Vietnam Day 7 & 7.5

Our last full day in Vietnam & a one final adventure the morning before our flight home:

After a rough night of sleeping on the floor in the aisle of a bus on a plastic mattress- well (a) we were just about ready for this adventure to be over- and (b) we arrived in Nha Trang at 6AM. Phew.

Nha Trang is a beach town and we only were staying for the day. That night we were catching a sleeper train to Saigon & the airport. So, we had no hotel to check in to nor were there any famous sites that we wanted to see. All we wanted was to relax on the beach for the day. We just hoped the sun would show itself for the first time that trip.

With no where else to go and our only goal to lay on the beach, we literally followed our noses to that salty ocean (or China Sea) smell.

There were some locals doing morning radio exercises before it got too hot.

Our breakfast view

Instead of radio exercises, some people opted for a morning dip in the sea. But then they would wear these really funny looking flotation devices around their midriffs. 

Gasp! Were we really gonna get that lucky on our last day?! Was the sun going to cooperate?!
We were able to watch the sunrise at least!

Waiting for the world to wake up.

If our plan was to go swimming, we would definitely want to be able to shower before we got on the plane tomorrow. So we decided to check out a few different hotels and see if they would let us maybe rent a room for just the day, at half price?, or maybe just stash our stuff and use their shower?

The first 2 hotels turned us down but then we spied across the street a gleaming beacon of hope- a hostel! Sure enough, the woman at the check in counter showed us where we could stash our stuff and said we could totally use the shower.  I could even charge the camera and phone when we came back to shower.  Score!We did just that and changed into our bathing suits.

We set back out for the beach and on the way grabbed a pork sandwich (finally! It was what we had tried to order back in Dong Hoi but, if you recall, I had instead been served that mystery sponge) from a street vendor. Tasty!

We were on the beach for maybe a half hour- just enough time for one dip and then the rain from yesterday caught up with us and it positively poured. We got drenched!

Some beach day. At least the bags were staying dry back at the hostel!

Well, what did we want to do now? We hadn't made a rainy day plan for this place.

We went back to the hostel, showered and got in to dry clothes. It was a good thing this was our last day now that we had all these wet (and heavy!) clothes in our bags. We referenced the guide book and found a few more things to do in this town.

Walked passed this scooter. Those are eggs on the back of it!

Let's get massages! So we found a place recommended in the guide book and went all out for the 50 minute, full body massage. For $10. And it included a free drink at the bar next door. Can't beat that! 

Feeling nice and relaxed after the massage, we enjoyed our free mojito and LIIT. Never mind that it was still only 10 AM.

Nick think's I'm really attractive.

It was a good thing we were so relaxed because we noticed that the rain had completely cleared up by now and it was looking like it might be good beach weather again. Did we really want to go back to the hostel, change again, go back to the beach, and then have to shower again?

You betcha! That's why we were in Nha Trang, after all!

We stopped at a convenience store for some beach snacks and stumbled across this gem:

Instead of super sized, they are SUPPER sized!! Too funny!

The beach was awesome!! It never got especially sunny but the clouds were thin enough (and our skin pale enough!) that we were able to catch some rays and waves. We even ran into the Irish girl from our night bus and made plans to meet up at this microbrewery just down the beach later.

Starting to feel the sun burn, we did indeed head back to the hostel to shower and change for the THIRD time that day and then set out to meet our new friends.

The little lounge area by the showers were we spent several hours that day.

The Vietnamese microbrewery "Louisiane"

New friends at dinner!

After dinner and drinks (not necessarily in that order), we headed back to the hostel for the last time to get out bags and catch a ride to the train station.

The train (of course) was running late but it did eventually show up, we did eventually figure out how to read the ticket to figure out what car we were supposed to be in, and found our beds. Definitely a little higher class than the sleeper bus, eh? Comfy too! I slept great with the gentle rocking of the train.

We arrived back in Saigon at another unreasonably early hour: 4 AM. Why don't they just have the trains leave a few hours later so they get in at a more decent hour? Oh well, we were almost done with this country.

We didn't have to be to the airport until 9ish so we had to make one last big decision: did we want to just go straight to the airport and wait for 5 hours or do a little more exploring of this crazy city?

Even though it sounded so appetizing to just head to the airport and be done, we remembered how little there was to do at the Saigon airport and figured time would probably pass more quickly if we walked around some.

We were tired. We were getting a little crabby. The walk from the train station to the city center was absolutely disgusting - smelly and filthy- and reminded us of all the reasons we wanted to just cut and run to the airport. But we stuck with it and were, actually, greatly rewarded

Walked passed this woman who is straight up carrying a basket of fire.

Nick was able to take photos of a lot of the propaganda that was all over Saigon and that we hadn't had the chance to photograph yet.

And then we stumbled upon this absolutely gorgeous, well maintained, clean and pristine park! Wow! We parked it on a bench for a few minutes and an amazing scene unfolded before us.

It was time for morning exercises, Saigon! There were people doing an up beat dance class, others doing slow tai chi, and still others playing badminton! Someone had brought a radio to blast the dance music and others were setting up tons of badminton nets!

So, we said, let's try it out!! I just hopped in to the dance class.

And Nick asked to join a game of badminton.

And the people were really nice and welcoming! It was a supremely positive experience to end our trip on. Even after the fiasco with the sleeper bus, we were back on really good terms with this place. Like I said, a rollercoaster.

After we had our fill of exercise (and it was getting humid again), we continued on our walk. We were now looking for a place to eat breakfast.

Chicken on a leash in a park. Where was his owner? Why was he kept in the park?

We found this gorgeous place but they weren't opening for quite some time and we would soon have to head to the airport.

We ended up just eating at a local coffee shop. Rather uneventful but it was full of Vietnamese people so it's where the locals ate, right?

Finally, I try to capture a lesson we had learned our very first night here: how to cross the street. You just have to walk into traffic and keep moving at a steady pace so they can go around you. It's terrifying to see cars and motorbikes coming right at you though!

But it was now time to head to the airport. Nick haggled a price one last time and we headed for the international terminal. It was a good thing we told him which terminal to go right away because as soon as the cab got moving Nick and I passed out, we were so tired. And it was only about a 10 minute ride!

We got out of the cab, gave Vietnam one last look, and headed into the airport. 

And honestly, we were so glad to be going home. It had been an extremely busy week of putting ourselves outside of our comfort zones and trying new things. Of our 7 nights in Vietnam, we only stayed in 3 hotels. The rest of the time we were in motion on a bus, boat or train. We also utilized almost every form of transportation available in Vietnam: airplanes, taxis, mini buses, vans, coach buses, boats, kayaks, private car, sleeper bus, sleeper train, regular trains, and cyclos. Really, the only one we missed were the motorbikes! But that just was not an option. We had tried food from very unsavory looking places and been constantly hassled as tourists.

We couldn't wait to go home. If anything, we were head over heels for Japan now, and so glad that we were stationed there and not Vietnam. Japan is such an amazing and unique country. 

Was it a good trip? Overall, yes, it was a positive experience. We wanted adventure and we sure got it! And we knew we were getting ourselves in to some of this craziness but we definitely learned a LOT about how to do it better next time. (For example, give yourselves at least 10 days to try and tour the whole country. Or just stick to one area at a time. If we were going back, we'd skip Hue and do Hoi An instead. We'd also try to get in a tour of the Mekong River Delta.) But, it was what it was. We met some really awesome people, too!

Will we go back? No time to! The reason we did the whole country in 7 days was to cross it off the list. There are just so many other places yet to see!

Stay tuned for our next adventure!