Sunday, January 03, 2010
{ 5:00 AM }
Day 2 - 27th Dec 2009
It was nearly 6:15am when the 3 of us woke up on the bumpy sleeping bus ride. I took a glance at out of the window and realised that the road is much less chaotic than those in HCMC. Yup, we're in Nha Trang! After another 15 minutes, our bus veered past Nha Trang's Sinh Tourist and the 3 of us quickly started packing up and getting ready to jump off the bus once it stops. Typical kiasu singaporeans, yes. But, our effort were not rewarded as the 3 of us were to check in to another hotel different from the entire bus (which none of us knew at that point of time). This was when the exasperation of us not understanding Vietnamese and them not speaking English set in. Jay showed the driver our receipt with our hotel name - Green Nha Trang on it and asked if we've reached. He nodded. So we scrambled off the bus and waited. Somehow I felt really uneasy and Jay double confirmed with another staff. He nodded again and I wondered if he really understood us. Jay asked another time, and he nodded, asking us to wait. After the entire bus was cleared out, he motioned for us to get on the bus again. I was like, "HUH? WHY? EVERYONE HAS ALIGHTED!" But Jay managed to persuade me to follow them and said if they really drove us to a wrong hotel, we can still hail a taxi back. And so the 3 of us climbed aboard again and after 5 minutes, we reached our correct destination. Green Nha Trang. We were slightly happy as our hotel, though painted a horribly bright TKGS uniform green, was much cleaner, newer and bigger than the previous hotel. The receptionist, probably due to Sinh Tourist, allowed us to check in at 7am when the norm was 2pm. And wow, we were exceptionally pleased when we saw our room, and also quite disappointed that we'll only be staying for one night. Our room was equipped with the basic: one double and one single bed, mirror, dressing table, cable tv, good working fridge, closet, two small armchairs, bathroom with bathrub, and a balcony with seaview. We then started to wash up and get ready for our island boat trip when Jay announced that she's hungry and when out to search for breakfast. After more than 1/2 an hour, just as I was trying to call her on her cell, she came back with a Pho Ga, 3 Vietnamese coffee, and a Banh Mi(Baguette with meat and egg). Even though I wasn't really hungry, I still ate my fair share of the Banh Mi (I'm a great fan of baguette!) and a mouthful of the Pho Ga. PS and Jay both loved this Pho Ga to bits, but I'll prefer Pho24's. Anyway, we all got ready to leave by 8:15am to wait for our minibus. At around 8:30am, it came... and off we went for our boat trip with No.4 Boat Trip!
The boat is of a decent mini-ferry size, and I am thankful for the calm waters. Our guides introduced themselves, but somehow only two with weird english nicknames were remembered. Monkey Boy and Lady Boy. They were also the two entertaining ones. Our first island was the Mieu Island, which housed the Tri Nguyen Aquarium, along with a fishing village. An entrance fee of VND$35k was required and so we decided not to go onto the island. Sinh Tourist has failed to notify us of the extra expenses and we only brought like 600k in total.
After Mieu Island was Mun Island, whereby we got to go swimming/snorkeling for free, along with other paid water sports/games like jetski, parasailing, banana boat etc. After much counting and haggling, we finally decided that we should have sufficient funds to try out banana boat. I'm glad we did! It was sooooooooo fun! The speed boat dragged us out at full speed all the way out till Mun Island was a mere dot, and we were surrounded by the bluish green seawater and pale blue sky. One bad thing is, you'll get water splashing on your face from time to time (all the time, if you happen to be right in front) and it's so salty! =.=" After the banana boat ride, we were thinking if we should go snorkeling. I was hesitant because I can't tread water at all. And with my lousy water stamina, it's gonna be really tough for me to keep on swimming and swimming and swimming once I jump into the sea. Plus, they don't give you a life jacket but a buoy, so you'll look retarded with that white ring around you. Plus, as we got back onto the boat for snorkeling, i saw a few coming back with bleeding gashes on their feet/legs as they got cut by the rocks. So yeah, you got your answer. I chose to stay on the boat and look after the belongings as jay and PS went swimming.
After Mun Island, we stopped by Mot Island and had lunch with the rest of the passengers at a huge table that spans nearly the entire boat. Lunch was more than enjoyable. We were served (cold, and possible *coughcough* recycled) rice, seafood, noodles, spring rolls, pork, soup and etc. A Korean family sitting beside us refused to touch anything on the table apart from the rice, even though the rice was really the worse 'dish' of all, and whipped out their own packets of kimchi to go with the rice. So we ended up with more servings of the food. *hiak hiak* After lunch, we were entertained by No.4 Boyband, singing a mix of Vietnamese, English, and even Chinese, Japanese, and Korean songs. Haha, and of course, the Korean song has to be Arirang. -LOL- Soon, the 'floating bar' was opened, with Lady Boy jumping into the sea in the middle of a lifebuoy, holding a bottle of red wine with many pastic cups. Hahaha! So if you want the wine, you have to jump into the sea to get it. Nope, we didn't join in the fun.
After the floating bar at Mot Island, we were ferried to Con Se Tre - Bai Tranh Island whereby we were given free time to chillax, with an entrance fee of VND$20k. PS did parasailing here at a price of only VND$300k and after that we just sat down on sunchairs on the beach, drinking really cheap tiger beers, eating quail eggs and soaking in the sun. Before we knew it, it was already time for us to leave the island for the main island of Nha Trang. On the way back, we were served yet another large table-full of tropical fruits.
After getting back to our hotel, we ventured out in search of food and came across this massage/facial/nail all in one beauty spa. PS and Jay were tempted for some massage and I wanted to try the facial. I had SERIOUS breakout that time, but I didn't feel safe to try the acne treatment facial in fear of worsening my condition. But they insisted on that, even though it was much cheaper than the one for sensitive skin which I was opting for. It turned out to be fine, judging from my skin now. Well, it WAS rather swollen because of all the squeezing but it just went away after a day. While having the mask on, the staff started doing some massage on me and that was when I was glad I didnt go for the massage with ps and Jay. At some point of time I was really tempted to kick that lady and ask her to stop tickling me. Oh nvm, guess I'm really not a massage person, huh!
Dinner for that night was a... rojak dinner, comprising of Ban Xeo(Vietnamese food that's like a pancake with seafood and beansprouts, to be eaten with fresh lettuce), Com Tay or Com *something* (Vietnamese bbq pork chop rice), and Texas styled fried chicken with french fries. The owner of the western resturant just came back from US two years ago and so he speaks English! Got alot of help and directions from him for our free-and-easy day tomorrow, to be touched on in Day 3. =)
