Nha Trang...

It was a 5 hour bus ride from Da Lat to Nha Trang thru some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. Starting high in the mountains we went across the ridge top with farms of every fruit and vegetable you can imagine, then dropping down to the flat farm land of rice and sugarcane. Every mile brought warmer temps and dryer air. We made a couple of stops on the way and one was at Mui Ve which had the temple you see in the pic below. After about 4 hours into our ride we came around a corner to a awesome view of the South China Sea and followed the coast line to the town of Nha Trang. We checked into our hotel and could not believe the view from our room, it was a corner room with 2 walls of windows looking at a 180 degree ocean view on the 8th floor. I couldn't wait any longer and put on my trunks and walked across the street and jumped into the ocean. Air temps were 95 to 100 with the water at 90 degrees. Tu and I sat under a palapa and enjoyed the sites. The next day we were picked up by van and taken to the harbor to get on a boat with about 30 other people for our day cruise to 4 different islands. On this boat were French, English, Germans, Dutch, Italians, Israleas, Aussies, Kiwis, Chinese, Cambodians, Viets, and one lone American "Me". Some very interesting conversations were heard on this boat ride. The ocean was smooth and it took almost an hour to get to the 1st island where we pulled into a cove for swimming and diving. The reef had great corals and lots of reef fish to see and we had a great time playing in the water. On the 3rd island we were served the most incredible lunch I have ever had. 30 or so different types of sea food and vegetables that all tasted great. On the last island was an aquarium showing the many types of fish that inhabit these waters. By late afternoon we arrived back at our hotel fully drained from having soo much fun. Every afternoon around 2 o'clock a sea breeze picks up that even with the hot sun makes the air very comfortable, we really enjoyed this spot and were not ready to go back to HCM.
But it was time to leave and it took 11 hours to get back to our hotel with a great stop for lunch on the beach at Mui Ne which I will try to return to for a stay at this small beach town in the future.