Nha Trang, Vietnam – The Russian Benidorm of Vietnam

Xin Chao!

Wow! 14 hours on a Vietnamese sleeper bus is definitely an experience. Picture bunk beds but with reclining airplane seats instead of beds. Your feet slide under the person in front of you’s bed to give you a bit of extra leg room but it was still a tight squeeze for Tom. The beds were comfy enough and, being short, I was able to curl up quite nicely. However, it wasn’t the space that stopped you from sleeping!

The roads in Vietnam are horrendous and everywhere you go there is some kind of construction going on. Now in England, if a road was being completely ripped up and resurfaced, it would be closed and a diversion would be set. Not in Vietnam! They just drive straight over the ripped up road meaning you get the feeling of being on a rickety roller coaster all night with a driver smoking like a chimney and beeping at anything that dare drive anywhere him! Ingredients that don’t make for the best nights sleep. But, nevertheless, we arrived in Nha Trang safely and just about in one piece if not a little bumped and bruised.

We stayed in a hotel called Lavender Hotel which had received very good reviews on booking.com. Whatever you do, do not stay there! When we first checked in, we were taken to our room and, for the price, we were quite pleased with how modern and clean it was although it was a bit weird that there was just a glass wall separating the bedroom and the toilet/shower. After our long journey, we decided to have a short snooze before venturing out to check out the town, we’d be lucky! Next door to the left, next door to the right and in front of the hotel they were building more hotels meaning that the construction noise was unbelievable from around 6:30am until about 10pm at night! We tried to ignore it and get some sleep but it was just too much, especially after 24 hours with no sleep by this point. I called down to reception and complained and luckily we were moved to a “quieter” room higher up and nearer to the back of the hotel. I say “quieter” because you could still hear the noise it just wasn’t quite as deafening.

We finally got some sleep and went for a walk around the town before settling down to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Olivia’s.

Now, you may be wondering where the title of this blog comes from, well, Nha Trang is a beautiful beach resort but it is incredibly touristy and absolutely full of Russians. Tom and I both said it was like Benidorm for the Russians. The menus are in Russian, they have purpose built Russian hotels, people even thought I was Russian! We may as well have been in Russia. All essence of Vietnam had kind of been ripped away from the place and it had just become the Russian’s playground.

By the time we returned to our room, I could already tell that Tom wasn’t particularly a fan of this place but we decided to use it to relax and recharge before heading to our next big city.

We set our alarms for breakfast the next day which was “to be served on the top floor with spectacular views of the city” – quote from their website. Now would be a good time to mention the fact that the weather in Nha Trang had been fantastic and was reaching around 34 degrees each day. The top floor restaurant was completely glass around the outside which acted like a magnifying glass! They had to close all of the curtains and even then it was still like a furnace. And to make matters even worse, or more hilarious to us as by this point we were hysterical with laughter, the breakfast – you’ve guessed it – was Russian!!!! What do the Russians eat for breakfast? Well, what looked like some kind of haggis in a roll, cabbage, a weird swede looking roasted vegetable and bread! Yum 😷

Anyway, we laughed it all off and went down to the beach, which was really beautiful and had a good sunbathing session before heading to a restaurant called Lanterns for lunch. We ordered BBQ beef and vegetables to share and they brought it all out raw with a mini BBQ to sit on the table and we BBQ’d our own food which was great and very tasty.

That evening, on the way to dinner, a Vietnamese man stopped us when he noticed me cooing over his cute dog and asked where we were from. As soon as we said England, he put on his best cockney accent and said “Alright governor, seen the queen lately?” It was amazing! He then promptly starting explaining how he loved the Brits but hated the Russians lol!

After dinner we went for a few drinks at Louisianne Bar where they had a live American cover band playing hits from the 80s and 90s which was great fun.

The following day, we decided against the breakfast and instead had a nice lay in before venturing our for some brunch. We then organised a trip to the I-resort mud spa. When we arrived, we started by having a soak in a private tub filled with mud which was great fun, you then shower off and they run you a hot herbal bath to open all of your pores – it was crazy hot though and although you’re meant to stay in for 20 minutes, we kept trying to get out but the woman kept making us get back in – we were wrinkled lobsters by this point. You then go into a mineral pool with a natural waterfall to relax and then finally walk through some water jets to revitalise your skin although it feels more like being jabbed with needles. We were then guided to a little restaurant in a cabin where we were given a small snack and we then had the rest of the time to laze around the pools and have a swim. It was the perfect, relaxation day! To make it even better, on the way back, the man offered to take us in an electric golf buggy like car back to our hotel instead of a taxi which was great fun and you got spectacular views of the town!

That evening, we found a lovely Greek restaurant called Pita Greek. You may have noticed we are trying to mix it up a little with the food as there are only so many days and nights you can eat the same type of food. Can’t wait for a good sausage and mash in Woodbridge though 😀

Nha Trang has been a lovely, relaxing stop for us but if you were looking for a traditional Vietnamese visit, packed with culture and sightseeing this is definitely not the place to go. If you love Russians and Russian food you’ll be in heaven.

Off to Ho Chi Minh tomorrow for our final 2 days in Vietnam!

Tam Biet

Lots of Love, Leanne and Tom xxx