Nha Trang, Vietnam

Nha Trang February 27-March 1 As we move north our next stop was Nha Trang. Its a bustling vacation town with high rise hotels along the beach. A little bigger than Mui Ne and much more commercialized. We found a nice hotel for $10 a night with large double doors that opened to our own private balcony, by far the nicest place we have stayed in thus far. It was on the main drag for the backpacker area which we could see all from our balcony. There were lots of bars and restaurants right outside our doors.
Our first day there we rented a moped and went to a secluded beach 20 km south of town. The views on the way there were spectacular, some of the best we have seen on our trip! And we got to see a lot of scenery since we got lost both on our way there and home. We passed the most luxurious hotel which took up a good mile or so. It was all gated and security guards everywhere and lots of people outside working on the up keep of the lawn and gardens. It was actually the place where they held the Miss Universe 2008 competition. We finally got to the beach after many dead ends and people pointing us in all different directions. It was just a tiny gravel path off the main road to get to the beach which everyone forgot to mention when giving us directions. The beach was awesome and there was only one family there, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. For dinner that night we went to this awesome restaurant where we got a small grill at our table and we ordered the food and they gave ot tp is raw and we cook ot ourselves. It was the best dinner we have had here. Later that night we went out to the Apple Club which is connected to a big hostel for backpackers so there is tons of backpackers there at night. It was ladies night so we got a few drinks! They run different specials everyday, very much like home.
The next day we were up at 8 am for snorkeling/booze cruise trip. The first stop was at an aquarium that was shaped like a giant pirate ship right on the ocean. It was pretty cool except that most of the large fish and sea turtles were put in tanks way too small for there size and for the number of species they had in each tank. But outside they had docks you could walk out on and see all the turtles and fish swimming freely. You could buy food to feed the turtles. It was cool to watch them pop their heads up to grab the food Next we stopped at our snorkeling place. I thought it was pretty neat but there wasn't a lot to see, it was mainly small fish and coral. They also gave us some time to swim and jump off the top of the boat. Of course Teala and I were the first ones to get up there and jump off the top. I ended up jumping off at least 10 times until Teala finally captured a picture while I was in the air.
After snorkeling we all had lunch on the boat. Surprisingly for cooking on the back of the boat it was quite good; rice, noodles, fish, vegetables, pork, bean sprouts and our favorite spring rolls! Right after lunch the guys who work on the boat busted out their instruments and put on a live show for us. The singer came out and it was one of the guys dressed as a woman, coconut bra and all. They went around and asked everybody where they were from and when it was our turn we said America and somebody boo'd us! I couldnt believe it! There was only one other girl from the states and after that she didnt say where she was from when they asked. And of course we were the only ones who got boo'd! Well anyways the band started playing some songs from a few of the nationalities. The guy from Australia did the rugby dance, the Russian lady basked in her time to shine dancing her hiney off to her Russian song, and the UK girl had to sing "Wonderwall" by Oasis. It was fun! After the show it was time for HAPPY HOUR at the floating bar! Everyone was in the water for free drinks. The bartender sat in a big floating seat with a little bar, everyone got floating tubes and grabbed on to the bartenders or other peoples. Once happy hour was finished we packed up and headed back to port. It was an early night for us!
The next day we checked out of the room and had the whole day to explore around since our bus didnt leave until 8pm. We left the hotel and walked around for a bit, eventually making our way to a market that was pretty uneventful. For a late afternoon snack we stopped at a restaurant named "Booze Cruise" since there menu looked appealing. As we looked at the menu we noticed all the words were spelled correctly, which is strange for S.E. Asia. Then we also noticed there was was Heinz ketchup, which we havent seen since we left home. We knew an American owned the place! Teala started talking to a woman who turned out to be the owner's wife. She went and got her husbad, yup an American! We came to find out he, John, is from Minneapolis! He lived on Lake Minnetonka where he had a 40ft boat he would take to the gauntlet (you have to have been to know what I am talking about)! His neighbors were the Cargills, I am sure you have heard of that company. He told us crazy stories...like once he went to a cook out at the Cargills and they had the Eagles come play in their yard. There own NFL football game at their BBQ. We talked with him a bit more and learned he was some bigwig at a company in the cities and was sent over here to run some factories in Saigon. When he got back to the states a year later he told them he wanted a vacation since he had spent a year working alot and away from home. His company said he could take a three week vacation any where in the world and they would pay, guess where he chose? Vietnam, he fell in love with the country and a woman here. He went home, resigned and sold all his stuff to move over here and live the simple life. Well after that we still had some time to kill so we walked around a bit more down by the beach. We saw an abandant amusement park, it looked like out of a horror movie. Before we left the Booze Cruise restaurant Jon the owner was raving to us about his burgers so we went back to his place to try it out before the long bus ride. He was right! His burgers were delicious and now we are stuffed for our 12 hour night bus to Hoi An.