Nha Trang is one of the most important tourist hubs of Vietnam, thanks to its beaches with fine and clean sand and the clear ocean water with mild temperatures all year round. There are several resorts — such as Vinpearl, Diamond Bay and Ana Mandara — and amusement and water parks, in the city and on islands off the coast. The possibly most beautiful street of Nha Trang is Tran Phu Street along the seaside, sometimes referred to as the Pacific Coast Highway of Vietnam.
Lying off Nha Trang is the Hon Tre Island (Bamboo Island), with a major resort operated by the Vinpearl Group. The Vinpearl Cable Car, a gondola lift system, links the mainland to the five-star resort and theme park on Hon Tre Island.
Nha Trang is a stopover for annual yacht races starting in Hong Kong. In recent years, the city has welcomed many five-star sea cruises. In addition to sailboat racing, Nha Trang provides a rich variety of tourist activities for visitors. Island hopping, scuba diving, water sports and other sporting activities can be enjoyed.
The local cuisine is most famous for fresh seafood and barbecued pork rolled in rice paper. The area's bird's nest soup is deemed one of the best in Vietnam. Bird's nests are collected in the wild, on bird farms on the islands off the coast and even in some houses in the inner city. The farmed bird in question belongs to the swiftlet group, popularly referred to as yến hàng. Source: Wikipedia
We had the best day today in our first Vietnam port of Nha Trang, but it is 10pm after a 5:30am wake up and a Most Traveled Guest cocktail party, and the alarm is set for 6am tomorrow, so this is going to be a quick post tonight.
We chose to travel by the seat of our pants again today, and did not book a tour for Nha Trang. The city, with a population of about half a million, is known as a beach vacation hotspot for Vietnamese and international travelers alike. It boasts a long, long stretch of beach, and we set our sights on a beach day, with bonus points if we found cheap drinks and high speed WiFi along the way. We ended up batting 1000.
Nha Trang is a tender port, so we went to the Pacific Moon Dining Room around 7:30am to collect our Elite tender tickets. We had almost no wait until we were escorted down to a tender pontoon and were on our way to shore. The tender ride was about 20 minutes long, and, due to the wind, which was strongly blowing from the northeast, we had a bumpy ride to shore. Along the way, we saw a long gondola that stretched over the water from Nha Trang to nearby Hon Tre island, home to an amusement and water park. That gondola is the world’s longest over water gondola.
Nha Trang, Vietnam
Where in the world are we?
Once ashore, we boarded a free shuttle bus that took us about 20 minutes north ti a shopping area in Nha Trang. The shopping area interested us not a bit, but the fact that it was just one block away from the beach was most appealing. We braved crossing two streets using the crosswalks, which don’t mean a lot in Vietnam, I’ve learned. The cars and trucks are fairly likely to stop, but the motorbikes will flatten you in a heartbeat.
Some locals wear very traditional attire
Herbal toothpastes!
This was called Tai....something, with a weighted thing like a badminton birdie
His style was different...front kicks
The beach was as long and gorgeous as we had been led to believe. On one end, there were beach bars and restaurants set right on the beach, and beautifully landscaped park areas between the beach and the street. The other end was quieter, but had outdoor exercise equipment dotting a boardwalk that ran the length of the beach. But the wind had really churned up the water. The waves were fierce and it was clearly not a day for swimming. Still, we intended to rent one of the many umbrellas and two loungers near a beach bar and settle in for the day.
Nha Trang Beach
Street sweeper
Ornately trimmed trees and shrubs everywhere
Outdoor exercise area
Exercise on the beach. I could handle that!
And I had taken my kite!
No problem there!
Leave the cows at home :-)
These hats were worn by many we saw
Before we had a chance to do that, it started to rain, not heavily but enough to change our plans. We were walking past the beautiful Diamond Bay Hotel and we have learned one thing here in Skutheast Asia: our best bet for western toilets (not Asian squatty-pottys) is in large hotels. We stopped in for a bathroom break until the weather cleared and discovered a nice bar with a beautiful view. G ordered a beer and I had a fruit juice cooler and we were given the password for the fastest WiFi we’ve had since Dubai.
No mere beach bar for us! We found cool, shaded, fast and free WiFi in a fancy hotel...plus western toilets!
My smoothie was less than $2 US. Things are cheap here!
We sat there enjoying the view (intermittent rain and sun) and updating apps and paying bills. We had several financial apps that we needed to update and that was becoming critical. We are now totally up to date…at least for one day. We were enjoying ourselves so much that we went up to the restaurant on a higher floor with an even better view of the bay, which Travel and Leisure magazine rated one of the 29 most beautiful bays in the world (something tells me it was #29). We were given a table on the rounded corner of the hotel with its floor to ceiling glass walls and had a wonderful lunch (pho for me, a burger for G). Our total bill for drinks and lunch? Less than US $19. Vietnam is unbelievably cheap.
So cheap that we moved up to the a la carte restaurant and ordered lunch
Our table for two. Life is good. :-)
Look closely and you might see the Sapphire Princess and a Norweguan ship at anchor.
Pho for me, a burger for G
Lunch, drinks and a view of one of the 29 most beautiful bays in the world. My credit card charge was $18.86; the Units Plus app is pretty accurate!
Vietnamese gingerbread house
Diamond Bay decorated for Christmas
After lunch the weather cleared for awhile, and we walked back to the beach and sat in a bench watching the waves crash loudly. I could spend hours doing that, but the last tender to the ship was leaving at 3pm, and we still had to walk back to the shuttle bus and take that back to the port. It started to rain again while we were in the bus, but thankfully stopped when we reached the pier because we had to wait in quite a line to board a tender. Luckily they were boarding two tenders at a time, and within 35 minutes or so we were on our way back to the ship.
Note the Russian words; many Russian tourists come to Nha Trang
Once on board, G headed to a hot tub and I went to the nearby Neptune’s pool and we finally got in the water (we had been wearing swimsuits all day). It started to rain again, and we moved to the covered Calypso pool until it was time to get cleaned up for the evening. We had a light dinner (one course each) and then went to the Most Traveled Guest cocktail party, where the food was once again superb. I particularly enjoyed the lobster and scallops hors doerves but it all looked amazing. No surprise, we sat with a couple from Perth and the four of us were the last to leave, them to get to the mate show and us to get to bed. Tomorrow the ship is in Phu My, and we are making the 120 minute drive each way to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).
I think these Southeast Asia cruises rival Mediterranean cruises in intensity. Thankfully, we’re still up for the challenge…but, boy, I crash so hard on the sea days!