From Hoi An we had to travel back to Da Nang to get the train to Nha Trang (yes, all the places sound the same). The car ride was about an hour and the train about 9 so a full on day of travelling was ahead of us. The train ride was pretty uneventful and the scenery nowhere near as beautiful as the ride from Hue to Da Nang.

We made it to Nha Trang just before 11 pm and took a taxi to our accommodation. The taxi driver was pretty funny as whenever a Russian tourist crossed the road wrong or was driving the wrong way on his bike, he pointed at his head and crossed his arms. I can only assume he was trying to say no brain. Nha Trang has a reputation as being a Russian primarily, but also Chinese resort holiday destination. Immediately we noticed this, with many signs being written in Russian as well as Vietnamese as well as the endless number of Russian tourists walking around.

The next morning we got up early, got breakfast and met up with Annie and Tim again. Today was going to be a very fun day. We were going to Vinpearl Land. Yay!!! We knee the rides wouldn’t be that thrilling as they never are in Asian theme parks, but Vinpearl Land offered a lot more than a theme park. On site there was an aquarium, shopping centre, food court and the most exciting of all, a waterpark. Vinpearl is on an island, so to get there we took the World’s longest ocean cable car. Here are some of the views on the way. We decided it would be fun to have a few pictures with characters too.

We spent the morning messing around on a few rides including: the runaway train, the drop ride and another roller coaster. Everyone else went on a spinning ride too, but i’d rather not throw up. We also played in an arcade they had where all the games were free. Amazing!

It was time for lunch and then we headed to the waterpark. We spent about 3.5 hours climbing up stairs and zooming down the rides. It was soooo much fun!!! Some of them needed rubber rings, either single or double, and others you went down on your bum. There are 2 slides that stood out to me. Firstly, a massive group one which could take 6 people and threw you around like crazy and secondly, the tsunami. The tsunami is a down and up ride, hard to explain, but i’ve put a photo down below. Very terrifying.

In the afternoon we went to the aquarium and also rode a go kart/luge style ride, called the alpine coaster, that we had to queue an hour for. It was pretty fun, but your speed was dependent on the people in front and much to Simon’s annoyance, the girl in front was very slow. The aquarium was brilliant though. Initially,  I was thinking that the tanks were too small for some of tortoises and terrapins they had, as well as some of the larger freshwater fish, but as we went through I saw that the tanks seemed to be well maintained and looked after. It was lovely to see a green turtle, white tip and black tip reef sharks and some sandtigers again. All in all, the aquarium was way better than we expected.

As we were leaving the park we stubbled across a water light show. The water and lights change in sync to the music. The whole thing was so mesmerising and beautiful.

We went for dinner that night at a restaurant called Lanterns. So so tasty. We even went back the next lunch and night. Haha! Afterwards we had heard about an underground beach bar called Havana which a few people had recommended. This was NOT a bar… it was a rave! Tim, Annie, Simon and I stood in disbelief worrying that our ears were going to explode and our organs fail due to the vibrations and noise. Simon enjoyed it the most because he’s weird like that. We had one drink and left, but wow, what an experience.

The next day we recovered from all of the excitement by visiting a mud bath. Nha Trang is known for its mud baths and we visited Thap Ba for our experience. We paid about £25 for a private 20 minute mud bath, 30 minute mineral sock (this was like sitting in a giant amazing smelling cup of tea), some hydrotherapy showers, jacuzzi and access to the pools. It was definitely money well spent. We enjoyed being overly buoyant in the mud and getting very dirty. All in all, a relaxing day.

We left early the next day for Da lat which is located about 3 hours away up in the cooler mountains. But, what did we think of Nha Trang as a whole? Yes, there are a huge amount of Russian and Chinese tourists around. Yes, the whole place feels like a resort and yes, things cost a bit more because of this. I feel like we spent our time in Nha Trang doing the only 2 activities that appealed to us and therefore I wouldn’t go back. It was fun and I’m very glad we went, but we’ve heard horror stories about the snorkelling and dive boats being over ridden with tourists and that is just not our thing. Don’t miss out Nha Trang if you go to Vietnam, but choose your activities wisely.

A few shots from a quick peak at the beach. Can anyone explain this sign? I particularly enjoyed trying to understand the defecation one. A good example of the saying ‘lost in translation’.