The town of Nha Trang in Vietnam has to be one of the biggest surprises of my trip to SE Asia this year! It is a coastal town about an hour and a half flight from Saigon. I didn’t expect much since I hadn’t seen any nice beaches in Vietnam, but what I found is a place that was equivalent to the best Hawaiian beaches I’ve been to.
Vora and I arrived via bus from Da Lat, and I didn’t waste any time meeting up with Dave, who I hadn’t seen since our egg coffee making experience in Saigon. He pulled a little bait and switch on me, suggesting we meet at the Sailing Club. It was a beautiful beachfront bar, but when I arrived, he took me instead to the place next door.
While it lacked the ambiance of the Sailing Club, Bluesea Beach bar offered exactly the same view of the ocean and drinks were a fraction of the price. Dave and I caught up on how we’d spent our time apart and how impressed we were with what Vietnam had to offer. Vora joined us for a drink before we headed off in search of dinner.
There was a street food market a few blocks from our hotel, but we were a little disappointed. It was crowded and only a block long. It also lacked the seafood offerings we’d loved in Da Nang. Perhaps that was due to the fact that they did not seem to have a fishing fleet here. We ended up at a fusion restaurant that was appropriately named Nom Nom.
The food choices there were exceptional, and we ended up returning two more times. The ambiance was nice, and the food was fresh. The highlight though was the presentation including a flying noodle dish which arrived at the table with chopsticks floating in the air above the plate, with noodles hanging from it!
Like most places in Asia, Nha Trang is filled with Massage parlors, and Vora couldn’t resist the opportunity to negotiate. I think she just wanted to see if she could get the same good price she’s negotiated in Da Nang. She was actually able to get us massages for less, and we headed in to see if we could also be hanging like noodles after 90 minutes. I enjoyed mine so much, I actually went back the next day for a four hands massage.
This is when you have two people massaging you simultaneously. I was a little disappointed in that I was hoping to have my legs and arms massaged at the same time, but they just worked on opposite sides of my upper body and then lower body. One of the nice things about having two masseuses is that they were able to talk to each other, and I hoped that helped them pass the time better.
Every morning, I met with Dave for a six o’clock coffee. One day we ended up there through lunch. He’d found a little spot around the corner from his hotel, and we enjoyed watching the town wake up. Certainly the most interesting thing to watch was the barber who set up a chair on the sidewalk, hung a mirror to the side of the building, and commenced his services. Dave shared that he had been subject to a most unusual service their the previous week.
After cutting his hair, the barber tapped Dave on the shoulder and pointed to his ears. Dave assumed the barber was asking if he wanted his ear hairs trimmed so he nodded. It turns out what he had agreed to was an ear cleaning.
The barber opened a pouch with a variety of tools and began scraping the inside of Dave’s ear canal. Every once in a while, the barber wiped the instrument on a towel he had given him to hold. Dave was shocked at the volume of detritus being excavated from his ears. He admitted to me that it was much more effective than any treatment he’d received at his doctor’s office, and he was amazed how much more clearly he could hear by the time the barber was finished.
You didn’t need clear ears to hear how loud our little street cafe had gotten by lunchtime, so we paid our bill and went our separate ways. By that time Vora and I had spent two weeks together so we also took some time to ourselves, mostly for shopping and exploring. We always ended the day at the beach bar or our favorite restaurant though. The life of pre-tirement has been fun for us. Though neither of us has to work too much, we both enjoy keeping busy, and are both trying new things at every opportunity we get.
Trying Nha Trang had been a great experience, and we’re trying to figure out when to come back and share with friends. It’s clear that Vietnam recognizes this little treasure, and we were impressed with the number of hotels we saw being erected on our way to the airport.
The time to come to Vietnam is now. Growth is booming, but it is one of the most affordable countries in Asia. Pair that with the quality of accommodations and eateries, and it is one of the best values for your travel money. We headed back to Bangkok for the remainder of our stay, but Vietnam is now part of the regular rotation. In fact, every time we’ve met up since out return, Vora has mentioned going back just for the lobster!