Day 5: Nha Trang
Our train rolled into Nha Trang station at around 6am, even though it wasn't very comfortable sleeping on the train, I felt like I had sufficient sleep and was not tired at all. I was READY TO PLAY!
We immediately made our way to our hotel to drop off our bags and then met up with Tien and Thuy's high school classmate for breakfast.
You've all heard of beef noodle soup, chicken noodle soup, pork feet noodle soup, but have you tried jellyfish noodle soup??? That's a Nha Trang specialty. You may have tried the Chinese jellyfish, which I like, but this is quite different, it's not as thinly sliced and it's a lot more gelatin-y (I think that's the word to describe it).
Oh and before I continue, Nha Trang is not pronounced Na-Tr-ang; it's Na-zh-ang.... but I still can't say it properly even after three days there. But whenever I say it, I say it with such a strong American accent really emphasizing the TR.... lol....
Then we visited a local market to buy some local specialty to bring back home. I just followed along, but Thuy seemed to really know what she was looking for. She picked out a stall and bough a lot of dried seafood to bring home. There were shark fins, fish belly, fish bladder, dried seahorse, dried starfish, wine made from scorpion and snake, dried lizards and more. A lot of these I could probably find somewhere in Hong Kong as well.
After that we went to meet with a local wedding photographer as Thuy, recently engaged, would like to take some wedding photos in Nha Trang. In the end Thuy wasn't very happy with this wedding photographer so she's going to look around some more and consider some other photographers.
When we were done at the photographers, it was only 10:30am...... we still had the whole day ahead of us and didn't really know what we were going to do with our time as we had planned to spend the morning shopping and seeing the photographer, but things just happened so quickly.
On our way to the photographer we had passed by a cathedral - Nha Trang Main Cathedral. It was built in a French Gothic Style and the view from the hill top was refreshing. We also had very sunny weather, so the sky was clear and the the cathedral was open so we slipped in for shade and a rest.
Later that morning we stopped at Louisane, a bar on the beach for drinks and just to while away a bit more time before lunch.... the beach had fine, fine sand, so nice to bury your feet into it. Also there were deck chairs with large umbrellas, ahhhhh I think I could have lied there all day! We ended up just sitting there and took some photos and tried to get used to my camera.
I think the photos came out quite well, but that's also because we had such great weather!
Then we went to lunch and it was wraps, with some crispy rice paper, meat and lots of veggies and different herbs. A simple and refreshing lunch!
Don't know if I mentioned this before, but Vietnamese are quite European/Mediterranean in some ways, because they take Siestas. As students, Tien and most people who live in Vietnam, they will take a nap after lunch because it's so hot. And then around 2pm they will resume work/school. So after lunch we went back to the hotel, turned on the air conditioning and took a nap.
At 3pm we went out with our swim suits, sunblock and hats to Vinpearl Land Resort. This is a HUGE resort on an island and accessible by speedboat or cable car. The 2008 Miss Universe Pageant was held there. On the island, there's a resort, water park, amusement park, and temple. They even have a mini, but impressive, aquarium.
Once we arrived, we went straight to the water park as it closes at 6pm, (and at 5:30pm they stop everyone slide... ) so we only had about 2 hours time to play! I was extremely excited because the water park in Hong Kong has been closed for about 10 years. And this one was not crowded like the one in Hong Kong and all the slides looked pretty new, not like some primitive water park built out of wood - which you might find in China! (yikes!)
There was a lazy river - which you can really relax in, because there's no crowd surrounding you, and also on the lazy river, they made it a bit more exciting by making one part go through a dark tunnel, and it's pitch black in there.... so you don't really know what you're brushing against... and I think they had scary music playing on the speakers in the tunnel... hehehe... a little girl behind us was crying to get out.
There were also loads of rainbow slides - those super long and steep slides that you slide down and likely end up with a huge wedgie and slide burn. Then there were some slides that were called the black hole (in Canada that's what I know them as) and they painted rainbow stripes on the outside, so while you go through it, you see technicolours, almost like a kaleidoscope.
The last ride we went on was really fun! We had to carry a round raft/tube that can fit like 15 people in it, but we just sat us 4 in it, and we go down the slide like that. To get the tube up to the top, there was a pulley to pull it up to the top, while we walked up the stairs. Going down the slide was almost like like snowboarding or something, we would go up the sides and you think the tube would overturn. Also I was sitting with my back to the front, so I had no idea what was coming! SO MUCH FUN!
But all the fun came to an end at 5:30pm and we were asked to leave as the water park closes at 6pm.
Then we made our way to the aquarium which is located right next to the water park. Inside we saw some GIGANTIC fishes! Have you ever see a goldfish this big??????
We stayed for the light show at 7pm, but it wasn't very impressive, it was a kind of water/light show with music.
Then we went back to the mainland for dinner with Tien's highschool friend, his name is Thien. It's so funny, so many people have the name Tien/Thien, and to me they sound the same, but they actually have different accents and meanings.
We had seafood that night!!! At one of the many "restaurants" that are long the road side, not the most hygienic of places to eat, but So yummy and I got to try some new seafood that I've never had before. All the dishes were chosen by Thuy, I think.
Jelly fish salad, Pen Shell, something called "Fingernail Snail" in Vietnamese - I think they are called Razor Clams in English, and Crab in a tamarind sauce.
After dinner we returned back to the hotel, and chatted for a while, while enjoying fresh lotus seeds. See the photos for instructions on peeling the protective shells. Before coming to Vietnam, I never knew we could eat lotus seed like this!
These lotus seeds are very fresh and young so we can eat the whole seed, but if you get more mature seeds then you have to remove the green centre inside each seed. The taste is quite bland, and it's quite time consuming to eat these. But it was interesting and definitely not available in Hong Kong.
We slept early as we had to wake up early to go on a tour of islands around Nha Trang.
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