Nha Trang

Initially I was planning to take the trains to travel around Vietnam. We've had enough experience on "VIP" buses in SE Asia to swear them off for good. The overnight sleeper train from Saigon to Nha Trang was going to be about $50 each. The overnight sleeper bus, however, was only about $10. Yeah, maybe we'll try that. We had seen the buses already, lined up every night along the main tourist road near our hotel, so we knew they were pretty nice, at least from the outside. We were pleasantly surprised to find they actually were nice, with free wifi, reclining seats, and without the blaring TV and frequent stops that we'd typically expect. We took sleeping pills and even managed to get a decent night's sleep, arriving in Nha Trang early and ready to hit the beach.

Steph showing off her Chinese remedy on the night bus

Actually we never wanted to come to Nha Trang, as it's known for being not much more than a party destination, but we couldn't imagine doing two 10-hour bus trips back to back. One night stopover in Nha Trang turned out to be a good decision. The beach was pretty nice, there didn't seem to be too many drunk backpackers about, and it's got some of the cheapest diving I've ever seen. I typically don't go diving because it's so much more than just snorkelling, which I find nearly as good. Well, the snorkelling trip in Nha Trang, which included an hour-long boat trip out to the marine reserve and lunch, was $25. It was only $65 to do two 45-minute dives instead of snorkelling, so I couldn't turn down the opportunity. I wasn't expecting much for this price and location (who ever heard of diving in Vietnam?), but was yet again pleasantly surprised. The water was pretty clear in places, we saw quite a few cool fish that I hadn't seen before, and the coral was actually better than Niue. This is Vietnam, of course, so there was plenty of trash  and the quantity of fish left a lot to be desired, but all in all it was pretty good.

Our only photo evidence we were on a boat

We spent the rest of our last afternoon in Nha Trang hanging out at our hotel rooftop bar/restaurant, enjoying the ocean views, cheap food, free wifi, and smiling at the friendly bartender who knew probably 3 word in English but managed to make friends with Steph. He even made her a little guitar from a folded up 200 dong note. Oh! The money here. How could I forget. So the Vietnamese dong is around 21,800 to 1 USD. It gets to be a lot of zeros. Every time I pay for something I have to double- and triple-check myself that I'm not paying $10 for a bottle of water that should cost $1. The real problem is that there are so many bills - 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 20000, 50000, 100000, 200000, 500000. See? A lot of zeros. I end up with a big wad of folded bills in my pocket that I have to dig through every time we want to buy something. So that 200 dong guitar Steph got as a present was worth about 1 cent. Good investment for him, as she more than made up for it with the tip.

Rooftop bar/restaurant

The first overnight bus went so well, why not try another from Nha Trang to Hoi An? Everyone raves about Hoi An, so we booked 4 nights, boarded our bus, and went to sleep while dreaming of beautiful dresses. Err, Steph did, at least. I'll explain that next time!