29 July 2018, Sunday
It was Sunday, and I had nothing planned for the day ahead in Nha Trang. I woke up at 8:45am, checked the weather forecast and saw that it was going to be another hot day with temperatures hovering around 33 degrees Celsius. I lazed in bed for a while longer, then headed out at about 10:15am to look for a nice café to chill at.
I first went to City Fox Café, where I bought a latte and a cheese cake for VND 87,000 (S$5.22). I found a quiet corner, pulled out my laptop and started working on my blog posts. I remember when I first started this trip in May 2018, I tried to blog as diligently and upload my photos on Facebook as promptly as possible. However, I soon realised that it was not feasible because of the level of detail I wanted to capture in my posts.
Besides providing an account of where I went and what I did, I also wanted to include accurate and useful information about the places I visited, and this required time to research. Uploading the photos on Facebook was slightly easier because I could upload them all at one go, but I still needed time to write captions to accompany the photos, otherwise I felt they were pretty meaningless by themselves.
After spending the day exploring a new place, I often ended up tired by the time I returned to my accommodation at night, and simply did not have time to write the posts. I realised that I should not sacrifice my sleep and energy, but instead, I should enjoy the trip while I was still on it. I decided that the best thing to do was to keep up with the Facebook photo uploads and write brief captions for most of the photos so that they can form the foundation of my blog posts later on.
At the same time, I kept a handy log of each day’s activities on my mobile phone’s Notepad, for example, noting down the times, prices and other key details that will be useful later on. These are the more mundane and dry admin stuff. Whenever I could, I would also write in my journal, which are more introspective in nature and capture more of my thoughts and reflections.
I also found it useful to snap copious amounts of photos with my mobile phone. Some of the pics simply capture the signboard of a shop or the general view of a location. Most of them don’t end up in the blog posts but they are no less important. They are what I call “signposts”. They help to jog my memory and provide details that I can research on later.
Most importantly, each photo comes with a timestamp so it helps me to remember the date and time I was at a certain place, like what time I arrived and how long I spent visiting the place. Lastly, I also tried to do a screenshot of the weather forecast each morning so that I can remember how the weather was like on that particular day, helping me to recreate the feeling of being there.
Yup, I did all these little things while I was on the trip so that I can still remember much of what happened even two years down the road, as I am writing this post now. Of course, nothing beats writing contemporaneously to accurately capture the mood and feelings of that moment in time, but this is the best I can do.
At 1:55pm, I adjourned from City Fox Café to AN Café nearby for lunch. AN Café was much larger and better furnished, making it a lovely place to chill and hang out. I sat at the outdoor seating area and ordered a rice set and a cup of drip coffee (VND 78,000 / S$4.70). The rice was so-so but the coffee was good.
After I finished my food, I moved to the indoor seating area to continue sipping my coffee while reading my book, China Rich Girlfriend. It was a very chillax Sunday afternoon. I would have stayed on longer but the other patrons at the table beside me talked very loudly and I could not read in peace. At 4:00pm, I decided to leave.
I walked around aimlessly but I didn’t have anywhere to go, so I finally went back to the beach again. When I arrived at about 5:00pm, I saw a much more vibrant scene compared to yesterday. There were more people lounging on the sun deck chairs and even people flying kites. The sun was not as harsh now so it was quite lovely actually.
As I walked along the main road, I saw a small street market and went for a look. There wasn’t anything really interesting so I left shortly. I never thought I would say this, but for the first time on this trip, I felt bored. Sure, there were other places of interest in Nha Trang like the Po Nagar Cham Towers, Long Son Pagoda and Nha Trang Cathedral that are probably worth visiting, but I didn’t feel like spending too much energy or money to visit them so I just stayed put.
I was on the verge of giving up Nha Trang as a bad job when I stumbled upon Skylight (click here), a rooftop beach club with a 360˚ observation deck located above the Premier Havana Nha Trang Hotel. The ticket price was VND 150,000 (S$9.00) and it included a free welcome drink. It sounded affordable and enticing enough, so I gleefully bought a ticket and took the lift up to the 45th floor.
The view from the bar was quite astounding. There weren’t many skyscrapers in Nha Trang and this was one of the top five tallest buildings here, so it offered an unblocked view of the city and the South China Sea beyond. From this vantage point, I had a bird’s eye view of the six kilometres of white sand beach stretching from one end of the bay to the other. The setting sun also cast a golden glow onto the surrounding mountains, creating it a beautiful scene.
When I visited at 5:30pm, the place was still very empty so I took my time to take photos from all the different angles. I then looked at the Welcome Drinks menu and decided on a Sangria of the Day cocktail. As there was no one around, I picked a nice corner seat, where I had a splendid view of the beach and ocean below.
More people started to come in from 6:00pm onwards, but most of the other guests were casually dressed like me. As I looked across the bay, I saw that there seemed to be a kind of magical glow emitting from Vĩnh Nguyên island. There were like two very powerful beams of light being projected from the back of the island straight into the sky. It was glorious and breath-taking…a magical light show created by nature.
I was soon joined on my couch by an Israeli family of three, and we started chatting with each other. Despite our language differences, we still managed to have a good conversation, thanks to Google Translate.
The parents were both teachers and they were on holiday with their teenage daughter. When I told them that I am from Singapore, the parents said that they held Singapore in very high regard because they have heard from their fellow educators that our Singapore educational system is the best in the world.
It is always humbling when travellers tell me they have heard of Singapore, and even more so when they have such a favourable perception of my country. It really makes me proud to be a Singaporean, and to know that our tiny little red dot is recognised around the world. They graciously invited me to visit Israel and I told them that I will be there one day in the future. Likewise, I told them that I hope they will make it to Singapore one day too.
I left the club at 7:30pm and made my way back for an early night. However, I was a little hungry so I looked around for a streetside stall for some cheap eats. I found one near my hostel and ordered a plate of seafood fried rice. I got a shock when the lady told me that it cost VND 120,000 (S$7.20). I asked to check the menu and saw that the price was indeed stated as VND 120,000. I just assumed that it would be much cheaper and ordered it without checking first. It was the most expensive street food I’ve had so far.
My last day in Nha Trang was not particularly eventful because I intended it to be a relaxing one. However, it ended with a nice visit to Skylight and it all felt serendipitous that I should meet the Israeli family. It can sometimes be lonely when you’re travelling solo so it is always nice to meet fellow travellers whom you can connect with. That’s what makes travelling such a joy.