Joe wakes up early and decides to go for a walk along the beach. It’s a beautiful walk north of our location, we’re at the southernmost tip of this particular stretch of beach. There are so many people out for walks at this time of day, and groups doing Tai Chi or dance. I haven’t seen any yoga yet, but that would be my preference. I’d get up early for that.
Meanwhile, inside: The tooth fairy came! Maylin eagerly counts her bills and marvels at the zeros (shhh, don’t tell her it’s only $2CA!), and reads the letter the tooth fairy left for her. She’s very proud to be a member of the toothless crew, but she clamps her mouth shut whenever I get my camera ready!
Joe stops at the bakery called Bakeboy on his way back home, buying an enormous sourdough sausage roll and a passion fruit cream pastry. The sausage roll gets divided and enjoyed with our scrambled egg and toast for breakfast, the treat we are saving for later.
After breakfast, we head down to the beach. It’s early, it’s overcast, and it’s WINDY! That doesn’t stop us though, the beach is still such a new and marvellous playground. I do recommend to Joe that we get a couple of sun loungers today, as he has decided he’s not getting in the water today. I prefer being off the sand, even though there’s no escaping the fact that sand will and does get everywhere.
The girls and I play in the waves, and the girls play in the sand. Who needs a playground with structures, when there’s sun, sea and sand?? Because we are out there so early this morning, we’re back home by 11.30am. Once showered, we share our little pastry treat. It’s sweet, even though I had one of the pieces without the marshmallow cream…
The girls love cozying up in their PJs after their shower, even though it means they then have to get changed again before we head out for the afternoon. While they’re relaxing, I am able to snap some pics to show you the AirBnb we’re staying in: (please pardon any mess you may encounter in these photos)
We have a destination in mind for today’s lunch. Joe and I have been watching several travel influencers going to this one restaurant for a dish called Nem Nuong, and we are hungry to try it for ourselves! Our taxi driver today drops us off right at the front steps of the restaurant, and from there, things happen within seconds. We’re led upstairs to the main dining room, as the ground floor is half kitchen and half dining room, all open. I almost walked into the kitchen by accident, because there’s no door, and their kitchen counters are the same height as the surrounding tables.
Before all four of us have taken our seats, the staff bring the large plate of leaves, rice paper wrappers, two plates of cucumber and unripe mango, carrot and shallot pickles, a large bowl of dipping sauce, and small bowls to divide the sauce up. I guess they know our order? We have had the menu in our hands for about 2 seconds when the server is standing there, hurrying us on to decide on our meal. In the end, we end up ordering the standard Nem Nuong with pork skewer meat for Joe and I, and an order of pork and rice vermicelli salad for the girls.
We got into a pattern of how to make our wraps: Hold the rice paper wrapper in your non dominant hand, place a lettuce leaf on top, and then stuff it with all the things you want to eat! Meat, crunchy fried wrapper, cucumber, mango, pickles, Thai basil, perilla leaves and mint. Roll it as tight as you can, and then dip it in this amazing red-orange sauce. The sauce is not spicy, but there’s enough garlic to vanquish several vampires in it. You have to double dip to get enough sauce for the entire roll, so it’s good they gave us smaller bowls for that. I have a cold, and I do not want it to spread to the others!!
After lunch, we walk along the main Nha Trang beach down to Nha Trang Centre, one of the few malls in this city. It is extremely windy, and we look at the beach as we’re walking by. There’s hardly any beach up this end, the sand seems to steeply drop into the ocean, leaving very little room for playing, laying in the sun or walking. We nod and think – we’re so lucky to be staying where we’re staying!
The Nha Trang Centre mall is laid out more like a department store. There are no separate store walls or doors, everything is like vendors withing a common space. We walk through and find a new water bottle for Téa (this has been on our shopping list for the longest time), and on the top floor the girls get to try a VR movie experience! For 90.000VND ($4.50CA), each of them gets their own headset, and sit in an “egg” shaped seat, which moves. They pick two movies each, and both start with the cartoon version. It’s such a cool experience, and we can see on monitors what they see. The image on the monitor changes when the girls move their heads up, down, left and right.
On our way out of the mall, we decide to take a quick drink break. Maylin picks a caramel cake over a beverage. Joe has a coffee drink, and I a milk tea. Téa gets the Oreo blended beverage all to her self. Joe’s coffee is so sweet, he scoops some of Téa’s whipped cream off to try to dilute the sugar…
When the taxi drops us off in front of our building, Joe and the girls go one way, and I go another. I have seen a nail spa I want to try out, and my feet are screaming for a pedicure. The best part? The spa is in the 5th identical building to ours, so I don’t have to walk far at all! But I do have to go through this area:
I round the corner, and see… closed doors. Not just closed and locked glass doors, but curtains shut on the inside. Their Google listing claims they’re open 8am to 8pm every day, but their last two reviews have the same picture as what I’m staring at right now, curtains closed behind closed doors. Bummer! There are lots of spa businesses around, but I like reading reviews before heading in…
From one disappointment to another. For dinner tonight, we didn’t want to go far. What we really wanted was to buy some hot soup and bring home, but haven’t we done that two days in a row already? We compromise with the kids and go to the restaurant on the opposite corner from our building. It has huge menus plastered on the walls, and when we enter, it’s tiny on the inside. Maybe 10 tables, tops?
Joe orders a noodle dish he doesn’t really want. The pho he asked for is only available for breakfast, and they refuse to serve it at night. I order a seafood dish with rice, which is ok. The girls split a french bread pizza with bacon and a runny egg on top. Maylin says she’s full after eating half (of the half order), but manages miraculously to finish the rest of her meal while we’re not looking. (And no, there are no dogs under the table.)
There are beggars though, haven’t seen that in any of our countries before. One obviously struggling older man comes in and begs for money at each table. Then two sales people bring a basket each of candies or whatever it was to sell to the restaurant guests. They are quickly shown the door, I think the first guy came through before they could spot him. This is the first time in three countries and 5 months of travels that this has happened, so I guess I shouldn’t complain?
After dinner, I send the others upstairs and I head over to Bakeboy. It’s a busy place in the evening! Lineup out the door, picking up desserts. I’m here for one thing, and nothing more. I want one of their sourdough loaves, and I need it sliced. None of our AirBnbs so far have been outfitted with bread knives, and we haven’t wanted to buy one either. The lady at the counter says “of course we can slice it for you”, but then asks “is that for here or to go”. Can you imagine going to a cafe, ordering a sliced loaf “for here”? We have a little chuckle, as I understand all too well the automation that comes with repetative conversations, having worked retail, food services and hotel front desk for years.
We end the night with another movie on the couch in the AirBnb. We are loving our comfortable accommodations, and no matter how much we loved Japan, that AirBnb was probably our least physically comfortable one so far. I like my beds and couches off the floor, thank you very much! Of all the things we are learning along the way, I didn’t expect that one!