Christmas in Nha Trang and New Year in Hoi An

We arrived in Nha Trang on the 20th of December ready for celebrating Christmas here. Unfortunately on the day we arrived we had some bad experiences with motorbike taxis. Tash had some money taken and I had my bag stolen by a drive by grabbing, it contained my passport, visa, money and bank cards. However, we were both unharmed and lessons were learnt. P.S thanks mum for applying for an emergency passport for me!

However onwards and upwards we were determined to not let it spoil our trip. We have spent the the last 2 weeks with it raining the majority of days but with the trusty pack-a-Mac (also thank you mum) I have stayed relativity dry when going out and about.

We spent a few days visiting old Cham ruins, doing some shopping on the markets and visiting Buddha on the hill. I definitely feel like I’m getting the hang of haggling. A smile and laugh go a long way in persuading the market sellers to agree to the price you want to pay.

On Christmas Eve we managed a chilled day and a night out in the evening. The reason we chose to come to Nha Trang for Christmas was the mud baths. 100 egg spa was our choice. We arrived on the drizzly Christmas Eve to 100 egg and were bombarded by bus loads of Chinese tourists. We were the only western tourists there. We decided to go for the egg mud bath and herbal mineral bath for afterwards. When we got to our egg it was filled up with warm liquid mud. It felt like bathing in warm chocolate milk, an odd sensation. After 20 minutes we were then taken to our herbal bath which smelt amazing (not exactly sure what it did for our skin). We then treat ourselves to a foot massage which was also an experience that was slightly painful but clearly worked.

We then returned back to our hotel rang family and got ready to go out. We had got chatting to a person from North Korea called Neo a few days earlier who suggested we should go to Skylight bar which offered views over the city and was hosting a Christmas Eve party. We partied into Christmas Day with a lovely group of people and a little too much alcohol.

Christmas Day arrived and I was nursing a slight hangover, however the sun had come out to play. This made the day for me as sunshine makes me happy. We went for our Christmas dinner at the Sheraton hotel which was a posh hotel (got to have a little bit of luxury). We had a buffet dinner which was delicious. Afterwards we took a stroll along the beach to soak in the sunshine. We managed a 10k walk back to our hotel along the beach front.

We ended Christmas Day with a pizza 🤷‍♀️.

Boxing Day we managed to find a Christmas afternoon tea before we took our 10hour train to Hoi An for New Year. It was nice to have a little bit of England served in the style of afternoon tea (which is one of my favourite things at home). At 8pm we boarded our night train to Hoi An, I managed to get a few hours sleep. It was great travelling with the local Vietnamese people as you feel like you are involved in their culture.

The temperature has dropped significantly over the past few days- we have gone from 31° heat to around 37° humidity to around 20°. Although this may sound warm still, we have had to don the trousers, long sleeve tops and coats. The amount of rainfall we’ve had recently has caused the river to flood in Hoi An.

Hoi An is a beautiful place as is definitely on my top 5 recommenced list. On our first nights we wondered around Hoi An old town. There is a burst of colour from all the lanterns and shop holders stalls.

In our homestay we could use their bicycles so one day we decided to bike to An Bang beach. Of course it was raining and cloudy but nonetheless we were at a beach.

We spent a few days cycling around the town and getting used to the Highway Code of Vietnam. (Green light means go, red light means go if you don’t want to wait, always look out for the people in front of you don’t worry what’s behind you, there is no right of way). We visited The Japanese Covered Bridge which we weren’t too impressed by.

We also went on an Eco tour with our friends Dimi and Georgia who we volunteered with in Cambodia who happened to be in Hoi An at the same time as us. The Eco tour involved a trip to the market and a trip to the local fishing places on a boat. We first went in the smaller circle fishing boats and went through the local water ways and fished for crabs. I managed to catch a crab! Our boat man also made us a ring from palm leaves.

We then went on a local fishing boat and had a turn throwing the net. I failed miserably at this I’m not the most coordinated person and my brain didn’t tell my both my hands to let go only one but nevertheless third time lucky I managed to throw it! 🤦‍♀️

After this we went on a 3 hour mindfulness/meditation/yoga/writing course. This was great and made you focus on goals that you want to achieve for 2019. The 3 hours went by very quickly.

During our stay in Hoi An we also went to get some clothes tailor made, I struggle to find trousers to fit me so went for a top and trousers suit. I love it so much and it fitted perfectly so thank you to Bi Bo tailors who made, fitted and altered this in 2 days.

Finally was New Years Eve a big event in my family so I was looking forward to celebrating in style. We managed to dance the night away in the street and watch the fireworks at midnight. I also managed to see the new year in with my family on video chat so all was good. Hoi An was a fantastic place to celebrate new year, it was a great vibe, friendly, safe and exciting.