We have absolutely horrible timing! We had spent some time with a British couple who had told us how beautiful and fun Nha Trang is, with it's huge stretch of white sandy beach, blue water, and tons of fun islands to visit and water sports to partake in... but alas, our good times were ruined by that damn typhoon. The water was brown and wavy, the beach was covered (covered!) with debris that will take a month to clear off. Plus, it remained rainy and cloudy the whole 4 days we were there.
This is a city that is usually protected from the weather inland via mountains and protected asea via the islands and they haven't had a storm in 25 years! The weather is usually so temperate in Nha Trang that when the typhoon's approach was broadcasted, the residents grabbed their umbrellas and headed to the beach to watch for it. Seriously, while the rest of the country battened down, the silly fools in Nha Trang were excited to see what all the fuss was about.
Fortunately, the only thing there that was destroyed was the dive industry... and that's only temporary until the waters clear! Not everyone was so lucky, the last I heard, over 55 people died from the various disasters caused by the typhoon. We were witness to a few catastrophes during a trip down, such as a bus whose whole front end was crushed in by rocks from a landslide and another bus that had flipped over. We were very lucky indeed.
Nha Trang turned out to be a bust and we set our sights on Mui Ne (Pronounced Moy-Nay) which has the lowest average annual rainfall of all cities in Vietnam! We arrived two days ago and are already happily sunburnt and enjoying the 50 cent beer.
Our hotel is a bit over priced at $13, but the attached restaurant is incredibly cheap. There's hardly a meal over $2 and it's all decently tasting Vietnamese grub. Western food is always a bit more expensive because the locals don't really eat things like cheese or potatoes, not that the Western food here is ever that good anyways... though, we did find some decent pizza in Nha Trang. It just makes me crave all sorts of stuff back home, like, I will go to town on the first barbeque pulled pork sandwhich I see! And my mom's brownies ;) as chocolate is not SE Asia's strong suit.
We will probably be spending a week and a few days here as the weather is perfect, the beach is pretty nice, and we have a sweet pool with loungers. So, just working on the tans until the Canadian winter beckons. I actually do have a tan if you can believe it... but, if you look at my bikini lines I'm almost bi-racial.
Other than Brock's wicked sandal tan, we are completely healthy so no need to worry. Haven't come across any sick people either... unless you count the poor shmuck who lost a few pints of blood on the street out front due to a moto accident. These guys drive way too fast and often without helmets. Though, Vietnam is a bit more stringent with those laws than the other countries we've been in.
Only a week and a half to go now and I will actually be quite relieved to be home again. Four and a half months have felt like a year and I miss my family. We'll be leaving from Saigon (officially called Ho Chi Minh City but I've yet to hear anyone refer to is as that, I don't even think a Vietnamese person would know what you were talking about if you called it Ho Chi Minh City!) at a brutal 6 am on the 19th and arriving at about noon on the 20th... so if anyone was interested in making chocolate brownies to be ready for my arrival, why, that would be swell!
I think we'll try to spend about 4 days in Saigon to get all the shopping done and I am so excited I'm almost itchy! Other than a pair of $2 flip flips I've hardly done ANY shopping which is bound to be a record, and everything is ridiculously cheap in HCMC so I will be having a ball.
Not too sure what else we'll be doing here in Mui Ne other than laying about, but I'll try to update this before I head home. There are some crazy sand dune thingies that you can sled down and have fun with in a buggy of some sort so I'm sure we'll check into that.
Also, it's my dad's birthday this wednesday so say hi. He likes Gibsons ;)
