Whistle-stop Nha Trang

The guide books are fairly disparaging of Nha Trang, so we didn't plan to spend long there, however a slight error when booking our buses meant that we were staying there only one night instead of two; but we didn't mind because we were going to go to Mui Ne later, which is supposed to be a much quieter beach experience compared to the rowdy unpleasant Nha Trang beach resort. As we only had one day, and we weren't expecting it to be beach weather, we planned to spend some time and money at the mineral mud bath. When we arrived, after our overnight bus, this time up the back where I had more leg room, the place seemed OK to me. Not too touristy, actually, with quite a "real city" feel.

Joanne pointed out to me that there was a place called the Louisiana Brew house, where they microbrewed their on beer, so I headed there while we were deciding what to do about getting to the mud baths. The beer was excellent, but well our of our price range, so I just bought a 200ml x 4 "taster" platter. Sitting there amongst all the swimming pools, and sun-loungers and Japanese food, and menus with very expensive cocktails on them, we thought this is what the "other Vietnam tourism" is about. We left and secured a bike, which I was very proud of haggling down to 80000 from 120000, then buzzed off to the mud baths.

Mud Bath

Well I've never had a mud bath before and it was OK. Kind of nice. Weird. After the mud bath they had all sort of other stages you were meant to go through, like being blasted from both sides by hot mineral water, soaking in a hot tub, and then you could spend as much time as you want in the hot mineral water swimming pool. I didn't care about any of that, I just wanted the mud to help my dreadlocks!

On the way back we stopped off at Po Nagar Cham Towers, which was built between the 7th and 12th Century; four towers, three of them featuring lingas.

Next it was Long Son Pagoda. We were already starting to become a bit bored with Pagodas, but this one has a reclining Buddha, which we had to see to compare with the one in Bangkok (I'm sure there's little comparison); and also a large sitting Buddha.

Sitting Buddha at Long Son Pagoda

I quite like the temples for all the garish kitsch; you may think that Catholics can do religious kitsch well, but the East is way ahead. And they've got them beat where incense is concerned as well. Pagodas are all the same though: octagonal tower of several layers, big bell, a few temples, lots of monks.

The boys at the bia hoi place

Heading back home, and almost there, I spotted a bia hoi place; the first I'd seen in Nha Trang. Following my obsession with getting the real deal, this looked like just the place. Definitely no tourists here! Another way of telling a real Vietnamese place is the lack of sensible seats: everyone sits at kiddie chairs around kiddie tables; they remind me of the "childrens table" at family Christmas, except it's grown men round them. So we stopped off, to the amusement of everyone there, which is always a good authenticity sign as well I find. "Bia hoi" I said. "One bottle?" the proprietor replied with shaky English.

The Real McCoy of bia hoi

Oh no - he's misunderstood I think, bia hoi comes out a draft, expensive beer comes in a bottle; and my suspicions were confirmed when he said it was 20000. But when it arrived I realised there was no mistake. It was a two litre bottle. So we ordered some food from the all Vietnamese menu, taking a chance, and it was very nice. The proprietor seemed keen to practice his English, but I think it was off its peak due to the large amount of beer he and his mates had already drunk. When it came to pay the bill, I think the waitress just charged me what it should have been instead of following the opportunistic money-making the owner had planned; the beer was in fact only 14000 dong -- about 45p for 2 litres.

That evening I had frogs for the first time in my life. They were OK, but I wouldn't rush to have them again. I can see why the French only eat the legs as well: the ribs are a bit unpleasant to contemplate, and they don't taste as nice either; or maybe that taste as little.

"Minced" frogs in spicy sauce

Whistle-stop Nha Trang

Nha Trang, Vietnam