Beautiful coastal town, well worth a visit (Nha Trang)

Member Name: numpylicious

Product:	Nha Trang
Date:	18/06/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheaper than HCMC, cheap dives, good seafood

Disadvantages: Long bus journey from Hanoi/HCMC

My time in Vietnam was running out and there was one more place I wanted to visit: Nha Trang. From what the internet and my Lonely Planet were telling me, it seemed like a pretty fun coastal town with plenty of things to do.

As the bus journey from Ho Chi Minh City takes around 10 hours, I decided to take the sleeper bus overnight. This was a pretty good decision, as I know it would have been hard to hack such a long journey sitting upright! The beds weren't exactly comfortable though- maybe if you're a tiny Asian, but not if you're an overweight Westerner struggling to keep everything from dangling off the side like I was! I recommend asking fellow travellers for advice on which company to travel with, and also shopping around, as often different travel agents book people onto the same bus for varying prices!

I arrived in Nha Trang in the early hours of the morning, after surviving the night thanks to my MP3 player and an eye mask. My first impressions were good; it looked beautiful.

After trying my hardest to avoid the touts and hotel owners the bus driver dropped us off in front of, I managed to find a nice place to stay- Nice Hotel, which really was quite nice. My friend and I shared a decent sized room with an en-suite and two double beds for $7.

So, what is there to do in Nha Trang? The obvious attraction here is the beach. Unfortunately when I was there, the sea tended to be quite wavey (for want of a better word!) and it wasn't particularly tempting so I stuck to reading a book on the beach, relaxing. Lots of people will come up to you and try to sell you stuff- if you don't want it, be polite but firm! If they think they might crack you, and make you buy something, they'll probably keep on and on trying to sell you their food!

If you fancy a day being cultural, take a trip to the Lam Son Pagoda (Giant Seated Buddha). It is visible from the city down below sometimes, which is pretty cool. Beware of people asking you to donate money to the school, which is what they asked me, I'm pretty sure it was as scam as the LP says that they do the same thing but ask for donations for the monks. Either way, don't be forced into parting with your money if you don't want to.

One thing I enjoyed was the Long Thahn photo gallery. If you love black and white photography, this really is the place to visit. He is a really famous photographer in Viet Nam, and takes pictures of the daily life in his country. You can also buy these photos if you wish. The only thing I had a problem with is the fact that Asia is so colourful; I felt making the photos black and white wasn't the best thing to do for every picture.

Nha Trang is famous for diving, and it tends to cost around $50 for 2 dives for someone like me who had never done it before. There are tons of diving centres around, so shop around, see which people you click with more and feel the safest with. There are a few little islands around the coast of Nha Trang, and this is where they take you diving. The water is super clear, and there are so many beautiful and interesting fish to be seen. I definitely recommend it; the highlight for me was seeing a rainbow coloured fish with neon green lips!

The last thing I did in Nha Trang was visit the Po Ngar Cham Towers. My friend and I actually took a cyclo there, I felt pretty bad for the driver but we paid him well! I wouldn't really recommend this for anyone not interested in seeing even more pagodas. I really wasn't interested, I found it quite repetitive and was done in about 15 minutes. My friend enjoyed it a lot more than I did though.

There's a great night life in this town. Plenty of backpackers/foreigners around having a great time. I personally enjoyed Guava, but Why Not? is popular too, especially for its buckets of "cocktails" for 800,000 dong! They include 2 and a half bottles of spirits from what I recall, so definitely one for sharing!

Overall I really enjoyed my stay at Nha Trang. I loved being in a smaller city compared to Saigon, the accommodation was also cheaper than the capital (no surprises there) and it was nice to be able to walk everywhere.

Summary: Recommended!