Nha Trang

As we leave the rain behind we board our 12 hour “sleeping bus” to the seaside resort town of Nha Trang. And by “sleeping bus” we mean Vietnamese sized sleeping bus as we cram ourselves into our sleeping pods for the night. It was actually quite cozy having three rows of beds stacked two tall with extra drivers/riders sleeping in the aisles to maximize capacity.

After a few hours of sleep we reached our new home for the next four nights. Surprisingly as it sounds this was the first time in our 6 months on the road that we spent an entire day doing nothing but lounge on the beach. Although the beach wasn’t suited for swimming it was pleasant to relax listening to the waves crash.

We teetered back and forth on whether we should dive Nha Trang as it’s supposedly the best diving in Vietnam; however, it was the off-season with low visibility and cold water. So we compromised and did a snorkeling/sighting seeing cruise around the nearby islands. We chanced upon several large Blue Starfish, a cleaning station, and a pair of Octopi (that weren’t too happy to see us).


We sailed past a fishing village where locals were paddling their thuyen thung (basket boats) to their favorite fishing spots. It was quite interesting to learn that these boats were invented under French rule when a new tax was levied on all boats. Leave it to the clever Vietnamese to turn a basket into a pseudo boat to evade foreign taxes.


We made several friends during our cruise; some were traveling around the world similar to us, others just a few weeks here. We met up at the Louisiana Brewhouse (don’t quite know why Louisiana) for some homemade brews before parting ways for the time being. We had to eat dinner at the “Good Morning Vietnam” restaurant simply for the name. Although one would think they would serve American food, they severed some of the best Italian we’ve had on the trip. Its sad to say, but our pizza here was better than Italy!