Day 28 & 29 & 30: Nha Trang: More Russians Than You'd Expect...

After a beach-side recovery from my megadrive from central to south, I was ready to get back on the saddle, though only briefly, to cover the 66 Km down to Nha Trang, Vietnam's beach town extraordinaire. A friend of mine from Hanoi, Becky, had moved down to the southern tourist trap just a few weeks prior, and had assured me I had a place to stay when I passed through, an offer that I'm always willing to accept. The drive - which saw my bike pass the 10,000 KM mark (!!) - was straightforward and pleasant, and in no time, Becky was showing me around her new home.

I'm the little blue smurf above the "N"

Nha Trang, like some other great Southeast Asian cities (*coughChiangMaicough*), is a popular tourist destination for both domestic and international visitors. The town is situated right on the coast, and bordered on nearly every non-beach side by scenic mountainous terrain. Its no wonder tourists flock here, but wondering is permitted when noticing one interesting quirk of the town: there's a whole lot of Russian around. Restaurants, clothing stores, travel agencies, even market stalls are littered with that indecipherable, backwards-looking script that Russians always seem to insist are words.

“Why..” you ask? Well so did I: seems the common political ideologies shared by communist Vietnam and the former Soviet Union did more than just provide this lovable 3^rd world country with cheap vehicles, weapons, and unsightly government buildings; it also struck up a tourism link between the two countries (that is, once Russians started having enough money to travel outside their frostbitten country). In fact, there are very few international flights into the small Nha Trang airport, but there is one that goes directly to and from Moscow... go figure.

Read on to hear how a retiree spends their time in Vietnam

After a walk around the market, and a quick dinner, Becky and I headed to one of the many bars in town aimed at the backpacker crowd. We caught up, met some people, had a bucket or two, played some foosball, and called it an evening. I was already getting a good feel for the town, and glad to have a friendly face to hang out with an show me around.

The view from the edge of town

The following day was the first of a long holiday weekend, so we celebrated by heading to a beach called Bai Dai (pronounced bai – yai) about 30 minutes out of town. About 20 minutes into the drive, Becky's back tire goes flat.... oh good! Though we could see the beach from where we were, the winding, hilly terrain of the remaining stretch of road meant that pushing her motorbike all the way there in the mid-day sun would be legally considered cruel & unusual punishment by most judicial systems. Lucky for us, we were able to flag down a truck, whose very kind driver loaded the bike into the bed with his cargo, and drove us the rest of the way to Bai Yai, where there was a shop that quickly patched the flat. Thanks to the friendly truck driver, what could've been a disastrous way to spend an afternoon was avoided, and we were soon sipping cold drinks on the sand. Thanks dude, owe you one.

that was a close one

Since Bai Dai is outside of town, the crowds there are much thinner, even on holiday weekends, and local expats consider the place one of their best kept secrets. Though the beach is lined by myriad food shops, there is one called The Shack that Becky frequents quite regularly, and with good reason. The owner, originally from Arizona, has brought with him to Vietnam some of the best Western Food & Drink recipes I have ever had the pleasure to sample in my time abroad. Particularly, his fish tacos, with crispy fried local fish and real corn tortillas, are easily among the best I have had, at home or abroad, and his spicy Bloody Mary was so good I couldn't stop myself from ordering a 2^nd. We spent the day back and forth between water, beach, and shade, and by the time we left at sundown we were exhausted from the days exploits. Retired life is tough.

No shortage of options

Probably the first real corn tortilla i've had in a year and a half

We spent the following day exploring some of Nha Trang's nearby attractions (not terribly impressive), and that night exploring how many games of foosball we could manage to lose in a row to the local foosball wizard (quite impressive). Though I was still loving Nha Trang, my time in Vietnam was beginning to draw to a close, so I felt it best to get moving once more and not overstay my welcome with my gracious host. My journey would be taking me to the mountain retreat town known as Dalat, then on to the southern coastal town of Mui Ne - Vietnam's kite-surfing mecca - before reaching the End of The Line in Saigon.

Tune in next time to hear what a terrible decision it was to go to Dalat.