Nha Trang weekend

Nha Trang Weekend on PhotoPeach
Hamish and his friend Anita are in Ho Chi Minh for the week, so rather than stick around the city we took advantage of an offer at a resort and flew up the coast to Nha Trang. Nha Trang is 45 mins flight time north from HCMC, 8 hrs on the train. The resort is a new one that is opening up in a chain that operates around the coastline in Vietnam. While they are advertising as 5 star there are one or two teething problems that are being sorted out, especially in the restaurant and front of house area. I ordered Fried rice on the first night and got French fries..... Lost in translation. Having said that all errors rectified, the rooms were very nice, the beach and pool areas ideal for getting away from it all. Yes I've been body surfing and swimming in the South China sea. A first. And yes the ocean is clean away from the city.
Nha Trang is the capital of the province we were in and has a population of about 500,000 who are not maniacs on motorbikes. While many do drive bikes the noise level is much lower. I was surprised at the numbers of cars around. Cars in HCM City I know are very expensive with a 200% tax added on to the cost, and only the VERY wealthy drive cars. Either there is a smaller tax outside HCMC, because there is not the same roading issues or the people in Nha Trang are rather wealthy.
The highlights we saw on our venture into the city included the giant white Budha. I sat inside the spiritual bell listening to the rather pleasant vibrations while a chap donged the bell and chanted around me. We also rode the longest gondola, which incidentally is in the Guinness Book of records for being the longest ocean crossing cable car, to Phu Quy Port. Phu Quy is an island with a very up market resort a fun park, a mall and a Kelly Tarlton type aquarium. The gondola ticket is also the price of admission to the fun park, so all rides are free. Not knowing about the fun park we bought the tickets and rode our way across the bay. Sadly we got there just on dark and had to be back at our resort by 6:00pm to go to the airport we couldn't take advantage of it all. There is still more to explore……… another trip obliviously required