More Beach in Nha Trang

we took the sleeper bus to nha trang which is a beach resort city five hours north up the coast from mui ne.

this bus was sick. like roel said it smelled of feet. full of stinky backpackers. apparently it's only cool to wear dirty clothes and have bad b.o. roel and i constantly find ourselves stuck somehwere between backpacker and regular tourist.

we arrived at about 6am and walked from the drop-off to our hotel. our hotel was adequate. about a 10 minute walk to the beach and the main restaurant drag.

we spent a bit of time at the beach each day and also managed some sightseeing. roel has broken out into a heat rash all over that seems to be ok as long as we stay dry and cool during the heat of the day.  we've had some laid-back afternoons.

nothing too exciting at this stop as it's mainly a beach resort city. the street vendors are relentless here (on the beach as well). hard to feel totally relaxed when you are bombarded every couple of minutes.

we saw a few local kids splashing each other in the ocean (they had just arrived on their bikes). i told one of them to splash roel using hand motions while roel's back was turned. he was hesitant but i ended up helping out and in no time it was four against one. hehe i could tell that they were more comfortable when the white guy stepped away so i went to the shore and took a few pictures. a cute moment.

we went to a local aquarium (pretty amatuer but fascinating nonetheless. there was a large room dedicated to pickled/bottled (what word am i looking for?) specimens including a huge sea cow, seahorses, squid, etc. a solemn and creepy vibe with the sun lighting up the room through the jars. like a stained glass effect in a big empty church.

we were also going to take a cable car to an island off the shore to see the best view of the area but once we got to it we figured out that it was owned by an amusement park on the island and they had changed the rules so that it was also mandatory to buy tickets to visit the park for the day.  it was no longer just $8 to ride back and forth.  grr  waste of a morning to get there!

we saw the po nagar cham towers which were used for worship by hindus, built between 7 and 12 centuries.  we also stopped in at long son pagoda where you can also find a giant seated buddha.
notice the little white head on top of the pagoda in the distance.  that's the giant buddha you have to hike up to.

it was a good stop to just relax. we ended up booking a flight for our next stop. the bus was to take 12 hours vs a 55 minute flight. the buses are way to small for my legs and shoulders so it as well worth the $45 dollar ticket each.

at this point i am almsot two weeks behind on blogging.  eek!  they may get a lot briefer.