Ho Chi Minh and Nha Trang

After a sleepless night and a near wallet/bus disaster I was totally conked out for the duration of the bus ride into Vietnam. Will woke me up at the border and even helped me edit my departure card (I had put the date as 2010 among other mix ups). When it was time to get off the bus in HCMC we made our way to a guesthouse and I passed out while Will took advantage of cable TV we had in our room (have not had TV during this whole trip which for us is a big deal). That night we took a walk and found a great local spot to eat.

The next day was our exploring the city day. We did about 4 hours of walking around and checking out the major tourist attractions and markets which were all very overwhelming. Trying different food has quickly become our favorite pass time in Vietnam so far so we spend a lot of time at different restaurants and street vendors. In my opinion the food here is close to the best yet although I have a hard time saying it is better than Thai. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful but we were fine with this because we actually had plans for the evening which is something new and different. The previous night during our walk we passed a theatre which had large advertisements for Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol." We had missed the times for that night but the following day was the final showing so we decided it was a must do. We didn't have high hopes going into it considering we were in Vietnam but we figured "how bad could it be?" As it turns out it was much worse than my lowest expectations. Let me put it this way...there is no way to put on a successful rendition of "A Christmas Carol" when Tiny Tim is played by a stuffed doll. On top of that all the music was different (we didn't recognize one song) and the cast was so small that cast members would play two characters during one scene (meaning they would have to run off stage during the scene and change a piece of their clothing and then run back out as the "new character"). The most exciting part of the whole production was watching the rats climb all over the set while the play was going on. However despite the blaring flaws of the show we had a good time and it was worth the small amount of money we payed for it.

After the show we went back to the our dinner spot (I call it our dinner spot only because we went there for lunch and dinner everyday because it had the best selection of local dishes for the best price) and then checked out a few other bars before retiring for the night.

Another fairly relaxed day because we had to wait around all day for our 8 PM bus to Nha Trang. We went to the War museum which was less than uplifting and then checked out a few other sites. Our bus ride was short, only about 5 hours. Because our stop in Nha Trang was not the final stop for the bus the bus attendant told us he would tell us when to get off. Naturally he forgot about the foreigners in the back and when we inquired about when we should get off he told us about 15 minutes ago. The bus wasn't about to turn around so we just got off in the middle of nowhere and started the walk back to civilization and guesthouses with all of our stuff. It was just after 1 AM when we started walking and luckily after about 45 minutes we came across a randomly placed hotel that was still a ways outside of the actual town. We were tired and didn't feel like carrying all of our bags anymore so we decided to try and stay there for the night (it was closed and dark). After knocking on the window and waking the sleeping guard we were able to get a room for the night.

In the morning we caught a ride to where we intended to stop the previous night. Nha Trang is a fairly quite fishing town right on the water but has become a popular kitesurfing and windsurfing destination as well. We were temped to partake in the kitesurfing but the cost of renting all of the gear was a bit beyond our budget. So instead we rented a motor bike and cruised along the coast just checking out the scenery which was very impressive. The main attraction of Nha Trang however are its sand dunes. After the heat of mid-afternoon we went to check these out of our motorbike. The first of the dunes, the red dunes, are just over 5km outside of town. Neither Will or I had experienced a sand dune before so we were instantly blown away with what we saw even at the "less impressive" (according to the Lonely Planet) of the two. Because it was getting a bit late and the White dunes were another 30 km away we moved on fairly quickly. We arrived at the White dunes about 30 minutes before sunset and we were both in awe with what we saw. We walked through the dunes for about 15 minutes until we were at a place where all you could see in any direction were large rolling hills of white sand. It was really like nothing we had experienced before and as the sun began to set the scene just kept getting more and more impressive. By the time we left it was just about dark and we were totally covered with sand. The 35km ride back was a bit sketchy because the headlight on our motorbike was broken as was our tail light so we were riding completely in the dark on roads that are a bit unpredictable. Thankfully we made it back safely and we showered before heading out for a nice seafood dinner overlooking the ocean (very romantic). The meal was a sensational end to an even more sensational day and we went to bed feeling very satisfied (especially considering the beers at the restaurant were only 25 cents).

-RBC