Nha Trang & Da Lat

We were told we’d get into Nha Trang at 6am, and with the hour and a half delay we worked that out to be nearer 7/7.30. Obviously that was completely wrong. We rocked up in Nha Trang at 3.20am and were abruptly kicked off the bus. As most people will know, hotel and hostel check in is rarely open before 2pm, so we had about 11 hours to kill. We ended up getting taxis to our respective hostels (Abode for us and I Home for Harvey, Daisy, Amy and Joe) and created our own little beds out of sofa cushions behind the main reception, waking up at around 7.30 to realise we’d set up shop in the kitchen! No one actually asked us to move though, which was nice. We got up around 9.30 then went for breakfast and a little health food spot called Core, which was delicious!

We wandered around the town and I picked up some flip flops before meeting the others and heading to the beach - you can get a sunbed and a towel for 50,000VND each. Like Phuket, Nha Trang is absolutely packed with Russians! And given that it was a weekend and the Lunar New Year the beach area was also rammed with locals. After a well needed nap and a read we headed back to Cheers sports bar next to our hostel for some home comfort food - a huge portion of chicken Kiev & chips while Molly had a smashing baked potato with beans and cheese. This place is a little comical really, full of really old Aussie & British men and young Vietnamese women - at least their happy. We booked a therma spa package for the next day for 270,000VND each from our hostel then headed out for drinks in town - Olivia was our spot of choice, Molly was on the £2 cocktails while I went for the 70p beers.

The next day we went to Thap Pa mud baths. We were meant to get a tour bus but there had been an accident so one of the guys who worked at the hostel called his brother and they dropped us at the spa on their mopeds. We got to the spa and paid a 20,000VND deposit for a locker for our valuables before being led to the mud baths - literally a bath with a tap that filled up with relatively thick muddy water! We sat in there for about half an hour, pouring the muddy water over ourselves to get the full effect before getting out for a boiling hot and powerful shower to wash off all the mud. When the weather is nice you’re meant to sit out in the sun and bake so the mud hardens before washing off but it was raining when we got out so missed out on that.

After walking through another jet wash (basically a human car wash) we got into a shared hot water bath and chilled for 20 minutes then went in the hot waterfalls. A bite to eat at the shitty restaurant on site then we were back on the bus to Abode.

We chilled at the hostel for an hour or so then went next door to Cheers for our first Sunday roast in three months! It was nice but didn’t compare to Home. Headed out in the evening for a coffee then hit the hay as we were up early for the bus to Da Lat (180,000VND pp).

We wouldn’t recommend Nha Trang to be honest, it was dirty, overcrowded and full of Russian people. When we arrived in Da Lat, we tried to book canyoning but all travel agents closed for TET, so ended up booked Highland Sport Travel through an email address on their website ($50 pp) as we’d been advised to go with these guys by a few people and they were top on tripadvisor. After dropping our bags at Da Lat Alan Hostel we wandered into town and went to 100 roofs maze bar - a crazy place! After getting lost in the bar we hired a swan pedalo on the lake then headed back to our hostel for free dinner (which was really good!) then crashed out.

We enjoyed our free breakfast the next morning then got picked up at 9 by San & Monkey from Highland Sports and taken to the canyoning spot (Datanla waterfalls). We were canyoning for 6 hours which included a warm up and safety briefing, trekking, 18m abseil, 16m abseil, lazy river, 7,9 & 11m cliff jumps, natural water slide, amazing lunch (banh mi, fruit, Oreos) then abseiling down a section called washing machine falls (insane!). After the exhausting yet exhilarating day we were dropped back to hostel where we enjoyed another free dinner.

Went to an insane bakery after dinner recommended to us by Harvey & Daisy called Lien Hoa (really cheap and really tasty) then chilled in the hostel with a few Canadians.

On our last day in Da Lat we went for a stroll along the lake that led us to the Flower Garden, which was beautiful!

Stopped at a little cafe on the lake for a smoothie then headed to Big C to grab a bite and some snacks for the 7 hour bus to Ho Chi Minh the next day. Great dinner at the hostel again then went for beers with a couple of Canadian guys at a bar down the road.