The critical Frenchman

It was hard but I finally managed to move from the easy going Mui ne to have a look at Nha trang. I made the journey by bus like most of the people, but had the “chance” to get a sleeping bus. well chance is a big word depending on your height. if you are short its all fine if you are tall you won’t be able to stretch out totally in this seating/sleeping seats!

Anh café sleeping bus:

But well back to nha trang. I am not gonna try to explain how nha trang is because you will find that sort of info everywhere on the net. However, the thing I can tell you, is my off season experience in this place. when I actually read my guidebook it was saying that nha trang has turquoise water most of the time! well, I will have to correct that and tell you that this is not correct. when you are in the wet season the water is not clear at all but rather grewish and the water and beach is not clean (certainly due the constant swell bringing all the crap from the sea onto the shore) so swimming in the middle of plastic bags and all sort of rubbish is common. for the one who wonder, the off season is mostly from October to April. of course, since I was there in February my nha trang experience has not been so good.

I will go straight to the point and tell you that you don’t need to bother with Nha trang if you are going in Vietnam off season. the reason for that is that all the charm and beautiful scenes that you see on travel guide or magazine won’t be there. the clouds and the lack of light make for disappointing views from the beach. for example: normally from the beach, you see islands and mountain in the distance surrounded by blue waters. unfortunately during the wet season you’ll see mostly lots of clouds, rain and a part of the closest mountains surrounded by grewish dirty waters. that said if you are lucky or patient enough (let say you decide to stay a few days), you might have some clear sky and better views but it usually do not last long. if you are backpacking I think this place is good to for 2 to 5 days maximum else you’ll get bored.

Off season scenes in nha trang beach when the sky clears up:

tours: off season, the tours are still available, but, unfortunately, since the best ones are boat tours with snorkeling activities with visit on nearby island, you would not want to do them (again because of the weather and sea condition). then, your are left with the overland tours. common sites are things like cham towers, big buhddas, and various “landmarks”. someone I met went on a tour to see the salt field but since they were flooded, there was no salt to be harvested and no nice picture to take neither. just an empty field with water :O(

this is just a reminder telling you that in Vietnam you have to do your homework before signing in for a tour. (since they are a lot of crappy ones). the best thing to do is ask people you meet if they took a tour and how was the experience. like this, you can get a clearer picture on which operator to avoid. Otherwise If you are on a budget go for the “locals”. how to find them:they usually look more organized than the average joe on his bike asking for you for a ride, they are usually older people carrying an extra helmet on the back of the bike and have quite a large scruffy bag strap to their shoulder. on motorbike that offers you tours. some of them are quite good and speak English and they are also cheap. for 10 dollars you could spend the whole day site seeings.

Regarding the easy rider club: I have heard recently that a lot of people are talking about this motorbike club offering tours around. again be careful because there are quite a lot of copycats out there. however if you manage to go with the real ones you can expect to pay around 45 us dollars a day for an all included tour( bike, food accommodation etc…) going from 2 to 5 days cruising by motorbike around nha trang, dalat mountains and further. I will try to post a special article on that special tour operator that seems to be quite cool and offer a interesting thing to do while in Vietnam.

Diving: same thing there. the dive shops are open but the honest ones will tell you that during wet season its not worth it to go diving with a visibility off only 3 to 5 meters when normally it is more like 20 meters in the right season.

rainbow divers club

so what is left!? shops and bars I guess… the travel guide was saying again that nha trang was party to the max. well my experience was not exactly like that in the backpackers area I have seen only two big bars with people in it: the guava and the crazy kim. for the rest there is the sailing club located on the beach were things start to move around twelve at night. sadly, the place close early around 2.30 am . and it is also the prime spot for thieves and trouble makers which operate when people are walking back to their hotel at night. so be careful or don’t walk back to your hotel alone.

left guava bar/ right crazy kim

the bars are nothing special but just your usual bar that gets a bit crowded in the week end . the rest of the week its more like almost empty and closing around 12 o clock at night. no need to say that I did not even bother looking for other bars. for shopping there are a few things you can buy like clothes and souvenirs but the prices are really tourist prices as you would expect. however up north is hoi an (12 hours by bus) which seems to be  the place where everyone shops. so if you are going there just be patient as you will find much better deals over there.

the food: you can find a large variety of food in nha trang but it will come at a price even in the off season. you can count on 60 000 dong at least (5 us dollars) for a decent meal. (but once again it is hard to find a good cheap local Vietnamese restaurant)

a word about hotels: one good thing to know is that the prices in Vietnam have really shoot up and do not reflect the prices in most travel guide. for example I stayed at the “perfume grass inn” to see what the recommended place by the travel guide was like and what was meant to be a 10 dollars a night room with fan and see view has transform into a lower flower moldy smelling room with no view for 12 dollars a night. the see view rooms now are more around 20 to 30 dollars. However I have to add that the hotel staff have been very friendly, spoke decent English as well as some French, and that they offered the best values prices for food and drink (like cocktails). they were also very efficient with any bookings, visa extension and taxi hires for airport or train pickup, site seeings and the like. Amazingly, they do not overcharge you. which is rare for hotels!. for me what I like best was that they had a guitar available to play in the lobby. so it was pretty nice to sit outside, play some guitar and chat with the hotel guests in front of a drink. they are surely other hotel that are nice as well (”perfume grass in” has a second hotel near the beach as well) but you will find that every hotel have top up their prices by at least 5 dollars !! so be carefull. It is also a very commn thing to book in advance before you arrive in a hotel. the best thing to do is ask the reception at  the hotel you stay to call for you for a reservation in your next hotel. that way you can arrive without worries about finding a decent hotels or getting ripped off.

The critical Frenchman

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 5:57 am and is filed under 1, In my opinion..., Travel, Vietnam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.