The nice bit away from the city.
On the gondola
After the ancient splendour of Hoi An, Nha Trang was a bit of a let down. It’s a kind of Benidorm for Russians. All the restaurants, bars and shop names are all in Russian first and Vietnamese second, which feels like total cultural confusion for us. Still, we did have dinner in a restaurant called Gorky Park, and ended up dancing the night away with some very energetic Russians! One guy even bought the kids ice-cream afterwards.
Best ride ever!!
Nha Trang is a party beach resort, with a strip of neon lit hotels offering sunbed and cabana packages, bars, spa’s, tours, seafood and just about anything you like. It is good for shopping though, as it caters for European sizes, which is helpful when everyone else here is a size 0. The kids amused themselves getting fish massages (skin nibbling), Ollie loved it, and we had some RnR around the rooftop pool.
Nha Trang also has an excellent theme park Vinpearland, with rides and a waterpark that, in the stifling humidity, was just the spot to spend an afternoon. The kids, and big kids, had a ball, especially on a 1km long luge ride, the Alpine Coaster, which is something else- all of the kids doing it without using their brakes! The amusement arcade was free and the wave pool was awesome fun.
Even getting to Vinpearland was great as you travel in the longest gondola ride over water in the world, 3kms over the harbour. The scenery is stunning, but unfortunately gave you a good view of the amount of rubbish floating in this busy waterway too. You can see the environmental issues Vietnam will have to deal with in the future. But it’s not all bad, we did find a nice temple and a Catholic church to visit
Everyone’s taking selfies!
We are all looking so hopeful..
When planning the Vietnam trip we were concerned that in taking flights we might be missing some of the ‘real’ experience of travelling in Vietnam (internal flights are cheap), so rather than fly we booked tickets on the SE5 train from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City.
But be careful what you wish for! Our 8-hour day trip to the capital ended up being an epic 18- hour overnight adventure, as the train line had broken 4 hours into our journey, and we just had to wait until they fixed it before the train could move. Luckily we had booked sleeper seats, so we could bunk down overnight, but frankly the train probably hadn’t been cleaned since it was built in the 1970s, and I can’t begin to describe the toilets, so the Orient Express it wasn’t!
The kids were so great at amusing themselves
Rob’s new best mate
Finally at Saigon
The kids were horrified when we first boarded, especially as we had to ‘remove’ 4 young guys who had appropriated our cabin (and Cath and I were relieved to think we wouldn’t have to be in our cabin overnight- ha!) but eventually we all got used to it and our fellow travellers were really kind sharing their food with us, and translating the delay information. Ben and Rob even made a few friends on the train, particularly with one guy who just wanted to repeatedly have his photograph taken. But I think we were all very glad to see Saigon train station at 6am the next morning, a mere 10.5 hours late! Not sure even British Rail could beat that…
The train staff settling in for a long wait – making lunch on the tracks