Week 11: VIETNAM - Da Lat → Nha Trang

Image of the week: the cable car from the mainland in Nha Trang to Vinpearl island. Where 'the colour of the ocean is the colour of the sky', as the locals say. More images at the end of post

Where in the world

Three nights spent in Da Lat, then a three hour drive down from the mountains to Nha Trang on the coast, where we stayed for three nights.



Thoughts

I'll be honest, it took a couple of days for our backsides to recover from the beatings they got on the bikes last week, so there was a lot of resting in Da Lat. But once we emerged from our rather glorious homestay room (see info on Villa Vista under what to eat in Da Lat below), we were quite charmed by the place.

It has a heavy dose of European chic and looking down on it from one of the vantage points, you could almost be in a colourful Alpine town. It's a mid-sized city at around 1500-2000m above sea level, quite hilly with sloping streets, and people come here for respite from the scorching temperatures of the lowlands of Ho Chi Minh City and the like. 

It's surrounded by pine-covered hills, lakes and even higher peaks, providing a lot of prettiness to look at. If you intend to visit, give yourself an extra couple of days to take day trips out beyond the city to the nearby surrounding greenery, waterfalls and the likes of Lak Lake.

The fertile soil makes Da Lat one of Vietnam's most productive agricultural areas, producing fruits, vegetables, tea, coffee beans and flowers that simply will not grow in the stifling heat closer to sea level. Coming into Da Lat by road, you'll pass huge expanses of polytunnels and plastic greenhouses, sheltering thousands of acres of brightly coloured blooms that reach markets as far north as Hanoi.

the view over Da Lat from Villa Vista Homestay

And then there is Nha Trang. You know you're in a tourist hotspot when the menus are in Vietnamese, and Russian; we must have missed the Welcome to Moscow-on-Sea sign on the drive in.

It turns out Vietnam Airlines fly directly from Nha Trang to Russia, three times a day(!), so understandably, many Russians choose to spend two weeks warming their bones under the town's gorgeous skies. It didn't take long for the locals to realise Russians aren't shy of a bob or two, and so many have tailored their food and services for this customer base.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with Russians. But too many tourists of any kind, in any location, can quickly get tiresome. Thankfully, it's very possible to get out of the sunshine Soviet and back into local Vietnamese culture - just move away from the beach.

Nha Trang beach

Whilst a lot of Nha Trang isn't exactly typical Vietnam, I'd say it's still worth a stop for a couple of days between the highlands and heading on southwest to HCMC (a comfortable overnight train will take you there - see next week's post). But I'd probably choose not to visit during holiday season - Christmas, New Year's, Easter, summer holidays etc.

You can get the longest over-water cable car in the world to Vinpearl Land for the day, where they have an amusement park, water theme park, aquarium, indoor games arcade, and more. 

And when were water parks ever not fun.

The best things I ate this week

What to eat in Da Lat..

Breakfast, Villa Vista Homestay. After six days eating meat and rice at least twice a day last week, this breakfast (and its fibre content) was so very welcome. Tim from Australia and his Vietnamese wife Huong run Villa Vista homestay at the top of the hill in Dalat (gorgeous room and great value, by the way). 

To start off each morning's spread, homemade granola with coffee flower honey, dried mango and banana, and rum and raisen chocolate pieces from Hokkaido, Japan. Also, homemade yoghurt cultured from Indian yoghurt, a load of fresh fruit, and a pretty great view.

Mì quảng, Mì Quảng Thành, 58C Phan Đình Phùng Street. I also tried this in Hoi An. It's a central dish that’s popular up in the mountains too. In these parts, it comes with great meaty slow cooked pig trotters. Still with the thick turmeric-stained noodles and sesame rice cracker. 

from top left: Villa Vista breakfast, mi quang, serving bun ca sua, bun ca sua, hu tieu, banh mi

What to eat in Nha Trang..

It is possible to avoid the overpriced tourist fodder that is everywhere in Nha Trang. Unsurprisingly, the good places to eat tend to be away from the beach. The below will set you off on the right foot.

Bún cá sua, Bún Cá Sứa 87 Yersin. This lady served us a couple of steaming bowls of bún cá sứa, native to Nha Trang. It's a delicate fish bone broth with tomatoes, rice vermicelli, hunks of meaty white local fish and fried fish patties. 

It's also supposed to have fresh jellyfish in, and there was a bowl there, but I don't believe she included them; she probably assumed we wouldn't like them because we're tourists. Which is a shame. I still really enjoyed this though.

Hu tieu, Intercontinental Hotel Nha Trang. A noodle soup dish of the south, particularly the Mekong Delta. There are loads of local variations making the most of whatever ingredients are available. Key elements: pork-based broth, ground pork, Chinese celery, garlic, shallots. Here also with shrimp and quails egg.

Bánh mi, a cart. We stumbled across this guy where the streets Nguyen Thien Thuat and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai cross. This is the ubiquitous Vietnamese baguette stuffed with all manner of good things. They can be found everywhere, but only some do them really well. 

This stall holder was particularly busy, customer after customer turning up on mopeds to whisk a couple of stacked sandwiches away. At his disposal: paté, steamed sausage, butter, chillies, eggs, cheese, herbs, pickles, shrimp sauce, meat floss, more. The eggs were cooked by a lady on a single gas burner in a cabinet just underneath the main assembly area. I asked for one with everything, obviously.

the banh mi cart, with all of the ingredients

Street food must-eats

Street food in Da Lat..

Bánh tráng, Ms Tâm by Xuan Huong lake. This is often referred to as the Da Lat pizza, which is how you might see it marketed outside places that make them. It's in fact a paper thin circle of rice paper with a flourish of colourful and tasty toppings, grilled over coals until really crisp. 

Ms. Tam accessorises hers with quail eggs, spring onions and tiny shrimp. About 30p each. Great to fill the gap between walking from one side of the lake to the other.

Street food in Nha Trang..

Bánh căn, the corner by 21 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai We also had these in Da Lat, where they were very good. But I don't know if it's because we were famished when we ate these in Nha Trang, but the ones below were superior. Here's the process of making them, marvel at their simplicity:

1) Pour rice flour and water batter into round metal pods over hot coals. 
2) Add a spoonful of beaten quails egg to the middle of each.
3) Put lids on and let them cook until crisp on outside and fluffy inside.
4) Tease these browned beauts out of their moulds.
5) Dunk in the dipping sauce of stir fried spring onions & diluted fish sauce, with crisp pork fat in. EAT

Did you know?

Awards. Nha Trang Bay has been acknowledged by Travel and Leisure as one of 29 most beautiful bays in the world for two consecutive years.

My insider tips

Drive from Da Lat to Nha Trang. You can get a local taxi to take you all the way, just settle on a cost beforehand rather than having the meter running - your hotel will be able to call one for you. It was around $50 for a 7-seater at this time of year, and it takes around three hours. 

It's quite a winding route down from the mountains, so if you're partial to getting travel sick from all the tight bends (as we do), best to opt for a private car than sitting on the back of a bus swinging from side to side. Barf.

Highlight / Lowlight

Highlight. Getting to be beach bums for a couple of days. Long overdue, especially after last week's endurance test on the motorbike. 

Also, the one night we spent at the pretty posh and exclusive Vinpearl Luxury resort (here's my full review of Vinpearl Luxury), complete with villa and private, pristine beach. So that was nice. 

Lowlight. The soft bit (bag area) under Matt's left eye has been twitching non-stop for two months now, and although he can't feel it, it's really starting to annoy him. Said to be a symptom of tiredness/stress (and watching Spurs), the resident onsite doctor at Vinpearl which he made use of, said what everyone else said - he needs to sleep. 

We read somewhere that quinine (found in tonic water) can sometimes stop it, so he's been stocking up on cans, letting them go flat (he doesn't like fizzy drinks), filling empty water bottles with the stuff, and disguising the frankly disgusting taste (when there's no gin) by adding a load of iced tea powder. 

He's then carrying these heavy bottles around with him every time we move hotel / location, sipping from them and wincing at the taste each time. Doesn't seem to be making any difference, so far.

In other news, I'm really missing London in the spring time. It's my favourite time of year, and I can easily while away hours looking over the new buds and shoots emerging from seemingly dead twigs in my garden. And the magnolias! How I miss the magnolias. 

It's week 11, and I may be a touch home sick.

Next week

Our final overnight train in Vietnam from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City (aka HCMC, formerly Saigon) for a few nights. Then a two day tour through the Mekong Delta, returning to HCMC for another couple of nights, before we say so long to Vietnam *wipes a tear*.

Postcards

Da Lat

 Nha Trang

W

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Week 2: INDIA - Bangalore → Mysore → Wayanad → Kochi
Week 3: INDIA - Kochi → Allepey → Kollam → Madurai
Week 4: INDIA - Pondicherry → Chennai → Mumbai
Week 5: INDIA - Varanasi → Udaipur → Jaipur → Delhi

Week 6: TAIWAN - Taipei

Week 7: CHINA & VIETNAM - Hong Kong → Hanoi
Week 8: VIETNAM - Sapa → Hanoi → Ha Long Bay → Hanoi
Week 9: VIETNAM - Hue → Hoi An
Week 10: VIETNAM - 6 day / 5 night motorbike tour from Hoi An to Da Lat

VIETNAM: Review of Vinpearl Luxury, Nha Trang

the longest over-water cable car in the world, from the mainland to Vinpearl Island
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In a nutshell 

An exclusive luxury resort set on its own private island in one of the world’s 30 most beautiful bays, with 84 coastal villas, and even its own amusement park.

Where is it?

Off the coast of Vietnam’s popular Nha Trang and a leisurely 15-minute cable-car ride over the waters of Nha Trang Bay, you'll find Hon Tre or Bamboo Island, adding texture to the area's picture postcard sunrises and sunsets. 

This island belongs to the premium leisure chain Vinpearl. On it you'll find three accomodation resorts: Vinpearl Resort, Vinpearl Premium (recently opened), and where I stayed, Vinpearl Luxury. The island is also home to the entertainment mecca that is Vinpearl Land Nha Trang.

The surrounding waters are home to rare ecosystems with many coral species, fish, molluscs, crustaceans and sea-grasses. In terms of venturing off the island for some exploring, you can take a boat trip along the coast for fishing villages and more bays. The Po Nagar Cham Towers can be found in Nha Trang, along with the Thap Ba hot springs and the 200-year old village of Phu Vinh.

Nha Trang is a 40 minute drive from the airport and as well as the cable-car option to get over the water, you can also take a ferry. Guests of the most high-end of the three resorts, Vinpearl Luxury, get to experience a chartered ride from the airport followed by a really swanky 7-minute speed-boat. 

My advice, sit outside at the top with the wind in your hair. Pretend it's yours and pretend you're driving. It feels good.

feeling pretty swish on the speedboat from the mainland to Vinpearl Island
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Style and character

When the island was sold of to a single developer, they didn't waste time in completely transforming the place. 

In less than ten years they renamed it, constructed two resorts (a third recently opened this year), an excluseive golf course, a cable car across the bay to get to it, a theme park, a waterpark, and an aquarium. And they've marked out their claim with a huge Hollywoodesque "Vinpearl" sign that shines brightly into the night for all to see.

There's a wide selection of plush villas at Vinpearl Luxury, with luxurious rooms that provide very high standards of comfort and indulgence. They all have attached balconies, some of which boast some very lovely views of the ocean and the island's white sand beaches. 

Each villa combines the deep tones of natural wood with soft colours on the walls and bright furnishings, and each has its own private jacuzzi out the back that's not overlooked. 

Particularly handy if you fancy getting rid of those tan lines.


What's unique?

The fact it's on its own island is a big one.

Then there's the myriad of diversions available on it. 

There's the newly opened 18-hole Vinpearl Golf Club, part of a stunning par-71 championship layout. If that sounds like too much hard work, there’s also the over-water Vincharm Day Spa with the individual treatment rooms set on stilts right over the sea front, along with tennis courts and snorkelling tours.

And then there's the endless entertainment available at Vinpearl Land, including an aquarium and amusement park complete with two-storey arcade games room and 4-D cinema. And even their own water park.

Vinpearl Land, Nha Trang

Who goes?

Vinpearl is a playground for Vietnam's new rich and their international counterparts. The exclusive access, luxury resorts and the pricey golf course help pull in a certain clientele.

In terms of nationalities, the main three are Russians (there are a lot of them in general in Nha Trang), Australians and Vietnamese. We got chatting to a British couple on their second visit, who said they'd never seen any other Brits there, and so assumed we were Australian. 

Those staying at the Vinpearl Luxury resort have full access to the whole island, including the private beaches and the hours of entertainment available at Vinpearl Land. But the people who stay at Vinpearl Luxury are generally there to relax and get away from noise and roudy kids, so tend to stay on the resort. It has everything you could possibly desire, so it's easy to see why.

During our stay, the resort was at about half capacity, so wasn't particularly full. But we barely saw anyone at all, as it's quite sprawling. A generally really peaceful place to be.

It's possible to visit the island with a ticket that just gives you access to the amusement park, rather than staying at any of the resorts, and many will make a day trip to do this. You will therefore come across a lot more families, children and people in general in these areas, and a lot less at the actual resorts. 

During peak season I can imagine the entertainment areas are overrun and queues are long.

grounds of Vinpearl Luxury, Nha Trang
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Dining

The buffet breakfast is served in the Blue Lagoon Restaurant, also open for buffet lunch and dinner and is the only one of the two dining options (there is a second a la carte restaurant) included in the full-board package.

You can expect local dishes at breakfast such as banh khot (small Vietnamese pancakes), banh cuon (rolled rice cakes) and banh chung (rice cakes with pork).
 
There were lots of freshly baked breads and pastries and the likes of peanut butter, whole tubs of Nutella, an array of freshly cut tropical fruit, a noodle soup station making bowls fresh to order, oatmeal, compotes, a pancake station and more.

breakfast at Vinpearl Luxury, Nha Trang
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Lunch and dinner were further impressive spreads, dishes varying with each meal. 

There's a really wide range of offerings showcasing international cuisine. From the likes of dim sum and wonton noodle soup with char sui, to roasted quail, salted fish with rice, and snails.

The BBQ available in the evening was particulary good. Your choice of fat prawns, juicy scallops, tender chops and succulent slabs of beef cooked al fresco to order and to your specification, and as much of it as you want. I really enjoyed the simplicity of letting quality pieces of meat see some brief heat, and nothing more.

There were also steamed crab legs, of which I ate about 25, doused in lemon. And some fantastic salmon sashimi, of which I had a similar amount.

And the mangoes. Oh my, the mangoes. Available at every meal sitting, and some of the best we had in Asia. We were dipping great hunks of their ambrosial flesh into the chocolate fountain, devouring two or three each at every go. I was averaging about eight mangoes a day. It was a bit obscene, really.

buffet dining at Vinpearl Luxury, Nha Trang
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Service

As you would expect at such a luxury resort - with the price tags to match - the service is impeccable. From remembering and addressing each guest by their name, to replacing your cutlery when you pop up to refill your plate, before you even realised they might need replacing. 

The staff make a concerted effort to engage with every guest, but not with banal annoying chit chat that feels forced, but really genuine conversation that was a pleasure to engage in. So, well done to all the staff members at the resort, they are a great asset.

Then there's the very nice touch of a bottle of chilled prosecco waiting in your room at check-in. Seeing as my partner doesn't drink, that was all for me.

Vinpearl Luxury, Nha Trang
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Liked lots / liked less

Liked lots. The beach. It's exclusive, so was practically empty. Powdery white sand stretching over 400m around the island with limpid calm and shallow waters. It was hard to leave.

Liked less. Only a couple of niggles. There were no salts or bubbles provided with the bath. And there were no soft drinks included in the buffet meals. But that's it really.

Vinpearl Luxury, Nha Trang

Price point

Prices from around £360 a night for a villa with a garden view, to £490 for a Grand Duplex Villa, full board.

Contact

Hon Tre Island, Nha Trang
+84 8 39 111 177 2
Website

Note: This stay was kindly hosted by Vinpearl Luxury. All views remain my own.

Related links

Week 11: VIETNAM - Da Lat → Nha Trang
VIETNAM: Review of InterContinental, Nha Trang