Two days in Nha Trang and what we (that is Kathrin and Sylvia, the two Germans and me) saw here is told pretty quickly:
- Visit the gallery of Long Than, one of Vietnam’s most famous photographers
- Seeing one of the local pagodas and cemeteries, beautifully set on a hillside and hill top
- Hang out at the Beach
I suppose, particularly day 2 here was pretty much characterised by the latter, earning me a nice sun burn on the back.
Nha Trang is probably the city where most beach tourist come to and indeed it has a quite divers programme to offer: snorkeling, diving, kite flying, paying visits to one of the many islands or just hanging out on the beach. We even saw one of those „banana boats“ that are already compulsory at other tourist places. So in my point it is quite a good place to have some relaxing days in the sand and enjoying the waves.
As for the beach, the way it works here is as follows: You come here in the morning, rent a deck chair (20.000,- Dong, about 1 EUR) and then wait. Wait for what?
For one of the many service providers here at the beach. „Wanna massa(ge)?“ No problem – enough people around giving you a massage. And I mean the professionals, not the folks at the next umbrella.
You are hungry? Just go to one of the cafés or, if just too tired by hanging out, wait until fresh fruit are delivered to your chair. Fancy fresh sea food? Fine, it’s here as well. You can have steamed lobster, verious prawns, all sorts of crabs. They are sold by women with mobile stoves. Imagine an aluminium pan with charcoal and on top of that another aluminium pot with water and all the seafood on top, slowly getting some tan in the hot steam.
You just ran out of books because your latest novel was so exciting you finished it last night? Guess what… Right, new literature is available right at your chair. You want the book in German? No problem, the vendor will be right back, bringing you the appropriate book.
So far for the beach.
As for eating out here, you might want to remember certain rules:
- Make up your mind on what you fancy BEFORE looking for a restaurant
- Nobody in the restaurant you are looking at? That might have a reason. Get to a place where there are lots of people, best even, if it is the local folks.
- Recommendations in various guide books mostly are good recommendations for a reason – however sometimes the popularity might also lead to increased prices at decreasing quality.
We had a chance to test all these rules for their validity and yes, they seem to be quite robust under any circumstance. Out of three dinners we had here, one was more than excellent, one was a mere shame and one was nothing particular in quality, but made us part with quite some money.
The one place that was really good was Lac Canh, a place where you get a mini grill at your table and you can BBQ yourself whatever you want: fish, meat, fruit, vegetables, you just name it. Everything is marinated and served with some extra sauce, if not spicy enough yet. You might want to order some rice with it to bear it 😉
The whole place was full with local people on two floors and we were lucky to get a table at all and particularly to get a table right at the balcony upstairs. The service is excellent and very polite. Only about 10 PM suddenly all the locals suddenly left and then you are pretty much on your own.
The second really nice thing here was Long Than’s gallery. He is a photographer taking just black and white pictures and having won already several gold medals in international contests with his pictures. In fact, they are brilliant, just beautiful! You might want to check out his website: http://www.elephantguide.com/longthanh/home.htm. Either he or his daughter will open upon ringing the bell and gladly take you around. We were lucky and could speak to the artist himself! Really a nice guy.