The Real Easy Riders part 2 – Nha Trang

After our eventful road trip we arrived in Nha Trang at around 5pm, met up with Sam who had been put on a different bus company for some reason, and found ourselves a hotel. I think our first night was fairly quiet after a tiring few days.

 

The next day was all about the beach, there isn’t many surf beaches in Vietnam, but they certainly have a nice outlook even if they are ferociously hot. (Even now, as I sit in Hanoi now at 8pm I’m have sweat dripping off me)

 

The biggest downside to Nha Trang as beach is the constant hassling by street sellers, even if you’re asleep on a sun bed they will attempt to wake you just in case you wanted to buy another pair of fake Ray Ban sunglasses. Or as I have mentioned in an earlier post threaten to kill you or de-man you if you don’t buy something from them. I did buy one thing though, for $1 I got a whole pineapple that had been nice cut up and served in a plastic bag. They do it all while sitting in front of you and even cut out all the slightly deeper bits of peel with a spiral shaped cutting technique.

Saturday night was the night we had been planning for for a while, it began with 2hrs of free beer or spirit mixers with any meal.

Me battering with a street selling child over a fan, that I didn’t need nor want, but she still felt compelled to hassle me while I drunk my free beer.

It then progressed into the organised pub crawl by local canadian-expat Gerry for his birthday. Things after that begin to get a little Hazy.

This one in particular I have little recollection of partaking in, but the photo says I did.

Straw beach hats were distributed to all on entry to the highlight of the evening, the Sailing Club.

The night was themed with a Hawaiian theme and Vietnamese dancers put on a bit of a show.

   

Andrea and Amara used their charms as pamphlet distrbutors during the day to get free entry and free drinks.

 

The night ended around 3pm, good fun was had by all, Sunday turned into a relaxing hangover curing day, and as such, no photos were taken. Enter Monday and the return of the Real Easy rider team as we made the trip to Ba Ho waterfall about 27km North of Nha Trang on there national highway.

Similar to the Mui Ne trip, this one followed the coast closely for much of it with spectacular views of fishing villages and sheer cliffs besides water.

In this photo, I believe Nick is taking a picture of a dead pig on the beach below, I didn’t feel the need to take a photo of this one.

This scooter was dressed up to look like an awesomely fast race bike. It wasn’t.

Along the way, we lost Sam with what he suspected was Malaria. (it wasn’t just a slight cold but he needed to sleep it off anyway). Andrea, Amara Nick and I continued on found the waterfalls through an intricately poorly signed series of unsealed roads and minor creek crossings. (I felt very adventurous… haha)

After a 10-20minute hike we found the falls. The heat left us desperate for a swim.

The water was superbly cool and I enjoyed the slightest bit of a chill for the first time since I’d been in Vietnam.

 

With a final glance of the water, we made our way back down the mountain, and promptly found ourselves as hot as we were before the swim. Gotta love hot weather.

Tuesday, we took on the infamous Nha Trang boat cruise and snorkel trip. Who would have thought my pale skin could take this much sun…

Here is Sam and Nick waiting while the boat departs from an overfilled marina.

There is an island here that is accessible by a cable car, and we’ve since found out has a great water park. Ahh retrospect is annoying at times.

We took the Mama Linh boat tour as it was reputed to have the most young people, and was supposed to be the most fun. It turned out alright, although our friendly vietnamese guide was sure to tell us she wasn’t “Mama Linh”. You’ll not how she is wearing so much clothing, everyone here is paranoid of the sun since it darkens there skin, as such they tend to go around in huge amounts of clothing including gloves and masks to avoid any exposure.

Lunch was served a banquet fit for many more of us than was on the boat.

After lunch the “entertainment” started. Enter the impromptu rock band. Hilariously enjoyable.

They had drums made of buckets complete with a kick pedal arrangement.

A guitarist, and two lead singers.

Nick was called upon to sing Waltz Sing Matilda to which he did quite admirably.

 

Sam did a less good rendition of Yellow Submarine, their choice for a British Song. As it turns out not many people know much more than the chorus of that song – me included.

(note the hole above Sams head, it was for “tall people”

Then we were all asked up to dance on the tables, I barely fit, well I guess I didn’t. I had to pretty much be on my knees to fit between the tables and the roof.

Then the swimming began. Right next to a fish farm. Water parasites anyone? Or other dodgy water born stuff.

The floating bar was a bit of a let down at first, haha, but it turned out alright once everyone was in the water.

Pale skin that doesn’t tan, versus Andrea and Amara’s which does.

The beach cost 40,000 dong to go ashore, so people just jumped in and swam around the “toll booth”.

 

 

After that we returned to the mainland, and had a quiet night out. The next morning, I went SCUBA diving for the first time overseas, went with a mob with the creative name called “Scubadiving” run by a bunch of French and French canadians. Was a good dive with a really nice boat, but I had a bit of a problem with the path they chose through the water, preferring to rush over the reefy area and explore the plane sandy bottom further offshore. The reasoning they gave was that the reef was fairly shallow at between 5-10m and they wanted to take us deeper. Stupid frenchies. Anyway… Was a great dive and then on that Wednesday evening, the real easy riders was disbanded and Nick Amara and I took the bus to Hoi An, and Andrea and Sam headed to Saigon. The night bus was good, slept really well and woke up in the small town of Hoi An with little or no difficulties.