Days 496 to 499: Nha Trang

View towards Nha Trang from the harbour, admittedly one of the most rural parts of Nha Trang

 I intended Nha Trang as a mere stopover on the way to Hoian, which is a bit complicated to get to otherwise.  I ended up staying essentially three full days, since I was taking the night bus to Hoian. I thought in the end that Nha Trang was better than Mui Ne.  True, it has that city on the beach feel, with a few high rises, but that has some advantages.  Access to the beach front hasn't been almost completely commandeered by private resorts and more importantly, it has its waste water disposal under control.  The sand is golden and the water is sparkling. The landscape is also prettier, in that here, the mountains come down to the sea. In contrast, at Mui Ne, there was waste water outflow running across the beach and crusts of yellow foam in the water at certain times of day. I couldn't believe people were wading through it, and personally I stuck to walking and the hotel swimming pool.

We snorkeled under cabins like this, I don't know what they're used for.

Nha Trang has all the facilities of Mui Ne such as nice restaurants and cafes with every nationality of cuisine and there are lots of activities, for those who are into that kind of thing.  I'm still very much in work mode, so the main things I sampled were 1) an evening at a fancy restaurant where I ate fancy Vietnamese grilled fish and 2) a snorkelling trip.  I had a really great time on that.  Tourism in South East Asia is very easy.  You tell your hotel what you want to do then switch your brain to enjoyment mode.  You get picked up in a bus, taken out in a boat, handed some snorkelling gear, ferried around to great snorkeling places and have a fancy meal cooked for you.  All you have to do is look at fish and coral, chat over lunch and finish your tiger beer on the sun deck.  Only disadvantage: I got my first sunburn of the trip.  Yes, neither Mike nor my Mum were there to tell me to put suncream on, so of course I didn't.  No comments, please...