After an 11 hour train ride south, about 330 miles (or 530 kilometers) from Da Nang, we got off in … Da Nang. Just kidding. Little Russia. Okay, Nha Trang, but it’s hard to tell a difference. From either.
I’m sure the locals would strenuously disagree, but if you take the western, modern, touristy section of Da Nang and move it south, you have central Nha Trang. It’s a beautiful beach city with a strong western influence.
If Da Nang is Vietnam light, Nha Trang is Vietnam lighter. Much like in Da Nang, we have basically zero plans here other than walking on the beach.
As an aside, there sure are a lot of Russians in Nha Trang. A lot. It is not uncommon to find signs in Vietnamese and Russian, or even just Russian. We expected to be outnumbered by Chinese visitors, but not Russians too.
After being assaulted by Huda signs in Huế and, to a lesser degree, Larue signs in Da Nang, there is relatively little beer advertising in Nha Trang. The locally brewed beer is San Miguel, a Philippine brand. San Miguel Light is okay, but much pricier than other beers. Unfortunately Huda is not easy to find in Nha Trang. Back to Tiger we go.
For the first time since Thailand we have proper southeastern Asia weather. Hot. We’re expecting sunny skies and temperatures over 85° F (over 30° C) for the entire week. After largely experiencing cool and overcast weather for the last few weeks in Vietnam, this is a welcome change.
After being in Nha Trang for several days, we finally decided to do something, a visit to Po Nagar Towers (Tháp Bà Ponagar). This site contains several Chăm towers including an ancient Hindu temple dating to the 8th century. (The Chăm are the original inhabitants of central Vietnam, later being conquered and annexed by the Vietnamese.)
Tickets to the site cost 30,000 ₫ each (about $1.20), which seems about right. After paying for your ticket, a walk up about three flights of stairs is necessary to reach the four towers. Each has a shrine inside. A small garden is in the back.
We stayed at the complex for about thirty minutes, much of which was spent watching a traditional Chăm dance performance. You can look at four towers for only so long. Good views are found looking south over the river towards downtown Nha Trang.
If you need a souvenir from Vietnam, you’ll find just about everything imaginable from the vendors set up just outside the gates.
After some back and forth deliberation, Stephanie and I finally decided to take a snorkeling tour. Our hesitation had to do with the time of year. Good snorkeling and diving conditions generally do not occur until April. The first week of March is a bit early.
There isn’t a lot of sense in going snorkeling if the visibility is poor or the marine life nonexistent.
Not wanting to go to the beach every day, and with not much else going on in Nha Trang, we opted for a half day snorkeling trip, costing $32 each, with Nha Trang Sea Star, a dive operator. If the visibility is horrendous, at least we’ll have a nice boat trip.
Snorkeling tours sold by travel agents tend to include other activities such as jet skiing or parasailing, which did not interest us. We just wanted to snorkel. As it turns out, many dive companies accommodate snorkelers on dive trips.
Nha Trang Sea Star picked us up in front of our hotel at 7:15 AM to begin the half day trip. Eight of us were on the trip. Only Stephanie and I snorkeled; the other six were diving. We were on the boat heading out to sea by 8:00 AM.
At 9:00 AM we anchored at our first location off Hòn Mun Island, the site of a protected marine park.
We were provided with a mask, snorkel, fins, and a wetsuit. The guides seemed flabbergasted that I declined a wet suit as the water’s surface temperature was only 24° C (75° F). While the water wasn’t exactly warm, it wasn’t cold.
Water visibility was not as good as I had hoped, but it was much better than expected. So we were pretty happy. Mostly we saw corals, reef fish, and sea stars. No sharks, turtles, or rays.
For the first half an hour or so we were the only snorkelers in this area. Later another boat came and dropped off 10 or so snorkelers, but they largely stayed away from us.
I didn’t keep track of time, but we must have snorkeled for an hour or more. Because Stephanie and I have snorkeled previously, the guides simply told us where to go and left us alone. We stayed reasonably close to the boat as asked (within about 30 meters). When we saw the divers returning, we figured it was time for us to head back to the boat as well.
After a short boat ride to the other side of the island, our second snorkel session began about 10:30 AM. Here water visibility was as bad as expected, if not worse. After half an hour or so of snorkeling in somewhat murky water, we quit.
A traditional Vietnamese lunch (noodles, rice, pork, fish, fruit, water, tea) was served on board around 11:30 AM. Afterwards it was a short ride back to the boat dock and then a van ride into town. We returned to our hotel a little after 1:00 PM.
Notwithstanding the lousy visibility at our second snorkel site, it was a nice trip overall and one of our favorite activities in Vietnam.
Befitting a beach destination, Vinpearl has an island resort in Nha Trang, Vinpearl Wonders. A cable car over the bay leads to hotels, a golf course, water park, and an aquarium. The cable car looks cool, but we were not interested in going to a water park or the nightly shows.
Tickets cost about $35 each for an unlimited day at the park (depending on the deals available on the website and type of ticket desired). A round-trip ride on the cable car alone costs around $8 per person, which was not tempting, either.
As with the Vinpearl resort near Da Nang, we skipped this one without much thought.
On day four in Nha Trang (day 55 in southeastern Asia; day 30 in Vietnam), we decided that we are done with Asian food for now. Until we get to Cambodia in a few days we are going to subsist on water, cokes, tea, apples, chips, McDonald’s, some place called Texas Chicken (remarkably similar to KFC and, perhaps coincidentally, right next to a KFC), and Tippy’s Tacos, a decent Mexican place.
We are praying for a food miracle in Cambodia, specifically a decent kitchen in our apartment in Phnom Penh so we can go to the grocery store and eat in. Otherwise, it’s a few more weeks of rice dishes and desperately searching for American fast food.
To Cambodia we go.
Garrett and Stephanie
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