Trip to Nha Trang, Vietnam

I admit it, I made a huge planning mistake in the plan of getting from Saigon to Hanoi. The distance is exactly 1,000 miles. Well 1,000 miles is what Morgan and I used previously as our comfortable one-day, trip-planning radius as we could get up in the morning, drive for 15 hours that day and get to our destination.

So since we wanted to stop in Nha Trang, and then in Hoi An before finally going up to Hanoi we (I) thought we'd have a 4-hour bus ride to Nha Trang, another 4-hour bus ride to Hoi An, and then an 8-hour bus ride from Hoi An to Hanoi.

However I didn't think that Vietnam's National Highway 1 that runs from Saigon to Hanoi is a one-lane each direction road with various towns along the way, so the going is SLOW!

The 200-mile trip from Saigon to Nha Trang turns out to actually be a 10-hour trip, not the 4 hours I thought, another 11 hours to Hoi An, and a whopping 17-hours from Hoi An to Hanoi... OUCH!

So we had to change things a bit, but not as much as it could have changed. Vietnam has lots of "sleeper buses" where you leave the evening around 7 pm or so and arrive in the morning at the next destination at 7 am. You could imagine the faces and grumblings we saw and heard as the bus picked us up from our hotel... you know, because NOBODY travels like this with little travellers.

Not knowing what to expect, we were a bit nervous boarding our first sleeper bus.

Here's the bus... it had two aisles and three rows of bunk beds. We were impressed that they made everybody take their shoes off before entering the bus and gave us bags for our shoes. The bus was very clean...Does this look like a party or what?

The bus was a bit cramped for people over 5'8" (most American males) or for people with wide bodies. I was smiling before I extended my legs out...but then I realized that I couldn't fit my legs and feet in the compartment under the sleeper in front of me... bu hao!

I thought I was in for a looong night, but fortunately I noticed that Adayla's sleeper was longer than mine, so we swapped and my legs were happy. Better still the back of the bus with five seats across and no feet-cramping compartments was empty and so we eventually migrated to that area...

The bus stopped every 2-3 hours for potty/smoke breaks. We got off at the first one before the girls fell asleep for the night and found the cleanest rest area bathroom that we've ever seen. They even made you take your shoes off and wear clean slippers before entering... But this was the exception, not the norm. The rest of the rest areas were dumps.

The girls slept great on the bus, but Morgan and I kept on waking up as the driver honked his horn and passed cars on the windy, hilly roads.

We arrived safely in Nha Trang and were pleased with our $15/night hotel:

Yup, breakfast room service was included in that price!

Then it was time to hit the beach. Nha Trang is supposedly very popular with wind surfers. It wasn't windy while we were there, but it was overcast and the waves were a bit rough, especially for the girls, so we just walked along the beach...Like Saigon (and the rest of Vietnam), communist propaganda signs were plentiful here as well...

A stroll along beach road...

Nha Trang is going through a bit of a construction boom with lots of new hotels being constructed...

Morgan found that getting your nails done in Vietnam is very cheap, so she got the girls' nails painted one evening...

while several other gals took turns holding Ryann... bonus!

The next day we went to Cam Ranh, about 20 miles from Nha Trang.

As noted in the Cu Chi tunnels post, my Dad served two tours in Vietnam... one in Cu Chi and one in Cam Ranh. The book I read said that Cam Ranh Bay is one of the most beautiful bays in the world and that the government there was moving to build its tourism industry there.

Well those plans must be still in the planning stage because when we got there, there were no hotels or developed beaches anywhere to be found!

So here's the picture of us to show that we were at Cam Ranh Bay, before it becomes a beach city. Might be a good place to invest in property!

The drive along National Highway 1 between Nha Trang and Cam Ranh was gorgeous. You can see in the next picture that the highway is literally carved into the side of the mountain along the coast. It's like that pretty much the entire way from Saigon to Hanoi...We did find out that 2008 Miss Universe competition was held here in Nha Trang. They built this conference center...

This was the location for Miss USA falling in the evening gown competition for the second straight year... our taxi driver reminded us of this! Must have been a fun time to be a taxi driver here.

This resort was also built just for the Miss Universe pageant. These facilities were totally empty other than employees that we saw working there. Perhaps they'll fill up during the summer? What a shame for such a nice place. I'm sure you can get some great deals at this place.

Our taxi driver who drove us to Cam Ranh and back bonded with Tally...Then back in Nha Trang for some lunch and a stroll through town. There are a lot of fun restaurants and shops in town, and yes, they cater to the backpacker crowd.

Along our stroll in Nha Trang we noticed an owl on a leash, not something you see every day...

and then Morgan got her nails done. Ten bucks later Morgan said these were the best her nails have ever been done.

Soon enough the evening came and it was time to get on another sleeper bus to Hoi An

If you're in Nha Trang, I can't imagine a better value than this hotel... highly recommended.