Nah Trang (see what I did there)

After a blissful nights sleep we were awoken this morning by a child apparently being murdered next door. The best ear plugs in the world were not going to drown out this devil child, so at 6am I was up and ready to explore Nha Trang in the sunlight. After a run and a quick bite to eat, we made our way down to reception and out the front door and were welcomed by pouring rain. Boo. We quickly retreated and grabbed a hotel umbrella and made a break for the beach in between showers.

The beach is located 100m away from our hotel, but wasn't close enough for us to avoid the next shower pelting down. Turns out we were in the midst of a Typhoon and this was evidenced by the large swells which had caused a large Vietnamese fishing boat to become marooned on the beach (see cool photo below). This sight drew a large crowd comprising locals and tourists alike. We watched on as the fishermen tried to lighten the load on the deck by throwing off everything they could find including large crates of beer and water cylinders (the important things).

We decided to make our way to Tháp Bà Ponagar (a temple) and started walking along the beach towards it but were then hit by another shower. The umbrella wasn't really big enough to be comfortable for the two of us and I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and agitated with how wet I was becoming. Jamie told me to stop being a girl, I told him that I'm not a mermaid and no one likes the drowned rat look. So we changed tack slightly and went looking for a rain poncho (essentially a human sized plastic bag) for me, but not for Jamie, because he is sooooo hard. Reality was Jamie didn't want one because he said it will basically turn into a steam room under the plastic which will just cause me to sweat and become wet in the worst way possible. I didn't care (or I thought I didn't) until about 10 minutes later when my shirt became sticky and I started feeling extremely uncomfortable. Not wanting to be proven wrong, I continued wearing it while quietly dying on the inside. The lesson today was - always listen to the advice of a person who grew up in the Middle East when it comes to heat.

Nearing the temple, we crossed a river in flood with a strong current bringing trees and rubbish from upstream. The houses built on the banks on stilts, looked uneasy in the strong current, but I get the feeling these houses have seen many bad days. Finally, after walking for about 1.5 hours we finally made it to the temple. We looked around for about 30 minutes and then decided to head back to hotel via the beach to get out of the rain.

Walking back across the river via another bridge, we saw some interesting sights including a man taking a dump into the already brown river. Although this would be completely unacceptable in any developed country, here it is just the daily way of life, with a lack of toilets (or long drops) in the smaller houses. I think I will stick to the hotel swimming pool if I want a swim.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a small grocery store where we found some mango rum for VND60,000 or less than £3 pounds. Given it was this cheap, we didnt think we could go wrong, and took it back to our hotel room where we chilled out for the afternoon, and did some travel research for some of our upcoming destinations. We cracked open the rum and it tasted like pure alcohol, so, some mixers were a necessity and Jamie headed back down to buy some.

It wasn't long until we needed dinner. After perusing tripadvisor there weren't any wonderful authentic vietnamese options that offered a good vegetarian option, so for a second night in a row we headed for some delicious Indian.

Jamie's first impressions of Nha Trang still hold true. As my friend Angela put it, "A Russian Tenerife", where the signs in Russian outweigh the signs in Vietnamese. This place is definitely my least favourite in Vietnam to date. The rain certainly doesn't help either.Read more