When I got off the bus in Nha Trang I was a bit groggy and not in the mood to deal with all the sharks trying to get me to stay at their hotels, so I made a bee-line for a beach side cafe to eat breakfast, consult my guidebook, and get my head together.
Nha Trang
Nha Trang is not what I was expecting. I wanted beach side bungalows and relaxed restaurants showing DVD movies, but what I got was another big, noisy city with a 6km beach next to the main road.
After checking into a hotel as near the beach as I could get, I walked around town to suss out some of the scuba diving operations. I booked a dive for the following day with a company called Rainbow Divers because it looked very professional and most the office staff were all from Australia.
Next I made my way down to the beach and rented a beach chair. The actual beach was very nice with white sand and silhouetted mountains all around, but the problem was that I couldn't relax due to all the vendors trying to peddle books, newspapers, cigarettes, sunglasses, etc.
Sunglasses vendor
Cooking crabs on the beach
Eventually I lost my temper with one poor young girl selling books. I vented all my frustrations about how the vendors see tourists as walking dollar bills and have no tact when it comes to begging. She had no idea how to respond. It made me feel a bit guilty because I know Vietnam is a poor country, so I went back and bought an unauthorized, hard bound photo copied version of Howard Marks' Mr. Nice for twice her asking price.
That night I ate seafood at a place called Red Star and then went across to the street to a pub called Crazy Kim's. The proceeds from this bar go towards helping street kids that have fallen victim to pedophilia.
In Crazy Kim's I bumped into two Italian guys that were on the night bus from Hoi An with me. We joked about the guy who got sick on the bus, and then they told me they were leaving Nha Trang the next day because it wasn't what they were expecting either.
The next day I went scuba diving bright and early. Rainbow Divers came to pick me up at my hotel at 7am and took me to the Nha Trang harbor where we boardrd their big ferry boat and met about 18 other people going diving as well.
Scuba diving at Madonna Rock
Rainbow Divers ran a great operation. Everything was on time and very organized; the dive masters were all friendly; and there was plenty of fruit, sweets, and sandwiches on the boat, but the actually dive was not so spectacular. Too few big fish.
My dive master was a young local named Huang, a very funny guy, and my dive buddy was a guy named Tristan from Switzerland, a complete spaz underwater. Our first dive was at a site called Madonna Rock where we swam through a small cave and saw schools of small fish, but that the only highlight. The second dive was a place called Debbie's Beach where we saw a big Puffer Fish and that's about all.
In the afternoon I met up with James, Enda, and Andy at a beach side cafe. They had arrived earlier that morning from Hoi An, and we talked about how disappointed we were with Nha Trang.
In the evening I guided our entire group back to the Red Star for a huge seafood dinner. We had crab spring rolls, fresh shrimp spring rolls, spicy squid, white fish slow cooked in a brown sauce, and jumbo shrimp cooked in lobster sauce. Delicious.
Things got a bit out of hand when we went across the street to Crazy Kims and started drinking buckets of rum loaded with Red Bull and some concoction called jungle juice that was served in a green canteen.
Nick with the Jungle Juice
We ended up at a Sailor's Club located on the beach with loud dance music and lots and lots of people. Everything culminated late in the evening when we went streaking down the beach and into the ocean, only to have the police come and tell us swimming was prohibited after dark.
On the walk home James and Nick were propositioned by a couple prostitutes for massages. In they're refusals and trying to make a getaway they caught the girls trying to pick they're pockets.
My last day in Nha Trang was spent entirely on the beach reading. I discovered that some cafes have private beaches where vendors are not allowed. Nothing exceptional happened except I did get a proper medicated massage from the cafe staff that made me feel much better and will help me get through my next overnight bus ride.
Just before my bus left, I met up with everyone at Crazy Kim's for one last beer. It was difficult to say goodbye, but the memories will live forever.
My final farewell to the Fellowship
Next stop Saigon.
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