Our next stop was Nha Trang, a coastal city with a long stretch of beautiful beach. I decided that I needed to put my feet in the sand every day of our stay here, and I’m happy to report I managed that. We did a lot better at balancing tourism and relaxation than in Hoi An, without leaving everything right up to the last minute. 

We arrived very early on Friday morning, and after sitting in the hotel lobby for 5 hours we were finally told we could check in early if we upgraded to a different room that was available, and it was only $4 extra for the week. The new room was on a high floor with a sea view, but was much smaller and with twin beds instead of a double, so it didn’t really seem like an upgrade, but we were happy not to be sat in the lobby for another 3 hours. After chilling for the afternoon, we headed out to the beach for sunset. On Friday we did a bit more exploring to get our bearings, visiting the cathedral along the way, and finding a restaurant with a very extensive and very cheap menu that we would end up eating at 4 more times throughout the week.

On Saturday we headed to the oceanography museum, a converted research centre with some slightly disturbing taxidermy, but also a good variety of live sea creatures and a very cool aquarium tunnel with reef sharks swimming overhead. Not bad for a $1.50 aquarium. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and working, split between the room, the rooftop pool and the beach.

On Monday we bought a ticket to a theme park on an island reachable by a cable car over the ocean. We were fairly early arriving, but made the mistake of joining the queue for the alpine coaster as soon as we got there, as it was away from all of the other rides in the park so best to do it first and not have to come back again. Unfortunately every other person had the same idea, and there was no sign suggesting how long the queue would be. After an hour, we decided this had been a mistake, and we would rather have tried to squeeze it in at the end or even missed out on the ride entirely rather than waste so much time, especially the coolest part of the day, in line. At this point we figured we’d waited long enough that we were in it now and there was no point leaving. We ended up waiting 2 AND A HALF HOURS for this one ride, and should’ve given up after the one hour when we first talked about it. We also discovered while waiting that some of the other rides took a two hour lunch break, starting exactly when we would finally be free to go to them. We finally got to the front of the line for the alpine coaster, and it was a fun ride, and at least it wasn’t one where it’s over in 30 seconds, but it was not worth it. We sprinted over to the waterpark section, hoping that there would not be similar lines at all of the rides here. Fortunately there was only one slide that had much of a queue, and there were plenty that were open despite the lunch break, so we spent the next 4 hours enjoying 20 different water slides. There were tube slides that were gentle and ones with big drops and ones that flushed you down the toilet. There were slides where you raced each other, and ones that were gentle and enjoyable until you got subked unceremoniously into the pool at the end. There was a lazy river in one direction that turned into a rapid rise in the other direction and was a good way to get from one end of the park to the other. There was a high ropes course while lots of water poured on you. There were two quite violent ones we did at the end, one where you were on a mat on your stomach and had to brace against the water trying to hit you in the face and you went so fast that you flew into the air on the bumps and the crash back down onto the slide was quite painful, and then one where you were on your back and went so fast that you got a wedgy and crashed into the sides and could do nothing but hold your breath until it was over. But it was lots of fun! We only missed one, because we’d been told it was closed 2-4 and then reopened, but when we got there at 4.10 it turned out it had been open 2-4 and was now closed for the day. I haven’t been to a proper water park on a long time and I’m glad we splurged on the tickets and I’m glad the 2 and a half hour ordeal in the morning didn’t make us miss out too much later in the day. 

There was still more to the park that we could have done with more time. After leaving the waterpark area we rushed over to the zoo before it closed, seeing the flamingos, giraffes, rhinos, monkeys, lions, two white Bengal tigers and a lemur. The bears and the orange tigers had already been taken inside for the night, and with more time we could have fed some capybaras and seen a bird show. At around sunset we were queuing for the big wheel, making it on in time to see the last of the light disappear over the bay. Despite it now being dark, two rides were still running, a mine-themed rollercoaster which we went on twice, and a spinny ride the flew you through the air on your stomach. They are building lots more non-water rides, and there’s also an aquarium that was closed for renovations, so with these things open I’ve no idea how you could do it all in a day, even without the alpine coaster. And the day still wasn’t done! In the evening once the rides all close down there are a few shows to watch. We started with a fountain show, followed by the main show with lots of dancers dressed as different animals with lots of led lights on their costumes and a fight scene between good and evil while the castle behind had projections illuminating it. It wasn’t particularly good. We decided to stay in the park for the final show, a stunt show performed on jet skis. We didn’t really know what to expect for this but it was absolutely fantastic. Again there was a good and evil storyline but this was completely irrelevant. The stunts were jet skiers zipping around with flares and pulling kites that had fireworks coming out of them. Then they started letting off fireworks from the jet skis themselves. Then there were people with those water jetpack things doing flips and going very high up in the air. And then they had flares. And then they had fireworks coming out of their jetpacks like butterfly wings! It was insane, and didn’t at all seem safe, but was absolutely spectacular, and executed flawlessly. There were also divers, and dancers, and fountains, and smoke bubbles, and more fireworks at the end, and it was a fantastic end to the day. 

On Tuesday we had a slow morning, and then went to a spa resort with mud baths and hot springs, something that this area is known for. We spent 30 minutes in the mud, then went through a hydrotherapy tunnel where water sprayed at you through tiny holes and felt a little like needles, and then we had a private mineral bath for a while. Then we were free to use the main pool for as long as we wanted, and since it was a lovely day and the pool was hot and the sunbeds were shaded we decided to stay there all afternoon. There was an ancient temple complex that you had to pass on the way to the resort, so we left with just enough time to visit that on the way out, and then made it to the coast just in time for sunset. To clarify, the entire coast line in Nha Trang faces east, so when I keep saying we went to the beach for sunset it’s not actually as scenic as it sounds, we never watched the sun actually set, we just saw the light fade. It’s a nice place to hang out at the end of the day all the same. 

On Wednesday we spent the morning at the beach figuring out our next steps. After a bit of an ordeal (of course) we booked our onward flight for just over 3 weeks from now. We headed to a brewery to get some work done for a few hours, and then walked up the beach towards a rooftop bar that ended up being much more expensive than the online menu so we just took some pictures and then left. Now that we had more time to play with before departing Vietnam we booked two extra nights here, so on Thursday we lazed around in the morning, changed hotels at midday, and watched movies all afternoon. On Friday we had another beach day, this time without needing to make plans so it was much more relaxing. We spent a few hours getting some work done at our favourite restaurant in the afternoon.

Thanks for following along on my crazy adventures!

 Ros ♥

If you’re interested in how I got here, or where I went next, check out the rest of the story!