Nha Trang is such a beautiful beach (not because it has my name…ehem :p). The white sand, the clear blue water. And most importantly, the delicious fresh seafood. It has been about seven years since I last visited Nha Trang and it was quite different from what I remembered. There were so many visitors from Russia at the time we came. So many that my hubby didn’t feel out of place (seriously). The reason: there was a direct flight from Russia to Nha Trang and no visa required for Russian passport. It felt nice to not have so many people staring at us.
1. Go lay out on the beach:
We stayed at the Sheraton hotel and had such a pleasant stay there. The hotel is located downtown Nha Trang and is right next to the beach. As long as you are a guest there, you can use their lounges on the beach and get towels to dry you out after a nice dip in the ocean. We went in September and the water was just perfect. It was hot enough out that you want to dip yourself in the cooling water but not too hot that you feel uncomfortable. I felt all my worries melted away as I laid there breathing in the fresh air. My mind was blank and I was just right there at that moment looking at the horizon.
2. Get a mud bath:
After our nap on the beach, we went back to the hotel just to find out about this new “thing” that visitors like to do there. Mud bath. I laughed to myself thinking how funny it is that people pay to do this. “I could just bathe in mud for free,” I thought to myself. But my hubby convinced me to give it a try and we booked an appointment with a spa thru our hotel. The spa had a car came and picked us up from the hotel. We paid and got change. They sat us down on an empty tub and turned on this magic faucet that made mud come out.The mud was made from volcanic ash mixed with hot spring water (according to the spa). Whatever the mud was made from, it was an interesting experience. The mud was not smelly as you thought mud would smell like. It had a earthy smell to it, very relaxing and was very smooth and not grainy. I was pleasantly surprised. We sat in our mud filled tub for quite a while until we realized it was getting late and we wanted to sit in the hot spring pool. The pool was made to resemble the hot spring pool you would find in Japan. There was a As I sat in the pool I can see waves of smokes coming out from the water and disappeared in the night sky. The light, cool rain made the warm water feel so much better.
3. Eat seafood:
I couldn’t possibly walk anymore after our visit to the spa, my body refused to. My muscles could not have been more relaxed that I almost could not make it back to the car. Even though I was exhausted, I never forget to eat. On our way back to the hotel, we asked our driver if he knew any good seafood place. He pointed out Quán Mười Đô (literally means 10 dollar restaurant) restaurant is one of the best places around so of course we had to stop there. It was definitely THE best seafood place I have ever eaten. No joke. This is how the restaurant worked: you walk in and right away you go up to all the fish tanks that is at the back of the restaurants. Each tanks had every type of seafood you can possible want for one dinner. And they were all alive and swimming around. You pick out the type of seafood you want, how much, and how you want them to prepare it. If you have no idea how you want them to prepare it (like we were) just tell them to make it the best way they can. I was not disappointed with what they made. I thought I died and went to food heaven. The food was so unbelievably fresh. The preparation for each dish was so simple but yet the taste was phenomenal. We had this dish that was a simple battered fried squirt and I have had fried squirt before but this time it was just the best thing I have ever eaten before. The batter was light enough that we still taste the squirt but still gave the piece of squirt a good crunch. The dish was accompanied by this sauce that was sweet, buttery, and sour…….oh…..so…..good!!!
4. Visit the small islands around Nha Trang and go snorkeling:
For our last day in Nha Trang, we decided to take a tour to go see the small islands in Nha Trang. We booked the tour through our hotel again so I am not sure the name of the tour company. The islands we visited include Hòn Mùn and Hòn Miếu. The tour company had a private boat just for us…pretty fancy…But sadly, I didn’t really enjoy going on one of the islands. Just because it was the same thing we’ve seen on the mainland, more beaches nothing more. We did however really liked the snorkeling part. I am such a little baby when it comes to things like that. I keep thinking that a shark is going to come up behind and eat me -_- …. it’s sad. But I after seeing how much fun my husband had, I decided to jump in after I master the snorkeling technique. I couldn’t synchronize breathing out of a tube with using fins so I ditch the fins and just used a life vest. It was the first time I went snorkeling and it was cool. I got to swim next to the fishes and momentarily forgot about my imaginary sharks behind me.
We often dream about getting a condo in Nha Trang just so we can go back to Quán Mười Đô once in awhile. What a beautiful dream it is. Nha Trang made my mind empty and my stomach full…could not have ask for a more perfect visit.
Happy Eating! -Trang-
