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’.

We had heard such amazing things about the town of Hoi An that we decided to dedicate 5 nights. Located about an hour from Da Nang, these 2 places couldn’t be anymore different. Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and we all know how much I loved the last UNESCO town, Luang Prabang. Let’s just say… we were not disappointed.

There is a phrase that goes around the long term travelling circuit, travel burnout. It’s hard to believe that travelling to a new location every few days, sightseeing all day everyday, meeting new people, walking endless km every day, waking up at odd hours to catch buses and trains and, researching and booking in spare hours can be tiring… but it is! Ok… maybe when you read it back, it does sound a little tiring. I can only describe it as ‘good and content’ tired, but tired nonetheless. We have had our own personal travel burnout crop up every few weeks in the last 2 months or so. It’s understandable really now. We have been travelling for over 5 months. Hoi An was going to be our haven. We had no plans except to sleep, eat good food, drink excellent Vietnamese coffee and get some clothes tailored. The whole 5 days were perfect. It’s very hard for me to remember exactly what we did each day in Hoi An, but the place stole our hearts. During the day the streets are lined with beautiful French colonial buildings and at night the streets are lit up with hundreds of glorious lanterns. I’ve never seen anything like it before and I doubt I ever will again.

During our time here we ate the most tasty local food we have had in Vietnam so far. Two restaurants that stood out were Morning Glory and The Mango Rooms who we visited with our lovely American friends and Tim and Annie (I told you they would be popping up a few more times). We enjoyed some of the highest quality food I have ever eaten for the price of a gastropub meal. I had the most succulent duck with chocolate sauce and Simon had a tuna steak with mango relish. Both were incredible.

We drank some beers and coffees in some of the local cafes and bars. On our first night we ended up at Dublin Gate (yes, an Irish pub), with live music and the duet were just brilliant. Live music, next to the water and all the lanterns around us. Who could possibly complain? Not me! Another night we went with Tim and Annie to Tiger Bar (we went live here), listened to some awful (I mean excellent really) music and had some amazing people watching experiences. A highlight included the most enthusiastic DJ I have ever seen… I am being sarcastic, he was like a statue, and an overly enthusiastic dancing man. He was so committed to his moves. Maybe the DJ knew he couldn’t compare so didn’t even try?

We had some clothes tailormade. Vietnam is known as a World class destination for tailoring and we had the best experience with a shop called Mr Xe in Hoi An. Simon had a 2 piece cashmere suit made, 2 shirts and a tie. I had 3 dresses and a causal shirt made. It was such a great experience to be measured up, chose your material and style and know the clothes will be perfect for you. Simon had 3 fittings for his suit and my clothes were a perfect fit after only one fitting. We can’t recommend this shop enough and even if you only get one item made, it’s really worth it for the experience. Every time we walked past the shop after our last fitting the staff waved and said hello to us. Great customer service. Our clothes will be coming to an event near you soon!

On other days we walked around the little islands of Hoi An and took photos of the beautiful buildings. One place worth noting is the Japanese Bridge. We saw a similar tiled roof bridge in Hue, but this one was even more special. We walked around the markets, trying some local dishes including Cao Lau, Banh Mi and these yummy chewy donuts.

We visited Cai Bae beach one day by bicycle. We rode through some small back lanes, watching the locals prepare and dry the Cao Lau noodles in the sun and farmers tending to their rice paddies as we passed. Simon only had to reattach the chain on his bike once and we didn’t get killed by the scooters so it was a very successful ride. We ate some lunch at a beachside cafe giving us free lounger rental, Simon went for a swim in the massive waves (he lost his mask :(), and I just relaxed.

We also, as always, played with puppies.

For once, we didn’t hit all the tourist spots, we didn’t go in any of the heritage buildings or museums in Hoi An and it was great! We didn’t need to. The place was perfect regardless. Hoi An is now up there with Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang as my top S.E Asia locations. Beautiful towns with history are definitely the way to my heart when travelling.

 

We arrived in Da Nang after a 3 hour train ride through the countryside and along some beautiful coastline. The coastline reminded us of Cornwall in so many ways, with all of its beautiful coves and white sandy beaches, just a lot more green.

Da Nang is always spoken about in travel guides and online as a hub for onward travel to Hoi An. Most people that we met stayed for a few hours or 1 night at most, but we decided to stay for 2 nights in the hope of experiencing a less touristy destination. Luckily we arrived on a Sunday so we were able to see the famous dragon bridge (made by the same architect as the eiffel tower) breathe fire at 9pm. I have to admit I really wasn’t expecting much from this and thought it would be a bit gimmicky, but we really enjoyed watching the fire being shot out of the dragon and all of the beautiful lights along the water edge. What we didn’t expect was what came after the fire. I won’t ruin it for anyone else, but after the fire breathing just bear in mind it’s not over. After this we found a Thai restaurant, which was a nice change from the Vietnamese food and got an early night.

The next day we took our time before we headed out to explore Da Nang. We were right, Da Nang has been the least touristy city during our time in Vietnam and as we wandered through the streets we didn’t see any other tourists. We were on a bit of a mission to buy a new USB stick, a memory card adaptor and a wireless charger for Simon’s phone as his USB port hasn’t been working. We made the right decision by heading more into the locals area to buy these items as they were really reasonable in price.

We jumped on a local bus later in the day and headed to the Marble Mountains. To call these mountains is a little bit ridiculous, as they are 5 mounds, of reasonable height, but by no means mountains. The 5 mountains are all named after elements; water, fire, metal, wood and earth and are made of limestone and marble. We walked up the only Marble Mountain which you can, My Son (water), and started exploring all of the hidden areas that were on offer.

Our first stop was to a cave carved into the marble. It was so beautiful and everywhere you turned there was something exciting to see. I particularly enjoyed the buddha carved into the rock and also the way the light was flowing down into the cave from the roof.

We climbed to the highest point next for some panoramic views over Da Nang. What surprised me the most was the amount of development in the area. Every patch of land along the coast was being turned into a hotel or villa. It became very clear that Da Nang would be very different in 10 years time.

We spent the rest of the time wandering around some more caves, visiting some pagodas and generally dying from excessive sweatiness. I’m glad we visited, but I wouldn’t say it was an absolute must do if you came to the area. On the way back the bus driver tried to over charge us. He failed to realise that we had already travelled on the bus earlier in the day so knew the cost and his passenger was an obsessive researcher who wouldn’t let herself be scammed on a public bus in any country. We refused to pay the extra and ignored him. Luckily this happened close to our stop anyway and we made a big deal of getting off the bus in protest of his rudeness. Bus conductor 0 – Us 1.

Later in the evening we met up with Annie and Tim who we had met in Halong Bay. We went out for some dinner at a lovely place called Universal Bar. Whilst waiting for our dinner we saw a rat run along the electricity cables outside. It was massive! After dinner we went for a few more drinks and just had a lovely evening looking out over the water.

The next day we were leaving for Hoi An, but decided to organise our transport for later in the day so we could enjoy My Khe beach fo a few hours. It was a gloriously warm and sunny day so we hired some loungers, soaked up the rays and read our books. Tim and Annie joined us later on and Simon went for a swim too. It was a little chilly for me.

Da Nang had been great and so much better than we expected. I would definitely visit again if we return,  but because of all the development i’m not sure it would be the same unfortunately.