I had been forewarned about the number of Russian visitors to Vietnamese beach towns like Nha Trang and Mui Ne, but it was different seeing it firsthand. Upon sitting down at a restaurant, the waiter assesses you to determine if you speak English or Russian.
Usually we were handed Russian menus before they tracked down an English copy. This was definitely not something I expected in Vietnam, especially in two cities nearly four hours apart.
Nha Trang itself reminded me of Myrtle Beach or Panama City Beach in its large boulevard passing the high rise hotels and the beach. Our hotel was chock full and its rooftop pool was tiny and worn, so we spent an entire day at Louisiane Brewhouse down the street, where we paid around 10,000 dong for pool and beach access and had lunch and some beers.
I spent the day reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers and just being content with doing very little.
A few days later, we took a bus and taxi to Mui Ne, which I had been told was quieter than Nha Trang and known for windsurfing. Our hotel was absolutely beautiful, but completely empty, albeit far from most of the restaurants and shops of Mui Ne.
The beach wasn’t much to look at, as it was riddled with trash, but it was nice to look at while I sat in the infinity pool. We spent our days in a similar fashion to those in Nha Trang, but didn’t have much luck with restaurants.
In Mui Ne, we walked to the sand dunes along a road with no sidewalk, which we had to share with cows and motorbike drivers. Both beaches towns had their enjoyable aspects, but weren’t much in terms of the beaches I’d seen in Thailand.
Leave a Reply