Nha Trang

After a 6.30 check in to our Clifftop villa at Mia resort we headed down to the hotel restaurant, which also happens to be the #1 restaurant in Nha Trang. We had a very quiet dinner where we debated the differences and benefits of Coke Light vs Diet Coke and had an early night in.

As it was dark when we checked in, we really didn't know what we were in for. Waking up on Monday morning to our view was magical. We headed down to brekky and checked out the beach. This was one of my two allocated R&R days so I did just that. A morning of reading, followed by a light lunch (calamari and prawn salad - yum!) and an afternoon of reading. We had a few cocktails at Mojito Bar, drank the champagne they left in our room and then went to the "Italian" restaurant at the resort (we were staying about 40 minutes out of Nha Trang so not alot around). Turns out due to COVID they only operate one menu across the entire resort (which would have been max 15% full) which was totally understandable. We shared a few things and had another early night.

It was an early start the next morning as we were off to Vin World, Nha Trang's very own theme park! It's actually an island off Nha Trang that used to be accessible by cable car but since COVID only by boat. It was SO EMPTY, like most things have been to be honest. We didn't wait once for a ride or even to get on the boat or into the theme park. There couldn't have been more than a few hundred people at the movie world sized park. We went on a few roller-coasters and it was nearing 11.30 and getting unbearably hot so we changed into our bathers and went to the water side of the park. Lots of water slides and obstacle courses (both in and out of the water) and we didn't have to wait once! By about 1.30 we were both exhausted so headed into Nha Trang for the first real time. We ended up having a late lunch at the Sailing Club which was a trendy restaurant/bar on the beach before catching the 3.30 courtesy bus (runs 3 times a day) back home for a swim. We both were feeling average (too much sun) so popped a movie on and had room service pizza in bed.

A 6.30 start on Wednesday morning meant only one thing, diving! We got a quick but filling brekky in and were picked up at 7.30 from the Hotel and driven to the Nha Trang Marina. The boat drove about an hour to our first site where we went down 18m and spent 50 minutes under the water. We saw alot more than we were expecting, bright purple and orange coral and lots of little nemo hiding. We then drove to our second site which was far shallower but we got to navigate through rock formations and I made a few fish friends along the way. Afterwards we were exhausted so made our way back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon before heading back into town for dinner. We ended up accidentally going to the opening of a very nice Thai restaurant! Not as good as Brighton's Thaicoon but still very good haha. Afterwards we walked back to the Sailing Cub and crashed some tech company's event which was funny. We hung around as the next bus back to the resort was at 9pm.

Our final day was another negotiated Katie R&R day. I had my biggest sleep in of the trip and woke up at 8am! We then had a lazy morning and had a late breakfast at 9am, hoping it would get us through until dinner. I finished a book and started another while Doug tried to read (he's on page 177 which isn't bad!) until it was happy hour! A few Mango Mojitos later and it was time for dinner. We ended up having dessert in bed in front of a movie.

Our last morning we both woke up at 6am, not ready to leave so we had an early swim as the sun was rising. A very sad and quiet brekky followed, with us vowing to visit again and prepping eachother for the big day of travel ahead. A quick cab ride to the airport and our plane was delayed by 40 minutes. We only had a 1hr45min transfer in Ho Chi Minh enroute to Da Nang so we were getting anxious. The flight was only 50 minutes but we were late and counting the seconds until our checkin gate closed. We split up, as Doug ran for the checked luggage, I sprinted up and around to departures trying to check in 5 minutes past the due time. After a well placed argument with the poor man at Viet Jet and what we were pretty certain was a $25 bribe we somehow were checked into our flight in "Sky Boss" class no less. Although I've never had to carry my checkin case through airport security and onto the plane.... at least we knew it was going to arrive on the flight to Hoi An with us!