Not Much in Nha Trang

December 22^nd-25^th, 2024 

A couple of days ago, I asked Elaine, the manager of the Red House Hotel in Dalat about a bus to Nha Trang.  To my surprise, she told me that it might not be possible as there had been some mudslides on the road to the coastal city.  I checked online and sure enough, there had been multiple landslides about 3-4 days earlier, including one with a 100-ton rock on the road that had to be blown up into smaller pieces in order to be removed.  Some motorists were stuck between landslides for a while, I don’t think overnight, but long enough that food was hiked into them.  However, the roads had been reopened so it wasn’t a problem for me.

Driving through the hills towards the coast.

It was a nice windy drive through the small mountains, and we definitely saw the effects of the landslides.

The first sign of one of the cleared landslides.

All the red dirt is a new landslide.

This was the biggest problem area, a hair-pin in the road, where a 100-ton rock had to be blown apart to remove it.

That's a lot of dirt.

Crazy shit.

Looking towards the coast.

The mini-bus, or “VIP limousine” they like to call it, took me directly to my hotel, the Panorama, which was located right be the beach, across the road from the promenade.  There were actually a couple of hotels occupying the same building, and I think mine was on the lower half of the building as I ended up on the 8^th floor of 42.  I inquired about moving to a higher floor and I had the option to move to the 17^th floor the following day, but I was out and about when the hotel contacted me so in the end, I just stayed on the 8^th floor for my three nights there.

My room for the next 3 nights.

The view from my 8th floor room.

A huge teddy bear outside a nearby hotel.  I should have had a person in it for perspective, but his back paws are about 6 feet tall.

The view on my first night from my balcony.

Nha Trang seemed to be a very popular place for Russian tourists, so much so that a number of restaurants, shops and travel agencies had signs in Russian.  I couldn’t quite figure out why this place was such an attraction for them.  The beach was nice, but didn’t seem swimmable most of the time I was there due to big waves.  And otherwise, it was just a city.  It was overcast during my visit too…but I guess many probably came for the Christmas holidays regardless of what the weather would be like.

Some big roundabout on a walk to the ATM.

Looks like Santa's upgraded his ride!

I never did find out what this building on the promenade was about.

Some tiny traditional Vietnamese hats...is this for a dog or cat?

Croc-World!  I've never seen so many in one place.

A stage being set up on the promenade in front of my hotel, I'm guessing for New Year's Eve.

My hotel.  I'm on the floor just behind the building in the forefront, which I think was a musical theatre or opera house.  Take a look at the little light blue bit at the top of the the hotel, that's part of the pool

There's the pool...unfortunately I missed the guy who was swimming in it a few minutes earlier.

There was a multitude of other tall buildings clustered near the ocean.  In the distance, a bit to the south, was an island where another silly Asian theme park had been built called VinWonders.  A 3320-meter-long cable car was strung between the mainland and the island.  I didn’t bother going to visit this one…our trips to Ba Na Hills and the one on Phu Quoc was enough.

If you zoom in, you can see the support structures for the cable car that runs out to Vinworld.

Looking in the opposite direction on the beach.  The waves were not friendly for swimming.

The beach of Nha Trang.

The teenage boy in me made me take this photo.  And it's not just because of the "Hung Long" letters in yellow, but the funny pot-bellied cartoon character in the top right.

The island has an amusement park called Vinworld.  Another one of those weird 

I didn’t do much in Nha Trang apart from work on my accounting for my business, write some blog entries, and go out to eat.  One thing Nha Trang did have was a good variety of restaurants.  I had Mexican one day, Thai and a nice Italian dinner on Christmas Eve.

Some Christmas Eve dance performance on the promenade.

My table for my Christmas Eve dinner.

Cheers!  I lucked out and had a table by the Christmas tree.

Yes, a very traditional Christmas pizza dinner...but the place was run by an Italian, so it was yummy.

On Christmas morning, I hopped on a bus for a four-hour ride to a smaller seaside town called Mui Ne, where I hoped to do some kitesurfing.  So Christmas was a fairly non-event for me, but that often happens when I’m travelling abroad by myself.

 

Merry Christmas everyone!