The Journey To The South (Part Two)

Leaving Quang Ngai wasn’t hard, in fact we were glad to be out of there. The train ride took us through the very green and beautiful Vietnamese scenery. Again, we had great views of the coast for a while, and as we got closer to our destination, Nha Trang, we saw more forest.

We were sitting close to a local family; Mum, Dad, and four kids. The kids were well behaved, especially the one son who slept a lot. Even when his sisters were excitedly looking out the window at the views of the coast, he slept on peacefully.

Nha Trang, is touristy, but we needed some beach time. Whilst on the train we booked ourselves on a half day snorkelling trip. That meant an early start but it was well worth it. We were picked up by a van, driven to the boat harbour via several stops to pick up more people, then on the boat for a 45 minute ride to Hon Mun Island. On the way out of the harbour we passed under the cable cars on their way to and from the amusement park.

The island is in a marine park, so no fishing allowed, and hopefully some fish for us to see. Courtesy of the GoPro we managed to get some photos. Although the GoPro does some weird stuff at times, it can be very frustrating.

We were sharing the boat with some Australians, and lots of Russians. Apparently Nha Trang is to Russians what Bali is to Australians. There were snorkellers and divers on board. We spent a pleasant hour in the water admiring the beautiful coral and the colourful and vibrant fish. We also saw some very nice sea stars (aka starfish) and sea cucumbers. A highlight was the big jellyfish we saw, but stayed away from, apparently a close encounter would be painful, but not fatal (though you might wish it was while trying to deal with the pain).

After our hour, we motored to another spot while eating lunch. We spent an hour there and again enjoyed ourselves. Then it was time to head back. It was a well-spent morning. Once dropped back at our guesthouse we relaxed in our room. It was very hot outside and we had air conditioning which, whilst struggling, combined well with the fan to keep us cool.

Some Snippets Of Snorkelling Video

Later on Kiwi went for a walk to find a supermarket and a bakery to stock up on food for the next day’s train ride. Kraut went to the beach, where Kiwi caught up with her. The beach looked clean, until we got closer to the water’s edge where we could see all the rubbish floating in the water. Having waded past the rubbish we could swim, but the water was too warm to be refreshing. The water temperature at the bottom was better, but we are not amphibious.

We sat on the beach watching the tourists and then, very suddenly, the locals arrived en mass. They were having a great time, but we have never seen so many people wearing life jackets at the beach. At one point we sensed an unpleasant odour, and noticed three local women walking past, one of them with a child about 12 months old in her arms. We reckoned the kid had just done a jobby. But into the water the women strolled. Argh! That is disgusting! We had a bit of a laugh about it though, and it reminded us of “Caddyshack”.

Tiring of the beach we went and had dinner. We went to the same place as the previous night. The food was great, the location excellent (next to our guesthouse), but the service was awful. Two out of three ain’t bad.

The next morning it was back to the station to get the train to Saigon. The city is officially called Ho Chi Minh City, but most people, including the locals, call it Saigon. This especially applies to the central part of the city. The railway station is officially Sai Gon Railway Station.

The train ride was good. More nice scenery, including a part that reminded Kiwi of Central Otago, with its rock formations. We also passed through some wild weather; lots of rain and wind. When we got to Saigon we could see it had rained there too.

A short taxi ride to our hostel (yes, a hostel) showed us we were back in a big city, Saigon is bigger than Hanoi, and the traffic was just ridiculous. It didn’t help that due to our train arriving an hour late we were now in peak hour traffic. Thankfully our hostel was down an alley away from the main road, so we had very little traffic noise. We got talking to some other travellers and the five of us went out to dinner together, walking in the rain to an Indian restaurant. It was owned by Indians and the food was really good. Kiwi enjoyed eating lamb for the first time in several weeks. Kraut had a vegetarian coconut curry.

Onec back at the hostel we extended our stay to three nights, the idea of moving on after just two was exhausting.