Nha Trang is a touristic city where we almost forgot we were in Vietnam. It seems to be a very popular destination for Russian people, and we might have come across more Russians than Vietnamese in some parts of the town! Storefronts and menus in restaurants are in Russian (no help for us, between Vietnamese and Russian, we order food by guesswork!) and crowds of tourists invade the spread out beaches of Nha Trang. But it doesn’t annoy us, after 3 days in the mountains of Vietnam, it’s nice to find some civilization back.
Moreover, Russians seem to like taking care of themselves on vacation, and spas can be found all over the city, offering a special treat: mud baths. We didn’t think about it twice, we must try that! Good for the skin, and the promise of a good laugh, we’re in!
In order to find more authenticity, outside of the resorts and hotels along the beach, no need to go too far. The Cham Po Nagar towers, built on top of a sacred hill, are dedicated to the goddess of the country, Lady Po Nagar. Beautiful ruins in the morning light where sun beams reveal well preserved architectural details. Cherry on the cake, we had the chance to admire traditional dancers, graceful and light.
In Mui Né, no Russians. We discovered a little town, where the main activities are related to the sea.
First one is kitesurf. A ton of shops along the beach offer lessons to learn how to fly a kite while managing the surf, not easy for sure but fun to watch!
Then, there is the beach… beautiful! We enjoyed it with a good book and a layer of thick sunscreen and met the usual “beach ladies”, selling fresh fruits insistently. We can’t resist, for us its gonna be a juicy mango.
And finally the fishing port. Super colorful and lively, we tend to forget time as we watch the comings and goings of all of those little shells…
We loved the port and its fishermen even more as we tasted their catch… Best seafood we ever had on this trip: Grilled shrimps with salt & pepper/ BBQ squid and chive scallops. For this only, I’ll go back to Mui Né immediately!
At sunset (or sunrise for the courageous ones), the best place to be are Mui Né red sand dunes. The sun plays with those outstanding red hills, offering onlookers an amazing show of lights, colors and shades.
We went through beautiful sceneries on the South Vietnam coast and we really enjoyed goofing around in the waves, getting a tan on white sand beaches and watching the sun declining on beautiful sand dunes… but something annoyed us very very much: the trashes.
We are still wondering why the Vietnamese government doesn’t educate its people about the absolute necessity of saving the oceans and the environment. Vietnam is such a beautiful country, we can’t understand how it is possible to find wrapping papers in the green and wild vietnamese mountains, plastic bottles all over the beaches at low tide, empty cigarette packs in the sand dunes…
Such a terrible shame!!