided to skip Hoi Ann and Da Lat wasn’t even on our radar. In retrospect, we should have visited these places. I also don’t think we should have skipped Ho Chi Minh City, we should have spent at least one night there. I guess we have some reasons to go back to Vietnam!
~ Jesslyn