Skip to main content

Beach life: Nha Trang & Mui Ne

Leaving behind Da Lat, the city of eternal spring, I went to Nha Trang, a high-rise, high-energy beach resort. The city enjoys a stunning setting: it's ringed by a necklace of hills with a turquoise bay dotted by tropical islands.  

From Da Lat to Nha Trang I took a bus and it took me ~4h to get to my destination. Buses are the most convenient way of moving around. Most of the times they pick you up from your hotel and drop you off to the next one. 

The road from Da Lat to Nha Trang meanders through the hills. The scenery is quite spectacular. I'm happy I didn't have any breakfast before this ride. Beside the zigzag road, the Vietnamese drive like crazy, overtaking cars in forbidden spots.

On the minibus I met two women who were stopping in Nha Trang for a couple of hours on their way to Hoi An. We started chatting and spent the afternoon together. When travelling solo it's easy to meet other people, although I'm an introvert and for me it's not that easy as it sounds.

After lunch, we took a Grab and went to Po Nagar Cham Towers. The ticket entrance was 10000₫/adult. Built between the 7th and 12th centuries, these impressive Cham towers are still actively used for worship by Cham, Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhists.  



After the visit to the Cham towers we walked a little along the beach and afterwards we went separate ways.
For dinner I went to Louisiane Brewhouse, a shorefront microbrewery. There I have tried one of the craft beers, a witbier with passion fruit extract. 
Sea food noodles
Whenever I was close to the sea I tried to get a room with sea view so I can enjoy it. Waves sound was soothing during the night time.

Room view
The second day in Nha Trang I've got again company. I've met Leroy on the boat cruise in Ha Long Bay and our paths have crossed again. 
We have started our day with a copious breakfast at Alpaca homestyle cafe.
The rest of the day we just walked on the beach and stopped here and there to have some drinks.

The most surprising moment of the day was the moon rise. The full moon was one day before and I didn't expected such a spectacle.


The third day in Nha Trang passed at the same pace as the one before. It started with breakfast at Cafe Culture.
Smoothie bowl with dragon fruit and the traditional Vietnamese coffee
From the city we walked around 30 minutes to visit a pagoda on the hill. 

Long Son Pagoda
On the hilltop above there's the white seated Buddha, with excellent city views. Before reaching the seated Buddha there's a reclining Buddha statue. 


The white Buddha is seated on a lotus blossom

City views from the hilltop
On our way back we came across another temple that was crammed between some buildings that could be easily missed.

For dinner we went to another shorefront restaurant, Sailing Club Nha Trang. Here I've tried again banh xeo, the savoury rice pancake. This time was without the rice paper rolls. To be honest I liked it more rolled in fresh rice paper. 
Banh xeo

Just cauliflower cooked western style 
I was doubting to take desert as well, but it was a good decision. One of the best cheesecakes I've ever had. The passion fruit sauce gave it an exotic taste.
I am so grateful for all the people I have met so far in my journey. Everyone taught me a lesson. And especially with the holidays being short term, I get to live more in the present and enjoy every moment I have!
From Nha Trang, Leroy and me took different directions. He went to Da Lat and I went to Mui Ne, once upon an isolated stretch of shoreline and a fishing village.
From Nha Trang I took another bus to get to Mui Ne. I've got to experience for the first time a sleeping bus, although I was travelling by day time. What was supposed to be a 5h ride, turned into 7h. The bus brakes broke and we had to wait for an hour or so until they've fixed them. 
Inside the sleeping bus
To be honest, this place was not what I was expecting. Without a motorbike (and I don't have a driving licence) it's difficult to move around. The sights are spread out along a 10km stretch of highway. Maybe this was a sign to slow down, lay back and enjoy doing nothing. The hotel I booked had everything I needed.
Tofu stir fried with lemongrass

Fisherman's boats

The beach close to my hotel is barely inexistent, full of garbage and stray dogs. Some locals were enjoying a swim though.

View from my room with the swimming pool

Sea view from my room
Sometimes is okay just to stay in and relax, especially after two weeks and a half of moving from one place to another. I spent the whole day by the pool, improving my strokes, reading and eating.

Breakfast was included

Lunch with a view - stir fried noodles with sea food

Dinner - red snapper fish with sweet spicy caramel sauce

Sunset
The fishing boats start to flicker in the darkness. I guess that's just to signal others they are there.
Although Mui Ne wasn't the paradise I expected, I enjoyed the time I've had here. I will spend the last days of my journey in Ho Chi Minh City.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stories from Hamburg

Lately I've heard a lot about Hamburg, how awesome it is and I was curious to see it with my own eyes. Being in Berlin these days, was the perfect moment to do it. I bought train tickets and here I am in a train going to Hamburg. With my book, enjoying a 2h train ride  The weather was not favorable to me, but I still have all my fingers. I must say, the rainy day enhanced the colors of this city. I was not kidding about the cold It took me a few time to get used with the temperature, but after that I forgot it was cold. I had set in mind to see the canals. I came here for that. I read some articles about this and I was impressed. It's said that it has more than Venice or Amsterdam. From what I've seen, it looks a lot with both of them, but on a different scale. If in the two cities mentioned the buildings are not so tall, here we find massive constructions. #wanderlust #urbanphotography #enthusiastictraveller A post shared by Madalina G. (@gmadalina92)

Magnificent Florence

After reading Dan Brown's Inferno I wanted to go to Florence! That was two years ago and I had booked a trip for March 2020 but it was canceled due to the pandemic. This year I booked another trip for March, but that one got canceled too because I got covid. One month later I finally managed to visit Florence, but the plan doesn't always works out the way one expects. Initially the trip was for 3 nights but the airline with which I got the flight tickets changed the timetable and the first direct flight to return was after another 2 days, therefore I ended up spending 5 nights. Which turned out to be better! The journey to reach Florence was hellish! Apparently the airport is small, between cities, with only one runway, fairly short and not very wide. Additionally to that, the place is surrounded by high mountains, which is why it can be approached only in one direction. Not only does the terrain brings this challenge with it, but it also effectuates in a very unusual microclim

Kasteel de Haar - a luxurious castle

During the rainy days and with the current restrictions, my only consolation is writing about magical places I discovered in the past months in Netherlands. The subject of this post is De Haar Castle, a place rich in stories!  The joy of exploring this flamboyant castle De Haar is the largest castle in the Netherlands, once the private residence of the Van Zuylen family, whose descendants still stay there yearly. In the last century, the castle also frequently hosted members of the international jet set with their lavish lifestyle; from Coco Chanel to Roger Moore, they too left their mark on the sumptuous rooms of the most opulent spot in Utrecht. I visited the castle a couple of weeks ago, together with my dearest friend, Ioana, and it was a lovely Sunday, even with some warm sunshine!  This year I bought  Museumkaart  which allows free entrance to about 400 museums in the Netherlands, De Haar Castle included! Despite the months when the museums were/are closed, I got to use it a coup