27 Apr 2009
Early this morning we say a fond farewell to Hoi An and drive back up to Danang to catch a flight down to Nha Trang. Since we’ve been diligent focusing on the sights and culture for these past few days (well kinda), we figure that we’re long over due for some R&R on the beach (those pagodas can be exhausting you know). Nha Trang is apparently one of the best beach destinations, so the plan is to spend a couple of nights here being lazy and recharging the batteries.
We’ve booked into the Diamond Bay resort, a few kilometres south of town. The resort was recently host to the Miss Universe 2008 pageant (something they make much fanfare of on the billboards on the way in from the airport). Picking this place was our first mistake. The reviews on Trip Advisor were mixed, and as it turned out, the folks that raved about the place had no taste, and the ones that slammed it were spot on. It’s not that it was horribly grotty or anything, but just an utterly characterless concrete and marble blob on the beach. Being twenty minutes drive from town you were pretty much hostage to all they had to offer, which as it turned out, wasn’t much. After a desperate attempt by the hotel to bribe us into staying by way of an upgrade (to a ‘suite’ that featured a bathtub which would have comfortably housed the entire Sydney Swans team, but not much else), we grabbed a cab for downtown.
We ended up staying at the sister hotel to the one we had just left in Hoi An. This should have been a good measure of the place, but it turned out to be the smaller, uglier sister that should have strangled at birth. Dirt cheap though, so what the heck.
After dumping our bags, we take a stroll over to the beach. On a global scale, you can see why visitors would rate this beach – the sand is pleasant enough, there’s lots of shady spots to hang out for an afternoon of lounging, and the beach is attractively lined with a good number restaurants, parks and promenades. However, hailing from Sydney we’re rather spoilt when it comes to beaches and so we weren’t quite as enthused as we might have been. The fact that it was blowing pretty hard didn’t help either (nothing worse than getting sand blasted after loading up on the suntan lotion).
And then it started to rain…and rain…oh my did it rain. Even for such a diligent and unbiased observer such as myself (!), it’s hard to see a new town in its best light under these circumstances.
So, in summary, Nha Trang was a bit of a bust for us, but don’t let that put you off visiting – you might love it.
