Asian Adventures - Nha Trang, Vietnam
I was glad that our bus to Nha Trang was the last night bus we had to endure. We didn't sleep at all on the journey and we weren't even sitting next to each other this time so couldn't speak to one another to pass the time. As well as this our bus arrived an hour and a half earlier than we were meant to, arriving at 5am rather than 6.30am. We had emailed our hotel to tell them we would be arriving early but they hadn't responded. The hotel advertised a 24 hour reception so we thought we would be able to just sit in reception until places opened for breakfast. However, when we arrived at Boutique Hotel Villa LM there was no 24 hour reception and only a watchman about who couldn't let us in! He was really sweet as he couldn't speak any English but he showed us to a door at the side of the building that had toilets inside we could use, which was nice of him.We had to sit and wait outside the hotel from 5am to 7am for someone to open up. Rory suddenly welcomed my 'guess all the countries in Asia' game!
We had our second issue checking in to a hotel in Vietnam. We had reserved a room on Agoda and were paying when we got to the hotel. We had done this before and it had worked out fine. Our confirmation email had said three nights were going to be £55 but when we arrived the receptionist had said we had to pay £70 now because there was only a delux room left and no standard rooms. That doesn't seem a lot in our money but it's a lot in Vietnamese Dong. Although we hadn't paid for the room yet we had still reserved the room so it should have been kept free for us. I tried to argue this with the receptionist but either she didn't understand me or chose not to understand me. They did say they would let us in our room straight away so paying an extra £15 for early check in wasn't the end of the world. Our room was nice and we had Netflix on our TV which was a luxury! Before we came away we didn't know what the Wi-Fi situation would be like for us contacting home but every hotel we've stayed in has had it and even a tiny café at the side of the road on the outskirts of a town in Thailand had it! I thought when we were away we wouldn't know what was going on at home but because Wi-Fi was so accessible and most hotel rooms had TVs with BBC News on it so you didn't feel as far away from home as you actually were.
After our nap after check in we headed out for lunch to Tasty as we had read in our Lonely Planet book that it did great Banh Mi's but when we got there they didn't even serve Banh Mi's. This was the first food we had had since 8pm the night before so we ordered loads of food. I ordered a rice and vegetable dish and mozzarella sticks which I thought were a side and they turned out to be a main dish served with a huge portion of chips and salad. I tried to eat as much as I could so it looked like I had meant to order both dishes but I literally couldn't move after! Because of this I thought the best way to spend our afternoon was to relax at the beach. We got totally ripped off for our deck chairs. We thought by now we'd recognise when we were being ripped off but apparently not!!
For the next day I had finally managed to convince Rory that Vinpearl Land was somewhere we had to visit! Vinpearl Land is known as the Asian Disneyland so as soon as I read about it I knew I had to persuade Rory to go. Rory isn't a fan of theme parks and is terrified of heights. Unfortunately, to get to the theme park you have to go on a cable car across the sea. I downplayed that slightly to him. We took the local bus from round the corner from our hotel to the cable car station. When we got there it said you could get a speedboat across instead of getting a cable car so we went to enquire about that but the guards said the boat wasn't on today, so cable car it was! I decided it was best to remain quiet for the whole of the 12 minute journey whilst Rory hurled abuse at me telling me how mean I was and how he would never do anything like this to me. How we laugh about it now!
Vinpearl Land has a sign like the Hollywood one that you can see on the hill coming in on the cable car and they play Disney music all around the park. Inside the park there's a theme park, aquarium, water park and zoo all in the one place! We went to the theme park first and made our way around the roller coasters. The best roller coaster was Extreme Launcher where up to two people can fit in one car and you can control your speed yourself. The track went through the hills which meant you got a great view of the whole park and the sea.
Next we moved on to the water park. Queues weren't really followed at the water park, people just pushed in front of you and the staff weren't even that bothered. To go on some flumes you needed rubber rings and there were none by the time we got to the water park which was a shame but there were plenty other flumes to go on and a wave pool to try out. In the wave pool they swapped Disney music for dodgy European dance music like the classic 'From Paris to Berlin' which was odd to hear over here.
After the water park we went to the aquarium to see feeding time. I love turtles and couldn't wait to see them at the aquarium. We also went to the 4d cinema. It's really clever that you feel like you are in the film. There was a wind machine in front of our seat and water would randomly squirt out at you throughout the film which was funny. We stayed in for the last event The Light Show but left half way through to try and beat the crowds. This plan didn't work! There were already loads of people waiting for the cable car back. Again queues weren't followed, everyone was rushing about trying to push in when they could. Whilst in Vietnam I didn't enjoy some of our interactions we had with people. We experienced a lot of rudeness over the other countries we had been to and it seemed like a lot of people were trying to rip you off which was frustrating. You understand people want to make money from tourists but in Vietnam you felt like some people's main aim was to get as much money from tourists as possible. It's a shame to feel like this as we also met so many lovely and helpful people in Vietnam too.
We only had a few days in Nha Trang and started our last day by going to Galangal for a Banh Mi. We are literally trying to eat as many as we can whilst in Vietnam. The meat was cooked on a BBQ in spices and served with salad and sauce all over the meat. They really are the best sandwiches I've ever had! If you want one reason to go to Vietnam, just go for the Banh Mi's!
After our food we got a taxi out to 100 Eggs Mud Baths. There are loads of different models of eggs through out the park which is obviously where the name came from. The mud baths are also in the shape of eggs. We chose the private ticket where it was only us in the mud bath as I didn't fancy sharing one with randoms! The ticket also gave you access to the swimming pool, jacuzzi and their man made waterfall so you could spend the whole afternoon there. Before going into the mud bath we climbed up to the viewpoint. It was absolutely roasting walking up there but worth it to see the view surrounding you.
I'd never had a mud bath before and was intrigued to try it. The mud was actually nice and warm and really smooth. You get 20 minutes in the bath and before you go in the previous mud gets drained out and refilled with fresh mud ready for your group. You don't want to be bathing in mud someone's bathed in before you. The mud feels really nice on your skin and when we came out our skin felt really soft. I really liked just chilling out in a bath of mud, it was very relaxing. We painted war paint on our face with the mud and had fun taking pictures of ourselves with just our heads poking out the mud to look like a floating head.
After leaving the mud bath you obviously had to wash all the mud off you. The staff were very strict when it came to letting you through to the swimming pool area and you were sent back to the showers if you still had mud on you. We went to have a swim in the pool and lounge in the jacuzzi before going to take pictures at their waterfall. It was a really relaxing afternoon.
Once back from 100 Eggs we just went across the road from our hotel for food to a Greek restaurant Pita GR. We shared pitta bread and a selection of dips to start which was the dream but then for my main I chose a pork dish and it was pink in the middle. I said to the waitress and she said it was meant to be like that. I wasn't really convinced and kept thinking about our bus journey tomorrow and didn't want to risk getting food poisoning for that. Anyway, apart from my pink meat we had a good last meal in Nha Trang.
Our time in Nha Trang was really fun. Although we had a bad start of being locked out our hotel and having to pay extra for our stay we actually ended up having a really good time here. We didn't see much of the city itself but had a great time exploring the attractions around the city.
Recommendations -
Vinpearl Land - http://vinpearlland.com/
Galangal - https://galangal.com.vn/
100 Eggs Mud Baths - http://tramtrung.vn/
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