Zum Wilden Mann

Nha Trang is probably Vietnams best known place for a beach holiday, and tourism is the towns most important business. The beaches are fine, but if you look for experiences of nature, this is the wrong place (unless you move outside to one of the costly resorts).

A unique thing we only found in Vietnam are the buses with reclining seats, that prevail on long distance travels.Quite comfortable for 2 hours or so, they can be a torture for European-sized people after that (see also boat trips in Hoi An).
We passed again lots of the typical Vietnamese houses - narrow on the front, but very long in depth and always colourful.Paddy fields along the coast, shrimp farms, some old fishing nets entertained us during our ride from Hue to Nha Trang. But the most impressive sight were the brilliant lights of thousands of fishing boats on the sea at night.

The beach is quite nice with some bars. At 3:30pm you are practically thrown out, as loud music sets in, followed by endless admonitions not to let your dogs run free and to keep the beach free of litter. Then follows a listing of all the touristic highlights of the area, including the Vinpearl Resort that you can see across the bay. It can be visited with a spectacular cable-car that spans the bay.

Dedicated to the goddess Po Nagar this temple was build by the hinduistic Cham in the 8th century. The main tower is 32m high and the whole temple is well restored. It is still a place of worship.

The buddhistic Long Son Pagoda has an impressive 21m high Buddha and One of the countless friendly looking dragons.

The modern Tram Huong tower is the cities reference point.

Like most of the Vietnam coastline, Nha Trang is a paradise for lovers of seafood. Along with the "classics", like red snapper and black mussels, there is an endless variety of not-so-common inhabitants of the sea: abalone, ocean snails, fin mussel and a number of shellfish of which we regrettably don't know the name. All delicious, all worth a try. And, chance of a lifetime, lobsters! At a price you'll never ever get in any Western country. The very best are grilled on small charcoal stoves along the pavements of the beach quay. No fancy restaurant rooms, no linen tablecloth, just a rickety table and the usual plastic chairs. But - here our lobster being grilled - once again the recommendation on a brochure by the Vietnam Tourist Board proved true: the smaller the chairs, the better the food!

Tourism in Nha Trang today is firmly in Russian hands.On the beach - in the restaurants one hardly meets other foreigners. If you give a tip, you'll receive a 'Spassiba'.
Reason is there are many direct flights from Moscow to Nha Trang and since Egypt seems somewhat unsafe Russians have chosen this place as their winter destination. If you are lucky, you can find a menu in Russian AND English, if you are less lucky, you find 'specialities' like the ones below.