Once again, we were up early to catch transportation to our next spot! We caught a taxi around 7:45am back to Muong Man train station, about 25 kilometers from Mui Ne. We paid the guy 350 Vietnamese dong, which is about $17.50. It was either that, or taking a train from Pan Thiet back over to Muong Man! The taxi just seemed like a much better choice!
We got there at 9:15am, and had a 1/2 hour before our train came, so once again, we found ourselves hanging at the neighborhood market/restaurant!
This time though, I was offerred a dragon fruit, for a mere 50 cents! I had seen them before, but had no idea how to eat/cut them, so the sweet vietnamese girl running the shop cut it up for me!
I didn't have a fork, so Aaron took the knife and stuck it in each piece of dragon fruit, and fed it to me, one by one! Sometimes we're weird like that!
Like clockwork, 9:45am came around and the train was here! Don't be fooled by it's lovely engine! This train was ghetto!
By 2:00pm, we had arrived in Nha Trang, and jumped in a taxi. We said, "Backpackers area, please!" If you do that, 1: You're sure to fine a cheap place to stay, 2: There will probably be a cute cafe like this one to eat at (where we had lunch), 3: You'll have wifi in your room (a huge plus when you're name is Jill Anderson and you write a blog everyday!), and 4: You'll go to sleep while listening to the local club's music blasting!
We found this great place called Son & Daughter's hostel, where a 2 bed, private room with a balcony, was $20 a night!
We rented a scooter for the 2nd 1/2 of the day for $5.00, and went on our first Nha Trang scooter journey! The town is a beach town, with a huge fishing village at the south end of the beach, so we went straight there to check it out. Here it is, from the bridge!
and here it is, a little more up close and personal...
We parked the scooter on one of the alleys, and walked the fishing village to get a sneak peak into the local's lives! We saw a lot in this little alleyway... like this woman's hair salon, where she was shampooing one of her client's hair while she layed on a makeshift bed and washed the shampoo into a large plastic bowl beneath!
... and these little boys, who were playing, in the street, around this sugar cane machine...
If I were a man, and grew hair on my face, and lived in this village, I'd be doing the exact same thing as this guy! It looks so relaxing!
These local kids were playing a marble game in the smaller alleyway! See, kids don't need video games and loads of toys! These kids were having a blast with a simple marble!
This woman had both of her kids on her scooter... one, as you can see, is a new baby, strapped on her stomach! The more I travel, the more I'm becoming used to seeing things like this.
A neighborhood buddhist shrine...
After checking out the fishing village, we headed back to the hostel for some afternoon chill time! We love being out and exploring, but the sun is blaring hot here, so to sit in an air conditioned room for an hour or so is a nice way to get rejuivinated! When we were scooting around earlier, I had seen a water park and told Aaron I really wanted to check it out. It wasn't really something he was all that interested in, so we decided to split up for 2 hours and meet back at 7:00pm.
Unfortunately, the water park closed at 5pm, so I headed to the beach! This, folks, is Nha Trang beach. We read reviews about it being a gorgeous white sand beach, which it is... but we are INCREDIBLY spoiled by the beaches we've seen in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Phillipines, and this, quite frankly, just doesn't do it for us anymore! We hate that we've gotten to that point... but knew it was bound to happen when we travel so much!
As I was walking along the shore, I spotted this local Vietnamese kid who was playing with a live starfish in the water!
I read this sign for $5.00 hour long massages and got so excited! Unfortunately, I was once again, out of luck, because they closed at 5pm. Uuuggghhh.
FYI: 20,000 dong = $1.
I met back up with Aaron and we headed out for dinner! We liked this little spot in the center of town, and were told we could order a free wine, beer, or soda with the purchase of each entree, so we went for it!
Aaron got a local beer, which he said was one of the nastiest beers he'd ever tasted!
So far, we weren't fairing so well today, but tried to stay nice a positive!
This menu was on our table, so we picked it up and began reading through the services this local massage parlor/salon/nail place/tattoo parlor/waxing shop offered! Check out the waxing menu! Where the heck is your "lindcrarm"? Aaron dared me to walk in an ask for my lindcrarm to be waxed and do it no matter where it was! haha!
I chickened out... but we did go there! Instead though, I opted for the $3.00 pedicures instead!
Enjoying my pampering!
This was not your typical American nail salon! I sat on a big green couch and propped my foot up on this portable foot stool while my other one soaked in a big purple bucket below!
I even convined Aaron to get in on a little bit of the action! He was hesitant at first, but I think he ended up liking it... minus the part where the girl filed his toenails with a nail file!
She whispered to me that he was "a baby!" haha! I will say though that the pain was worth it! Our toes look better than ever!
We walked back to our hostel with our newly pampered toes and watched a couple National Geographic shows before calling it a night and heading to bed! We've book an all day snorkeling boat tour tomorrow that we're both pretty excited about! We've heard there are gorgeous fish and corals at the nearby islands! We'll see! :)
