Nha Trang | Weekend Getaway - Day 1

Hi hi! The trip was 2 days ago and I cannot get over the fact that it was over. I shall write my feeling down before all the memories wash away like they did with my Europe vacation last year *sob*. It was planned not long ago, 3 weeks before hand. I was really desperate for a vacation, partly because I hadn't had one for months and largely because I graduated so I deserved one. After quite a few times nagging, someone finally agreed to come with me.

Transportation

We booked our flights with Atadi.vn since we did not have much time to go by bus, I guess I thought the tickets were okay since they costed 1.3 mil VND. But people said they were too expensive just to go to Nha Trang so it kinda made me crunch a little bit hearing that. We departed from Ho Chi Minh City with Vietjet and flew back to HCMC with Jetstar.

We arrived at the Cam Ranh International Airport at 3pm and took the 45 minute shuttle bus to central Nha Trang. Each ticket costed 130,000VND. The ticket counter is easily spotted with a crowd since there are other people who prefer to take the bus, located right at the arrival door. You can also take the taxi which would cost 350,000VND, if you go in group of 4, it'd cost cheaper and arrive at your hotel's location. Alana Hotel was 1km away from where we arrived: 86 Trần Phú, Nha Trang, it took us 10 minutes walking there.

Accomodation - Alana Hotel 

The place we intended to stay was a boutique hotel, it has pretty good reviews in Booking.com, and only costed 330,000VND per night. I personally called them up and secured our booking but when we got there, the receptionist told us that other guests extended their stay and she could not kick them out. She booked another room for us in different hotel, saying it is modern and decent. It was pretty bad when we got there since the hotel was old and not up to our expectation! So we decided to cancel and booked Alana Hotel, a 4 star hotel right opposite of the initial hotel instead. The cost for 2 nights was way higher than our budget, more than 2 mil VND, but the room was so worth it. The decoration, the atmosphere, the breakfast, the staff, the pool, anything was perfect. The only trouble was the shampoo bottle was made from china, the cap did not stick to the bottle at all, it slipped and broke when I carelessly put the bottle down. The cap costed 42,000VND alone T__T, but I was expecting much higher than that so the guilt wasn't that bad. I didn't take any picture cos we made such a mess right after checking in so too embarrassed to show haha, here are some pictures I took from Alana Hotel in Booking.com . The official price was more than 2 mil/night, so you need to call them up to ask for more cheaper deal, we stayed 2 nights and they gave us 50% off.

Troubling caps

We were so exhausted with hotel booking thing above and when we could finally see our home for the whole trip, we chilled for another 2 hours and so dread to go out. The room was so cozy, I mean look at it! 

Nha Trang's must try specialty 

At 7pm, finally we came to our sense that we could just not waste time at the hotel since we only have the weekend here, and got up to explore the night life and especially the food. The first stop was Nem nuong Ngoc Tien, 59 Lê Thành Phương (we paid 40,000VND to get there by taxi), it sells a local and extremely delicious dish. You wrap everything in the rice paper, dip in the special sauce and eat. We finished two dishes in less than 15' and costed 80,000VND which to us was pretty decent.  

After that we took a 1.2km walk to Nha Trang Center, which locates in Trần Phú, buying some necessity from the supermarket, particularly Smirnoff :)). Sadly, there was none, I was so angry and desperate for one lemonade Smirnoff, so we just ended up buying two 1-litre mineral bottles. Our hotel is exactly2 km away from the Center so we decided to walk along Trần Phú Street. 

Nha Trang's night life was so vibrant and colorful. There were so many bars, stores, and two night markets selling everything, along this coastal street. I kept thinking if I had a house in this street just selling potatoes, I would make a fortune haha. We filmed everything with the Gopro and the stupid SD went broken, I felt like there is no hope in the universe for me for a while now, I mean *burst into tears*. 

One more thing I noticed is that there were so many foreigners, especially Russians. I somehow felt like I was walking among the Nice beach with me being the little asian girl among the giants haha. 

Lousiane Brewhouse

We came back to our hotel at 8.45pm and watched Iron Man 3 until 11pm, being lazy asses :)). My travel buddy was so hungry and crave for German sausages and beer so we went to Louisiane Brewhouse. I planned to go there since I read a review online of another travel fellow and in Tripadvisor. The place was 5 minute walk away, it apparently opened until 1am on Friday and weekend probably, you gotta ask (it says somewhere opening til 11pm so we were really afraid and disappointed of not being able to have the sausages haha). Louisiane was really beautiful, located right next to the beach. There was live music but when we arrived there, the band had already sung the last song. So if you want to enjoy the wonderful music, go there at 8.30pm or at least earlier than we did. 

We ordered 4 flavoured beer set and German sausages with smashed potato. The bill was 285,000VND in total. The beers were different from all the beers I have drunk, you have to experience them yourself cos I can't really describe. For me the tendering sausages did really compliment the them, the combination was really perfect I must say, and for that price, I mean perfect! 

We sat there for an hour and walked along the beach back to our hotel. The atmosphere was so romantic and relaxing, something that I have never felt for many years, a perfect ending for the first day of my getaway. 

Check out my Nha Trang Getaway day 2 (Click here)