Going Merrily

Kelvin found this beautiful budget hotel - Dendro, in Nha Trang, Vietnam for our 2 nights stay (Itinerary here). We booked for a high floor sea view deluxe double room on Agoda for 50USD per night - I was a bit skeptical about having sea view at such a budget price but the room proved me wrong.

The hotel was right beside the sea and we had unobstructed sea view straight out of our 9th floor window.

In the morning, the sun shines straight into the room, so it can get a bit glaring.

But the amazing view was worth it.

These photos were taken from my room window. We can see the whole stretch of beach.

And the view was stunning both day and night,

It can be a bit noisy at night as we are right above the main road.

The toilet was clean and has a bath tub.

Dendro also has a roof top pool, which gives a great 360 degrees view of the beach area.

However the water was a bit cold and most people prefer swimming in the sea.

The hotel lobby is quite grand and comfortable for such a small hotel (probably about 30 rooms in total).

The receptionists speak a bit of English and were helped us a lot in planning our trip and booking tours for us.

The daily breakfast buffet spread was included in our room charge, and the spread was pretty impressive.

There are traditional Vietnamese food and western food and a range of fruit juices to choose from.

The dining area was also very nice with sea view, most of the tourist residing in the hotel are Russians.

Kelvin and I happily filled our plates with Kebab, bacon, mash potatoes, eggs etc. Food was quite good for a buffet breakfast standard.

If you are going to Nha Trang, I highly recommend staying in Dendro Hotel.

Dendro Hotel
http://dendrohotel.com.vn/
92 Tran Phu Street, Beach Front
Central Tran Phu, Nha Trang, Vietnam

Last but not least, click here for my itinerary for 3D2N Nha Tang.

The best and probably only way to travel around in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon city is on the back of motorbikes. So Kelvin signed us up for Back of the Bike tour, to explore the city streets at night and try out Vietnam's street food specialties that only the locals know about.

We were originally considering between XO Tour and Back of the Bike tour (both are motorbike food tours in Saigon). Eventually, we chose Back of the Bike Tour as they offer custom tour timings and we can only start the tour at 6:30pm to 10:30pm. Kelvin simply dropped them an email to arrange for the tour timing and our tour guides, Hoa and Tam, arranged at our hotel lobby punctually 6:30pm to pick us up. Btw, I stayed in Hoang Hai Long Hotel, read the full review here.

We were presented with a nice red packet card each detailing the menu for the night. The tour cost USD$64 which is inclusive of unlimited food and drinks, helmet, tour guide/drivers, support team (for security and takes photos), $5000 insurance and pick up/drop off at hotel lobby.

We had one guy as our support team for the night and he took quite a few photos for us! We were allowed to pose with the bikes we rode at the start of the tour. Safety comes first in the Back of the Bike tours, and our drivers (Hoa and Tam) were really safe drivers despite how challenging the Ho Chi Minh traffic was at peak hour.

Appetizer
Goi Du Du Bo - Julienned Green Papaya Salad topped with Thai Basil, Dried Beef Liver, Toasted Peanuts and Prawn Crackers. Sauced with Chili Sauce and Light Fish Sauce.

Goi Du Du Bo- Julienned Green Papaya Salad

I quite enjoyed the refreshing and unique taste to the salad, reminds me of Thai green mango salad with more herbs and spices. It was sold by a random street store which

Main Course 1
Heo Nuong and Ho Lo Nuong - Grilled Pork Skewers and Pork Sausages, with Roasted Chili Sauce

eo Nuong and Ho Lo Nuong - Grilled Pork Skewers and Pork Sausages

This reminded me a lot of Satay in Singapore, but it was juicier and definitely my favourite for the night.

Before every meal, our tour guides would explain to us what's so special about the food that we were eating. They speak very fluent English and provide interesting insights to Vietnam's culture and food.

We would sit down on specially reserved seats to eat our meal, chat with our tour guides and the support guy would take random candid photos for us. Conversation was easy and the tour guides are around our age (about 20 years old) and very open to share their knowledge and experiences with us.

Main Course 2
Banh Canh Ghe - Ocean Crab Soup with Tapioca Noodles, Pork Rinds, Fried Fish Cake, and Green Chili Sauce

This place was really crowded with locals and the ocean crab soup noodles is their only dish. As you can see, there is no doubt to the freshness of the crab.

Banh Canh Ghe - Ocean Crab Soup with Tapioca Noodles

The soup base was spicy, like a milder version of laksa and it came with crispy fish balls which really went well with the soft noodles.

We were taken up to the VIP second floor to avoid the crowd and our tour guides were really nice to peel our crab for us. It felt so great to be able to eat all the fresh crab meat without the hard work.

Main Course 3
Banh Xeo - Crispy Rice Flour Crepe, Stuffed with Shrimp, Pork and Bean sprouts. Served with Fresh Lettuce and Sweet Fish Sauce.

Being a tourist is not just about sight seeing and eating, it's also about experiences in trying new things. We were really happy to try to "pancake" making, Vietnam style.

It wasn't easy making pancakes, I had to multi-task and look after 4 woks at once and the temperature was quite hot. Lucky Hoa was there to help and instruct me along the way. While Kelvin just stood there laughing at me -.-

He struggled more than me when making his pancakes and even failed one. HAHA, so much for laughing at me.

So after all the hard work, we sat down and tried out the various herbs and fresh veggies that Vietnamese often eat. My favourite was the wasabi leaves that tasted a faint taste of wasabi. The tour guides helped us wrap the pancakes we made into crepes with the herbs and veggies.

We also tried the crepes wrap with this, forgot what it was but it tasted really interesting, almost like beef jerky.

We were also given drink options at every stall and this stall, we tried the passion fruit drink and rice wine. Look at how our table was filled up with food :D

As part of the unique food challenge, we were given the unborn baby duck egg to try. Both Kelvin and I gave it a shot. I actually quite like eating it, but the inside of the egg was erm not very nice to look at.

During the motobike rides, our tour guides will engage us in conversations about just anything under the sun, making the journey very enjoyable. The rides were very safe, and we just have to hold on lightly to the back of the bike.

Dessert

Kem Voi Com Nep Va Xoai- Ice Cream with Sticky Rice and Mango, Frozen Banana with Coconut, Blue Berry Yogurt and Tropical Fruits.

At this stage Kelvin and I were quite full already. But the desserts were really nice and serve in a nice quaint cafe. We tried out a few tropical fruits that Singapore doesn't have. The ice cream mixed with sticky rice was delicious and the yogurt was think and creamy almost like a pudding texture.

After our desserts, our tour guides wrote us a useful list of places in Ho Chi Minh where we can visit for the next day and sent us back to the hotel lobby at 10:30pm. Our stomachs were very satisfied and I realised that we'd learnt so much more about Vietnam in this 4 hours.

If you are a foodie in Ho Chi Minh, I highly recommend the Back of the Bike Tours - street food hunt in Saigon: http://backofthebiketours.com/saigon-street-food-tours-vietnam/

Before coming to Ho Chi Minh, I spent 3 days at Nha Trang, read about it here!

Kelvin and I went to Nha Trang, Vietnam for a short 3D2N stay in October.

Bascially our itinerary for Vietnam trip is:
Day 1: Chill at beach bar, eat at Good Morning Vietnam
Day 2: Three Island Tour, Chill at Beach, eat at The Greeks and
Day 3: Mud Bath, Fly to Ho Chi Minh

Background of Nha Trang
Nha Trang is Vietnam’s most famous seaside resort-town, and it has a longest stretch of beach (6km) I've ever seen. Tourist at Nha Trang are mostly Russians and Vietnamese from other areas.

Weather in October
Bascially it is the monsoon season at Nha Trang from September to December and the weather forcast for our trip looks like this. We packed our ponchos and umbrellas, ready to brace the storms...

Only to be greeted by the perfect weather in Nha Trang for all 3 days! So I hereby declare that October is the best time to visit as the sky is still blue but the sun isn't as scorching hot and the temperature is nice and cooling.

Day 1

We took Jetstar from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh, and transferred flight from Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang. As our flight got delayed we only managed to reach Nha Trang at 5pm.

We had our dinner at a Italian restaurant, Good Morning Vietnam (Full review of the food here.)

The sun was down after we reached our hotel, Dendro, so all we could do was to hit the night beach, enjoy the acoustic and Mango Margarita at this little bar on the beach called Sandals.

Day 2

We woke up to the stunning sea view from our hotel room in Dendro at only USD$50 a night! (Full review here)

The hotel rooftop pool was pretty amazing too, but I preferred swimming in the cooling ocean much more since we were at the beach.

Our itinerary for the day is Three Island Tour (300,000 Dong per person, 9am to 4pm). Quick Tip: Avoid going for the Four Island Tour as the forth island is just an aquarium with no one inside, a waste of time and money. The Three Island Tour package on the other hand, allow you to spend more time at the fun islands and comes with BBQ seafood lunch.

The boat ride for Three Island Tour is very spacious as most of the people are crowding on the Four Island Tour boat. The sea is in such a nice shade of blue here.

The water was crystal clear at the first island and its perfect to snorkel to look at colorful fishes swimming around you. We also got to snorkel at the deeper part of the ocean where there are some corals, the corals are not very impressive though.

The second island is where we had our BBQ seafood lunch.The seafood was really fresh and overall it was a decent meal on a floating platform on the sea.

After lunch, we had a live music performance by the tour band on the boat. Quite a interesting arrangement, the musicians were of professional standards and they sang a few Vietnamese, English and Cantonese songs.

The boat ride was pretty comfortable itself with the sea breeze blowing you. And off we go to the third and last island.

The forth island has a huge floating playground on the water and it was free to play! Despite me getting trapped inside the structure for 10 mins, after I go out, Kelvin and I really enjoyed ourselves on the bouncing and climbing thing.

And Kelvin convinced me to do para-sailing. He said it's like flying and a little scary. I say it's like fly freaking awesome and not scary at all! We got to fly together for about 10mins for 1,000,000 Dong/ USD$50 (pretty decent price).

When we came back at 4pm, all we did was lie on the beach and chill as the weather was cooling and the sun was hidden nicely away behind the clouds.

We had dinner at The Greeks, as we never tried greek food before (full review to come soon!)

And as there are way too many awesome and cheap restaurants in Nha Trang, we had our second dinner at French restaurant, les bouchons (full review to come soon too!).

Day 3
After all the sun damage on our skin, we went for mud bath package at I-Resort (full review soon) to renew our skin for $300,000 dong each.

The mud was thick and thankfully scentless, it almost felt like I was bathing in very thick chocolate milk and it was so fun to swim around in our personal tub.

After the mud bath, we got to enjoy the various hot springs and cold springs in the resort (about 10 pools all together). The waterfalls were really great for massaging backs.

Alternating between the hot and cold pools of mineral water was really how comfortable. Life should be like this everyday.

And then we flew off the to continue our Vietnam adventure at Ho Chi Minh

Going Merrily

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