Nha Trang

Hello again!

Here we are almost a week after vacation and I am finally getting around to telling you about the last leg of my wondrous vacation, Nha Trang!

After our not-so-awesome-train ride we were more than excited to finally arrive at our destination! Before going to Nha Trang, I had heard it was a touristy beach town and I wasn't really sure how impressed I would be. However, I LOVED it! Nha Trang was gorgeous. The second we arrived I couldn't wait to hit the beach. The water was so blue and the beaches were so quite... the perfect place to catch up on sleep while working on my tan!

We quickly found a taxi and left the train station in the dust only to find out that our hotel was slightly less amazing than our hotel in Hoi An. I mean what could we really expect for $15/night? I just would have appreciated a shower curtain in the bathroom, but you can't have it all. What we did have were three big beds and a balcony.. oh and the South China Sea right across the street. We unloaded some of our stuff, got changed, and headed down the street to grab some breakfast and a drink (it's vacation, no judging!). We found an amazing breakfast place right outside of our hotel. They had the best hash-browns, just like McDonald's breakfast, and really yummy fresh pineapple juice. It was even more fantastic with a splash of vodka! After eating it was finally time to get on the beach! I couldn't even tell you how long we spent laying on the beach, but it must have been quite a while. I think I slept the entire day and it felt amazing!

 

First things, first. A picture of all my custom made clothing. No, I do not have a problem.

 

The crowded beach...

 

Time for relaxing!

 

and a free sample of hair threading... glad I remembered to shave that day!

After our day on the beach we got ready (remember, shower with no shower curtain.....not so fun) and headed out to get some din din. All the restaurants in Nha Trang were quite similar, but we finally chose one and tiredly sat down to eat. The food was soooo good. I had the best fish and what made it even better was that I wasn't spitting out bones! Since our dinner was good we were feeling a little more lively and decided to go out for a couple of drinks. Before hitting the backpackers bars, we had a nice drink on the beach. It was awesome listening to the waves crash and reminiscing on our vacation so far. 

 

Clearly happy.

Once we had finished our Larue's, we headed out only to see about all of the same backpackers we had just seen in Hoi An, including our French friends. We had yet another fun night of drinking and playing cards outside with cheap drinks and fun people. And while the night life was more than amazing, it made for a not so fun early morning. 

On Thursday we had to wake up early for a boat tour of three of the islands around Nha Trang. We signed up for this all day excursion on Thursday for the low price of 7USD. The package included: snorkeling, a Vietnamese lunch, stopping at three islands, a music and dance party and a floating bar with free cocktails (if you can call them that!). The day started off a bit rough. We were picked up at 8:30. Right away we hopped onto a boat and set sail for island number one, which as it turns out, was quite disappointing. The only thing on this island was an "aquarium." Being hungover did not help, but the aquarium was quite disappointing. Really not much to see and very very hot! The next stop was a bit further away, but a lot more fun and absolutely gorgeous! The second island had the most beautiful blue water and it is where we got to snorkel! We spent a good hour and a half on the island in the water and relaxing on the beach. The snorkeling was a lot of fun, but I'd have to say Puerto Rico was still my favorite. I was hoping to see some sea turtle, but no luck!

 

A couple pearls chillin' at the aquarium! 

 

Where we got to snorkel! Picture unedited, it was amazing!

After snorkeling came the best part of the day; lunch, dance party and floating bar! While I say this was the best part of the day I should first inform you, I thought there was no way it could be that fun. Our hotel had told us it was like a big party boat, however we were stuck on a boat with no other English speaking people. Lots of Russians and some Vietnamese people. Luckily for us we hooked up with another boat full of young, fun-loving travelers from all around the world. We had a huge lunch and then spent an hour singing and dancing and floating around in the water. It was so much fun!! The crew on the boats were hilarious and the other backpackers were so fun! After the party we stopped at the last island. On this island we had the chance to rent jet skis which we took full advantage of! Jet skiing was super fun! I had never done it before, but can't wait to do it again. Amber and I shared a jet ski and Michelle was off on her own. After the jet skiing fun was over we had a some more time to just sit around and be lazy on the beach. It was amazing. I will definitely be going back to Nha Trang to do the boat tour again!

 

The lunch spread. The only picture I took during this part of the day, sadly. 

We were pretty tired after such a fun filled ay, so Thursday day night was an early night for us. We grabbed some food and we were off to bed. Friday was another long, lazy beach day, although, we went to a snazzy place that had super nice chairs, a pool, super yummy food and terrible service! But it was a perfect day for being lazy. Friday night we enjoyed one last night out in the backpackers area and ended at the Sailing Club, my new favorite place to go out! It was a beach bar and there was tons of fun people dancing and just having fun. Knowing that Saturday we had to wake up and check out early, Friday night was not too crazy!

Saturday, our last day of vacation. It was a sad day! We were a little slow moving and not wanting to go home. We woke up and packed all of our stuff back up, about twice as much as we started vacation with, and checked out of our hotel. From there we headed to see some rocks that Amber had found in Lonely Planet. Sounds pretty lame right? Some rocks. But it was pretty amazing. Right on the beach there we just huge rock formations. They were gorgeous! After seeing the rocks we spent yet another lazy day on the beach. I think if I could sit on a beach the rest of my life, I would be a happy person!

 

Michelle looooves playing in the ocean! 

 

weeeeee!

 

My Vietnam besties, last day!

 

ROCK.

 

Gorgeous!

That pretty wraps up my awesome vacation. I got a bit lazy with details tonight, but Nha Trang really was all about the beach and it was fantastic! We were more than sad to leave, but coming back to this crazy city was comforting in a strange way. I really felt like I was at home when the taxi pulled up to my apartment. 

 

Sad to be leaving...

It was fun getting back to school and seeing my kids. I definitely missed them! And now I face my first parent/teacher conferences tomorrow. It is times like these I am so thankful that I only have twelve students! I can't imagine having any more conferences than that! 

Hope everyone is staying warm back home. I have heard it's snowing, so you'll be glad to know I am sweating my booty off while I write this blog. Saigon is getting hotter and hotter!

With love,

Michelle

Hoi An: Part Deux

Hello there!

Here we are one week after I wrote my last blog back in Hoi An! It is hard to believe break is over and I am back in the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City. This vacation was probably the best of my life (okay... it comes in at a close second behind New Zealand.. but I was working there too so it wasn't all a vacation right??). Anyways, I give credit to my travel buddies and the places we went along the way. This trip definitely would not have been the same without Amber and Michelle by my side. I think three has become my new favorite number!

Now where did I leave off? Ah yes, our night at the spa! Monday we all woke up feeling obviously refreshed and ready for the day. We started off by going back to the tailors for fittings and picking up our clothes that were finished. I loved all of my clothes! We also picked up our shoes. Hmm. I want to keep this post upbeat so let's just say I won't be getting tailor made shoes again. It was one of the many, many lessons we learned over holiday. After clothes and shoes we met up with the Fancy Clancy's, rented some motorbikes and drove off to Marble Mountains. Marble Mountains is a Buddhist Sanctuary built inside the mountains and in caves. It is absolutely breathtaking! It was amazing to think how they built these huge statues inside the dark caves. I can't think of the words to describe it, so here are just a few of the pictures I took!

 

Walking through the tiny town. You can see the tall building in the mountain where we were headed. 

 

Our group up at the top before we began exploring. 

 

One of the scary places we had to crawl through. (Amber)

 

I looooved all the incense. It was everywhere!

 

This was my favorite of all the caves. It was literally the most amazing place I have ever walked into. I find it amazing this is where people come to worship. 

 

This is the same cave. The only light sources were where the sun came in naturally at the top. It was so gorgeous! 

 

Another huge, amazing statue. 

 

Yet another place to worship. This one was gorgeous but there were a lot of people outside trying to get you to buy incense and whatnot which was a bit annoying, but pretty typical. 

 

Gahhhh, I told you this place was amazing!!

After our day of amazement we went back to Danie and Mike's hotel to enjoy the pool for a while before going out to din din. That night we ate a local restaurant called Streets. It was a really cool restaurant where Vietnamese kids (I say this meaning older kids.. like teenagers) go through an 18 month program and learn all about the restaurant industry. By the time they have completed the program they are able to go find jobs with the skills needed to work in a five star restaurant. Since I am allll about helping kids in need, I was really excited to eat at this place. Plus the food was really amazing. So it was a double win! After dinner we took our bicycles down to the night market and then went out for a few drinks. We ended up a backpackers bar which of course had some of drink deals. For example... 

 

Yes that says wishky. And while the menu was funny, the drinks were indeed strong and came in large buckets. After a couple of drinks, being the friendly folks we are, we met some fellow travelers who happened to be a hilarious group of four guys from France traveling through Vietnam. We had fun having a few drinks with them, but soon enough the bar decided to close (even though the flyer said open till the last customer.. which was us... and it was still pretty early in the night). This is where we learned the lesson that the French love to argue. So after a short round of arguments we hopped on our bicycles with the boys on the back, Vietnamese style, and headed to the next bar. Our favorite bar. Why Not? (Really, that is what the bar is called..) At this bar we were less then disappointed by the bumping music and numerous people dancing on the pool table. When you're having so much fun it's hard to go home early.... which of course meant that Tuesday, our last day in Hoi An, was another difficult day for our terrific trio!

On Tuesday we had a lazy lunch and then headed to Da Nang to the Cham Sculpture museum with five hours to kill before heading to the train station. Let me take a break to say that I am all for museums. I think they can be great and interesting and you can learn loads of things. However, when I am hungover and I have no clue what Cham Sculptures are and it is hot and the museum doesn't have air con... I don't like them. So here is what I can now tell you about the Cham people. They were a group of people who lived in Vietnam hundreds of years ago. They no longer exist, but when they did, they made amazing sculptures. Well now these sculptures are being preserved in a museum in Central Vietnam. It was cool at first, but after a while it just felt like you were looking at the same thing over and over again. Now I don't want you feeling left out, so here are some of the cool sculptures they had....

 

This is my favorite for obvious reasons. Amber fits right in! 

The museum took us much less time then we expected so soon enough we were outside looking for transportation, aka a taxi, to the train station. Well we weren't finding any taxis and since we had some extra time to kill we decided to do the touristy thing and hope onto some cyclos. A cyclo is a bike (more like a tricycle really) that has a nice comfy chair for you to sit in while a guy pushes you around. In Saigon the cyclo drivers are constantly trying to get you to hop on for a ride and we are always saying no. However, since we were on vacation we wanted to do the touristy thing, so we said yes!

 

One poor guy had both Amber and I, plus all of our luggage. 

 

After about twenty-five minutes of riding around the streets of Da Nang we arrived at the train station with five hours to spare. Nothing like being timely! We found a cafe with a friendly mouse (oh how I hate those mice!) to sit at for a couple of hours. Then we spent a few hours in the train station. Luckily we went and got some snacks and beer to tide us over and within no time (insert sarcasm) we were the on the train headed for Nha Trang! 

Our train ride was interesting to say the least. I have definitely not been started at so much since moving here, and the people on the train were less then enthusiastic to help us find our cabin. Eventually we got there and climbed into our tiny, not so comfy beds to enjoy a long nine hours of laying horizontally and not being able to sit up. In our 'cabin' there were six beds and five Vietnamese people. That's right the bed bellow me had THREE people sleeping in it. I'm not sure how they pulled it off when I could barely get situated in mine and there was only one of me. Nine hours later, after getting minimal sleep, we arrived in Nha Trang ready for the final leg of our amazing vacation!

Ahhh, once again another long blog post and I am still not done with our vacation! We still have all of Nha Trang to cover. Luckily for you, I am tired and I can't type anymore. So, Nha Trang will have to wait for another day! I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and the stories of my vacation. I feel like I have left out so many details, but if I included them all I would be typing for weeks to come! I loved every second of my time in Hoi An and can't wait to go back again soon. (And get more clothes made....)

Until Next Time,

Michelle