Hey people, it's the holiday season~ yay! So I have been legit stressful as this is my last semester in Malaysia, doing subjects that I hate most - US History and TITAS which is Asia History. I need a short break right finishing the 2 final paper, that's the reason why I was in Vietnam the day after these 2 papers. To relieve, relax and recovery from the harsh reality. Not to mention, I got my Financial Management paper after the getaway, damn it, last paper syndrome hits. Well, now I am officially done with my college life (that's not the point of this post) and just came back from an incredible chillax place.
We depart from my house to the KLIA 2, it took us about 35 minutes. We usually get a cab or book a van but this time we decided to park overnight there for 3 days 2 nights. It cost us RM120 which is reasonable for 3 days and 4 pax. We reached there about 1pm local time which is an hour earlier than Malaysia, 2pm Malaysia time. Nha Trang is located at the south cenral coast of Vietnam, offers a 16 kilometres of curving stretch beach. It is known for its sandy beaches, diving sites, mud bath and several off shore islands. Unfortunately, Nha Trang experience 4-months rainy season from September to mid-December. Therefore, we are not allowed to swim in the ocean due to the big waves blown by monsoon winds. We also are informed by our tour guide that Nha Trang has been raining non-stop for the past 10+ days. That is sad as we can not do any outdoor activities.
However, it was super sunny for few hours once we reached the international airport there. The tour guide brought us to a chinese restaurant for lunch, we were the only one who dined at the restaurant that lunch time. I'm not sure if the restaurant is exclusive or it is just not Vietnamese to have Chinese cuisine for lunch. We rushed to the tourist attraction before the sky decided to pour rain at the city, we went to the Cathedral and Long Son Pagoda (中文又名龙山寺，但此龙山寺非台北龙山寺）for the first day.
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| 8 dishes for 5 pax, one of the rare moment to have such luxury meal hahaha |
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| the restaurant exude the charm of ancient China with all the wooden furnitures |
We spent almost 30 minutes taking picture at the church, it is not a huge place and there are a big crowd of tourists so we basically trying hard to get a nice picture squeezing with the tourists or lining up for the spot for photo. The brown building along with colorful stained glass window reminds me of French Gothic architecture, which makes it more unique and appealing. Lucky enough, we saw a pair of to-be-married couple were taking their wedding photo at the church.
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| see those crowd omg |
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| the sunlight makes the stained on the glass invisible |
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| you can see a little here |
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| us praying for unlimited money hahahaha |
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| the church featuring my tour guide HAHA |
Next, the Long So'n Pagoda is a Buddhist temple, a home to a huge white Buddha and a sleeping Buddha. We gotta walk a certain distance of staircase to reach the Sleeping Buddha and the White Buddha is at the peak. Compared to the Cathedral filled with Chinese tourists, I preferred going here as there were only a few western foreigner visiting. It is twice as big as the Cathedral Church, hence, more space to take photos! Let's take a look what we got up to here-
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| the entrance to the temple |
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| White Buddha |
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| Sleeping Buddha |
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| dorky side of us |
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| I know we both have ridiculously small eyes |
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| view up here is great |
After visiting the 2 beauty spot in Nha Trang city, the sky turned grey, it's a sign to ask us stay indoor. We headed to our resort which is in the middle of airport and city area, 25 minutes from the international airport and 25 minutes to Nha Trang city. We were welcomed by a sugar cane drink and a tofu-like dessert, damn I didn't expect such a great service. They even upgraded our 4 bedrooms to a 5 bedrooms sea view villa, it fits for 10 pax. A theater room, dining & kitchen, living room, public toilet, outdoor bbq area and a superb infinity pool on the first floor. 4 bedrooms with private toilet each & a TV on the second floor. 1 bedroom at the third floor and the gate to the beach & open space.
It was too bad that as soon as we step into our home for 3 days, the sky started raining heavily. We wanted to enjoy the pool so badly, the smiles of our face turned upside down right away. Therefore, I thought of exploring the house and rest until dinner time.
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| welcome drink & snack |
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| staircase to our villa |
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| cool table lamp |
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| sofa facing the pool & ocean view |
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| theater room |
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| one floor down to our room |
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| master bathroom |
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| its just me being crazy |
We did not take any outdoor pictures as it was raining cats and dogs. Our van picked us up at 7pm local time (8pm Malaysia time) for a Vietnamese dinner. It was the worst meal ever in Vietnam, maybe because I have a very different expectation of Vietnamese cuisine. The restaurant served us sour seafood salad with prawn crackers as appetizer, it tasted like mong mong (Thai salad) and this is the best dish on that night. Fried spring rolls with shrimps, french fries, fried tofu were also served. What shock me was the tomyam-like ketchup soup with whole lots of shrimps, many kinds of fresh vegetables and that's it. I was not really impressed on our first dinner, but it was alright, I was not really hungry as I ate too much during lunch, it take some time to digest. There goes our first day in Nha Trang, Vietnam.
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| I only took this to show because it taste disgusting HAHAHA |
The next morning we were excited to go for sight-seeing tour but the weather succeed in disappointing us again, that's the only down side of this trip. Anyway, we were super duper satisfied with our buffet breakfast - it has many choices from vietnamese to chinese and to western. Guess what Mia Resort provide a buffet breakfast, ala carte light breakfast and even Italiano food to be ordered, price included. Since, we only have 2 breakfast there, we could not tried everything.
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| fruit yogurt parfait |
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| happy little girl |
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| sushi roll |
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| various cheese |
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| smoked ham |
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| bacon and sides |
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| mini shrimp salad |
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| flour-made products |
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| fruit juices were served this way, such a cutie |
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| healthy shots that taste exactly like my mom's vegetables juice |
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| the chill salad bar |
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| egg/tofu thingy HAHAAH I have no idea what it was and just put it into my mouth |
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| numerous tropical fruits covered by conical leaf hat |
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| my favorite vietnamese beef noodle - pho |
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| chicken stew |
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| congee with the only 2 sides to go with, anchovies and chicken floss |
We went back to our villa by buggy service and waited for an hour and 30 minutes to have drizzle rain. Then we headed to the Po Nagar, the citizen see the cham tower as Hinduism holy relic. The mesmerizing tall structure were high on a hill and surrounded by cool breeze which explained why is it chosen as a peaceful spot for worship. The site is fairly small, you can just spend 15 minutes there. Along the way to the temple, there are a few fruits stall that sell all kinds of fresh tropical fruits such as durian, mango, pomelo, coconut and others for a cheap price.
We all were holding blue umbrella the whole day, was so inconvenient to walk with umbrella especially on a narrow valley squeezing with other tourists with their umbrellas. We also hopped on our van and had an hour ride to Hon Khoi to visit salt fields. What we though we would see is like a snowing scene, shining white under the bright sun. In fact, what we saw is a dirty pond. It is all because of the powerful typhoon hit Vietnam and the non-stop raining season melted all the salt and turned it into a pond.
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| this is how it should look like |
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| clear sky, and reflection |
We stayed there for literally 2 minutes, got back up to the van and ride back to Nha Trang city. Had a wonderful lunch at Lantern's restaurant which serves Vietnamese meal, some dishes were a little salty but overall were delicious. It is still drizzling in the afternoon, we decided to head back to Mia resort and hang around the villa. We went to the La Baia in the resort to enjoy our complimentary teatime at the pool side. Then, we played in our own private pool for 30 minutes and get ready for dinner.
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| it is located at second floor |
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| street view from the restaurant |
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| creamy hot chocolate as tea |
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| public pool |
Here are some outdoor photos at our villa-
This is by far the best Vietnamese meal for the journey, it was such a great feeling by filling my stomach with delectable stuff. Best fried spring roll ever, butter scallop, crispy shrimps, fried salmon, satay chicken pieces, soy sauce beef, fried vegetables with squid and a soup is served on our table.
Me and my siblings stayed in the theater room few hours before we off to bed to watch China variety show. Well-spent quality time with them hahahha. The next morning we woke up a little earlier to take some nice photos at the beach, finally it was not raining anymore. After having the similar breakfast as yesterday's, we packed our luggage and checked out from the resort. Our flight is at 12pm local time and safely arrived at 3pm Malaysia time, took us 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Forget to mention, the resort gave us a few of this cute snowman icing sugar as a Christmas snacks and white chocolates for the other day. That were so sweet of them. I would rate them 11/10! Imma mark the end of my Nha Trang post here, thanks for reading.
Loves, meLodyyap.
