An Easy Life

I am well aware that I’ve had a “sweet life” this past year of travel, as one good friend repeatedly reminds me. And I try the best I can to step back as often as I can and appreciate everyday that I wake up and don’t have work to go to, or any responsibility beyond feeding and sheltering myself. But of course, I can never appreciate it as much as I should—or as much as I dreamed I would as I sat in my office day after day gazing up at the map on my wall, or as I'm sure I will remember back with longing when I’m sitting in class in just six weeks! Never the less, there are particular stretches of time during my travels that have really brought the word “holiday” to mind, and this past week was one was one of them. After spending quite a few days in the lovely town of Hoi An, Lucy and I took another sleeper bus to Nha Trang, the beach resort town of Vietnam. While it is not a particularly nice town (and certainly does not compare to Hoi An in the charm factor), we ended up spending a great four days here before our next move to the cooler inlands to begin a three day motorbike tour of the countryside.

While the town of Nha Trang suffers from a recent boom in tourism and all that comes with it—too much construction, lots of tourist-focused crime, and haphazard layout, widespread layout. However, the beach is really nice and the water is lovely and clear, so after our early morning arrival at 6am (ugh) we checked into a hotel and then it the beach. The next day we visited some well-known local mud baths and hot springs which was actually very nice and a good cultural experience. First, we had to get our tickets and rent some towels—sounds easy but it’s not. I think I can be quite pushy, but the crowds at the mud baths gave me a run for my money—there’s not much respect for “a line” so to speak. In any case, we finally succeeded and by that time I was in desperate need of a calming bath. With some guidance from some local women who were regulars, we soaked in a tub of warm mud for twenty minutes, pouring it over our backs, and arms. Then we rinsed in the hot showers before soaking in a mineral tub for twenty or so minutes. After that it was time to hit the hot swimming pool and thermal waterfall, along with a cold shower that shot our horizontal jets. There was plenty to occupy us for about three hours.

The following day, I was up early to do a morning scuba trip that included two dives. It was actually really beautiful and I saw lots of colorful coral, fish, and even an octopus and a frog fish. And I’m still a new diver (this was only dive 7 and 8 for me) so just being under water is still exciting. The last day, Lucy and I signed up for a boat trip which turned out to be another cultural experience. Many of the Vietnamese are on holiday at the moment, so our Funky Munkey day boat had about half a dozen or so Westerners and the rest vacationing Vietnamese. After snorkeling around some pretty coral and fish, we had a great seafood lunch on the top deck of the boat and then the makeshift band including the tour operator (know as Funky Munkey, hence the trip name) and a motley crew sporting old electric guitars, a tambourine, and even a set of drums made out of kitchen pots got things started. Soon enough, Lucy was whisked onto the stage (okay, small platform) to perform a love ballad with FM. It was hysterical. She did great. The rest of the trip passed quickly lounging on the boat as well as the hilarious floating bar. One of the band members served as bartender and poured out glasses of sweet wine cocktails to all the passengers floating in tubes. It was good fun all in all.

In addition, Nha Trang had a lively nightlife, in the backpacker sense of the word. As with Hoi An, before we arrived, we had already been briefed by fellow backpackers travelling south to north who told us which are the bars that everyone goes to. Sure enough, we spent plenty of time at Sailing Club, a very chic bar on the beach. In addition we dined well, although perhaps “dined” is not the right word as it was not so refined (think miniture red plastic chairs and tables in a fenced in cement lot) but made up for this in the taste department. The first night we ate a good western meal at a popular expat hangout. We had some unfortunately company (the very drunk husband of the Vietnamese owner) who quite a few more words said Brits were snobs (and probably something under his breath about Americans, but that’s to be expected). I went over afterwards and asked for an apology to which is acquiesced. In any case, we were not eager to return despite the good food, but the little makeshift steak place associated with the restaurant looked so good, and at 17,000 dong ($1)for a steak and chips, it sounded too good not to give it a try. So we did—for the next three nights. And was it delicious! Thin, flavorful steak served with a tomato gravy sauce, greasy chips, and French bread and pickled salad. Insanely good. So we became regulars there, and more than one person came over to apologize for the behavior of the drunk, Wilson. But just when you become regulars, it’s already time to leave—we’re off to Dalat to sign up for an Easy Rider bike tour through the central highlands of Southern Vietnam to balance out our beach time with some history.

(Pics to come shortly courtesy of Lucy's camera)