Vietnam Part 4 : Nha Thrang!

Posted: May 20th, 2009 | Author: faddy | Filed under: Travel | Comments Off

We arrived at Nha Thrang early the next morning, and I awoke to the wide open ocean on my right and endless rows of trees on my left. Everyone around me was fast asleep, but the scenery enveloping the sleeper bus was too good to be missed so I sat up, and enjoyed some Me-Time just looking out onto the horizon.

For the next thirty minutes or so, the bus twisted and turned on the road, going along the circumference of hills. Even though I was cocooned in it, I could feel the serenity and the breeze outside, as shades of blue and green blanketed my eyesight. It was at that moment that I fell in love with Nha Thrang.

After freshening ourselves a bit in the hotel that Sinh Cafe provided for us, a van picked us up at the lobby and brought us to where we were to begin our tour to the Nha Thrang islands.

For those curious, we stayed at the Blue Bay hotel, which was definitely more expensive as compared to Luan Vu, but had nicer, bigger rooms and amenities. We actually didn’t need those as rooms are just for sleeping, but we had to book a room there because it was the holidays and every other hotel was fully booked :/

Back to the tour, it was quite a surprise for us at first to see that with the exception of a Korean and Japanese couple, all the other ‘tourists’ in the boat were locals! Hahaha. There were nuns, a large group of students having an outing, and just random other couples or families having their holiday in their own country.

Because of the sheer number of locals and only 7 of us foreigners, the boatmen decided to conduct the tour in Vietnamese, afterwhich they would come over to us and explain things to us in English.

I cannot deny that I think it was because we are the only 3 single foreign female entities there, we were given first class service (our nicknames were Ms Universe, Ms World and Ms Earth) by the crew and a warm welcome by the the locals. Of course, it did help a lot more that Peah and Atikah are gorgeous so all the men came out to play hahahahaha :P

We again opted to sit at the sides of the boat instead of the proper seats in the middle so that we could have a clearer view of the islands. As the boat chugged across the ocean to its next destination, the same shades of blue and green that I had seen earlier during the bus ride began to get more colorful as splashes of colors like red and yellow entered the picture in the form of brightly colored boats and houses lining the islands.

Our first stop was an aquarium, which we had to pay to get into. Most of the locals opted to stay in the boat or walk around the jetty area, whilst the tourists paid up and went in. We did not really expect much, but ended up being totally happy with the decision of going in :)

Pretty hor pretty hor! There were quite a number of sea life on display, and everything was housed in a man-made cave, so the sense of adventure was there. The only complain I had were the Vietnamese wedding photographers who hogged the glass displays waiting for that perfect moment, and shooed us one after another so the newly wedded could stand there for a good 5 minutes or so. Prek!

Once we were done with the marine life, we headed outside and were greeted by a bird’s eye view (granted it wasn’t flying that high haha) of the islands surrounding where we were. Sculptures of clams in various sizes and a scenic view made for a great camwhoring moment :)

Seeing that the allocated time was up, we headed back down to the jetty, bought some ice cream and the boat went to our next stop. Peah is quite the horrific ice cream eater – nothing ended up in her mouth, as opposed to being on her mouth – so that gave ample opportunities for the boatmen to flirt with her and try to wipe her mouth etc.

Atikah too did something which made one of the boatmen – a hulking fella – kept asking to be kissed. Apparently she was leaning towards him to point at something (a mole eh beb?) and he thought she was leaning in to kiss him HAHAHAHA. All these deprived boatmen. Tsk.

Unfortunately, we did not realize that one of the highlights to the tour was a dip in the ocean blue. Decked in clothes not appropriate for swimming, we weighed our pros and cons and ended up jumping in with whatever we had on, despite knowing we had nothing to change into. hahaha.

Atikah even bought a polka-dot bikini (with matching polka-dot mini-skirt) which the boatmen kept on sale for desperate maidens at a rip-off price wakakaka.

This is us 30 minutes later, fresh from our swim + snorkeling in the waters of Nha Thrang. Granted the water and marine life wasn’t as good as the ones at Pulau Redang or Pulau Tioman, but I must say that the surrounding scenes were really heavenly and I was happy enough floating on my rattan buoy just soaking in the atmosphere.

Famished from all the activity thus far, the boatmen converted our benches to become a big table and spreaded out an array of dishes for those aboard. The Vietnamese gamely taught us a Vietnamese cheer (macam camp lah gitu kene cheer sebelum makan) and with a “woooo!” we tucked into our food.

Again, the boatmen were accommodating to us. Upon knowing that we “pray to Allah”, they pointed out to us the vegetarian and seafood dishes, and even took for us more vegetarian dishes so we wouldn’t go hungry. So sweet kan?

As the boat rocked to and for whilst the breeze proceeded to do its magic in drying up our wet wet clothes, poor Peah had a bout of sea-sickness (as you can see from her face hahaha). Atikah and I did our best to keep her mind away from it so that she wouldn’t puke into the water (definitely not a good sight), but no one did a better job then…

… the boatmen! Wah Piang these people are really multi-talented lor! Make good husbands hahaha! They can run a boat, cook, give tours, play music, dance, be lifeguards and many many more! hahaha! Damn entertaining can?

For the next 30 minutes or so, the crew and us had so much fun singing native songs and English songs alike, dancing and even doing a macarena on the same benches that now serve as a stage area.

I was really laughing so much with the girls, trying to avoid from dancing too close to the boatmen (who had launched into a full gelek-gelek move) and just communicating using facial expressions and sign languages with the locals. I couldn’t help but notice the nuns sitting quietly in a corner, smiling kekeke. I wonder what was in her mind.

After the entertainment session, we were again invited to jump into the ocean (which we did, despite the fact that we had just dried our clothes) for a ‘floating bar’ session. Because we don’t drink, we just stayed close to the floating bar while the rest did their Yamsengs and badgered on trying to get us to drink “C’mon ladies don’t be chicken!“

Laughing their good-natured jeering off, we cited religious regions behind our objections and they stopped their invitations on the spot (while continuing to interact with us about other things), which we found very respectful :)

Unfortunately, minutes later, The Hulk jumped into the water, grabbed me from behind and started to ‘mock drown’ me, much to my shock. 1) Because he grabbed me! On my waist! From behind! 2) I really cannot swim hahaha.

Peah and Ikah came to my rescue by coming close to me and I started thrashing about screaming “I can’t swim! I can’t swim!“. After a few seconds, he let me go and started swimming towards Atikah. The three of us then started screaming “We all can’t swim!” while swimming away… which I think gave him the picture, and he swam off wakakakka. Dasar lelaki gatal… GELI! It’s only him though… the rest knew their boundaries :)

On our way to our next stop – a private beach where we were given our own free time – the group of Vietnamese students who we swam with during the Floating Bar session invited us to sit upfront with them, where the waves were splashing merrily (notice the empty front area as everyone else retreated to the back of the boat).

Throughout the whole ride, we communicated using hand signals and facial expressions, and even managed to learn a game that they were playing. Ikah, Peah and I got stitches just laughing with them and it was the classic miscommunication moments that really got all of us roaring. Seeing Peah shivering as she was wearing a sleeveless top, they even took out a dry windbreaker and motioned for her to cover up with it :) SO TOUCHING HOR!

Finally arriving at the private beach (had to pay an entrance fee of 20 000 dong if I’m not mistaken), the three of us bid farewell to our new friends as we seeked seclusion in the form of another private beach which had noone save for a handful of AngMohs.

Forking out another 10 000 dong for the use of that beach, the three of us lounged on chairs as time slowly passed by. After grabbing forty winks which was most needed after all the activity, we sung songs and spent the time playing with my hair hahaha.

Another boat ride, another session of watching the world go by, a fruit feast, and we were back on land soon after :) The waters were calm, the sky was blue and the clouds were like cotton candy. Subhanallah, only God could have created such a pretty sight.

We ended the day with a seafood dinner at Truc Linh 2 which had so-so food, but great service and atmosphere, and later walked back to our hotel which was around 1 – 2 km away.

The atmosphere in Nha Thrang was a million times more laid back as compared to Saigon, and as the three of us weaved in and out of shops and lanes, we found ourselves wishing we had another day to frolic around in this part of Vietnam.

I heart Nha Thrang very, very much and would definitely return one day when I explore Nothern Vietnam <3