We got the Sinh Tourist bus from Dalat to Nha Trang.
It was a great road down through the mountains, really bendy and great scenery, took 4 1/2 hours.
We hadn't heard great things about Nha Trang, we read that it was super busy, full of high rise hotels, and Russian tourists. It was all of these things, but we just got lucky I think. We got off the bus at the Sinh tourist office and wandered a bit to the right , a block or so behind the beach, to get away from the pushy taxi drivers. We found ourselves up a little lane with a few local restaurants and a mini hotel (Nha ngi) called UB59. The woman who ran it looked a bit like Jabbba the hut, but seemed nice enough, and we got a great little room with a comfy bed (1st one for ages!), a balcony, air con, and a tv for just 10 dollars a night. After we checked in we read a few comments on trip advisor, there were a few warnings about things going missing from your room but we didn't have any troubles, making good use of their security cupboard and the little chains that came with our padlocks just incase!
Our little hotel, that's our balcony. And the little restaurant next door.
Right beside our hotel was a little local Vietnamese resturant that sold great coffee and an amazing breakfast which Matt had every day, called Bo Ne. It came on a hot skillet, and it was a sizzling piece of beef, onion, and a fried egg in a tomato based sauce, with a baguette on the side. It was his favourite breakfast in Vietnam, and didn't find one better! Their scrambled eggs were fab too, just like I make them with cream, yum.
Local market view from our balcony
Smallest Banana in the world?
We hit the beach and it was really nice. Yes there were lots of Russians on sunbeds, but we walked down the beach a little towards the cable car over to pearl island and were able to find a nice quiet spot. The waves were really big, you couldn't surf because it was just a shore dump but it made getting in and out of the sea pretty interesting!
Matt enjoyed sitting on the beach and watching the Russians getting pounded, great entertainment he thought. The weather was so hot you had to get in. When I got in for the first time, I miss timed badly and a massive wave came. Matt said I was like a rabbit in the headlights, and didn't know what to do. Instead of diving through it, in my indecision I just sat down! it exploded on me and dragged me under! Just got my breath and another wave hit. Came up laughing. Feeling stupid, but laughing. Matt laughed. Pig.
A sea otter
We got talking to a couple of nice Irish chaps who come to Nha Trang for four months every year. They said the waves were the biggest they had seen, and quite often it was like a millpond. They also said that although there were quite a few Russians on the beach there were no where near as many as usual, probably because the Rouble was doing so badly. Bonus.
More crazy moped shots
We walked the 45 minutes up to the train station to buy tickets to Danang for the next day. A soft seat was 325000 VND (£10), not bad for a 91/2 hour trip.
Next door did 2 for 1 pizzas on Thursdays so we bought four, two to eat and two to take on the train the next day up to Danang. Up here for thinking! :-).
......So the next day we packed up our cold pizza and headed for the train.
The carriages were not too bad, they were like car seats and we had air conditioning, although it seemed to go off periodically. The train was pretty slow though. Apparently it takes the same time for the train to travel from Saigon to Hanoi now, as it did in 1930!
Only this week the main train had hit a truck, killing the drivers of both. We had no dramas though. We played cards to pass the time, and there were two local chaps behind us who were trying to talk to us, but the Vietnamese phrase book we had was rubbish. A local guy who could speak a little English joined in. After that we had a right laugh. Turns out these two, Duk and Len were retired soldiers. Len had been shot in the face. Duk had 9 kids, 2 different wives though, he was 63 but looked way younger. They were very interested in how heavy Matt was. When he told them they couldn't believe it and told the whole carriage he was heavier than the two of them combined!
Lovely Len and Duk, they'd been to Dalat for tet (new year)
We arrived in Danang at 22.45 and took a taxi to the hotel. We were only overnighting here before heading to Hoi An. The next day we tried to find some breakfast and walked miles to only end up in a local place on the street. It wasn't bad though. I wasn't feeling that great but somehow walked what seemed like miles to find the bus stop for the locals bus to Hoi An. It was sweltering and we were both knackered when we finally got there, then a local turned up who said he was from Hoi An and had just done a train station run, and he would take us back with him for the same price as the bus, to save him going back empty. We wish he had turned up a little nearer our hotel! We jumped in, and a French guy joined us.
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