Nha Trang- Hitting the Beaches!

We've arrived in Nha Trang. This is a little beachtown on the coast of the South China Sea.
We've been traveling more and more North as the trip progresses. We were hoping that this would result in cooler weather (you know... Like traveling from Ontatio to the Yukon?) No such thing has happened. I swear its getting hotter! And I didn't even think this was possible.
Steve and I are boggled by most of these towns. We pictured them so much smaller and less developed then they really are. Especially here in Nha Trang, things seem very Westernized. Its kind of unfortunate really.
One thing we have noticed though is that people seemingly get nicer and nicer as we venture further North, and the cities are getting cleaner and cleaner.
We've also learned some valuable things about driving here- and we are figuring out the 'honking' system.
First of all, the bigger you are (vehicle wise) the likelier the chance is that you have the right of way.
For example- if you're a bus, you honk your horn (options: subtle 'beep beep' or 'hoooooooooooonk' (I prefer the first option)) to pass someone. Once you honk your horn, the car, bike, bicycle, or pedestrian moves over and let's you pass.
This works for cars too, but not so much for motorbikes. Generally they 'beep' at eachother or a people.
BUT there are the people who 'beep' at you- just because you're a foreigner. Which is lovely. This is why we've been so confused. Because we get honked at twentyfive zillion times a day. (Really if you had a big ego- and you wanted to feed it... You should come to Vietnam! People drive by and give you the 'beep beep' ALL the time! Sometimes you get a nod, smoking guns (with the hands!), a wink, or a 'niiiice' along with the beep beep too!.)
Moving on though. We jumped off the bus at around 7 o'clock and made our way to our hotel. One thing that is so annoying here is that when you get off your bus- the streets flood with taxi drivers, hotel room sellers, motorbikes... All asking you if you want a ride, or need a hotel, or where you're staying, what you're doing. Its so overwhelming!
Us (being from Canada) don't give the (options) silent treatment- completely ignoring them, or the firm 'no' accompanied with a bold hand gesture. So we end up having to politely explain we have a room- and ask for walking directions from the bus stop to the hotel.
Now- two things usually happen. First- they tell you the completely wrong directions (perfect)... Or secondly, they give you the right general direction- but tell you the hotel is some obscene distance away! (We've now learned these facts and figure it out on our own... But its been interesting- let's leave it at that).
So we get to our hotel, and its early enough for us to go get some food.
We consulted our travel book for a good vegetarian restaurant, and we trudged some great distance to find it- only to realize it no longer existed.
Now- in normal heat, this small set back would be no big deal. In this weather... I don't know how to control my emotions. I was SO mad- I 'didn't even want to eat anymore'. Of course we stopped at a different little restaurant and had dinner.
It was a long day and we hit the hay early.
I say this like we usually stay up late. This is so NOT the case. Traveling has turned Steve and I into old grannies and pop-pops. We usually fall asleep between 8:30 and 9:00, and wake up between 5:30-7:00. Its so UNLIKE me!

Its morning now- and unlike the other little beachtowns we've been in- Nha Trang seems to wake up early. Steve turns to me and says 'we should just have a lazy beach day today- the sea is so nice here'.
I agreed.
We had heard of the famous mud baths in Nha Trang, and decided to treat ourselves to a 'spa' day. Our bus driver gets to our hotel bright and early, to drive us to this cute little spa up in the mountains. It was pretty awesome. People didn't speak much english here, but we gathered we should get changed and make our way to the mud baths. I didn't really know what to expect... But its exactly how it sounds. Literally you sit in a pool of mud (its warm) and just hang out in there for about 40 minutes. They give you buckets to poor mud all over you (included your hair and face). It was pretty awesome, and the mud felt nice on your skin. I felt like a wallowing pig!
After the mud we showered off, and made our way to a warm salt bath. That was pretty nice too. You'd think that in the heat it would be too much. But it wasn't. Steve and I felt like royalty doing absolutely nothing all morning. We finished off the 'spa' day with a swim in a cool pool- rinsing all the salt and residual mud off us. I felt so refreshed, and was ready for my day!
Now Steve, after being pampered all morning was still ready for his beach/lazy day.
BUT of course knowing me- I read that there was a giant Buddha only 5 kms from our hotel- perched at the top on a Buddhist temple. We HAD to go! Plus, at the bottom of the temple was a vegetarian restaurant run by monks, which I thought would be really neat.
So off we go. Again poor Steve....I don't know when he'll learn. 5km turned into 10 and then 15... I looked over at him- exasperated by the heat. Literally dripping with sweat. He looks back at me and says ' I literally don't think I've ever been this hot. In my life'.
I must say- I had to agree. It was a scorching 47 degrees, plus the beating down sun. It felt like 100!
No wonder everyone is laying on the floor of their shops, fanning themselves. I don't know how anyone gets anything done here. If it were Canada we would  all be hidden away in this weather.
We finally made it to the Buddha- and boy was it worth it. It was a HUGE temple- so well kept. The Buddha was enormous and you got to climb some 200-300 steps to get to the top. From up there you could see most all of Nha Trang city, which was also pretty neat.
I hadn't been too impressed by Vietnamese cuisine so far, and I was pretty disappointed in that. But we thought we'd give the Buddhist restaurant a try. OH MY GOSH! Auntie Tozie had urged me to get a bowl of Pho (a traditional noodle soup here)- but I hadn't been able to yet because none of it was ever vegetarian. This place had it. Steve and I both ordered a bowl...(50 cents each) and gobbled it down. The monks sure know how to do it. To date it was the best food we've eaten!
We also guzzled down an entire jug of iced Vietnamese tea.
Now with a light bounce in our step we made our way home. This in itself was an adventure!
First we stumbled across a grocery store. Now I know that this doesn't sound SO exciting... But first: we hadn't seen one yet, and second: we'd only had prepared food since we'd been here... And we were craving something raw and yummy...
The grocery stores are similar to the ones in Canada- except they are jam-packed with crazy foods. Lots of raw seafood, a whole aisle dedicated to instant noodles, and of course the entire back of the store held rice cookers... And only rice cookers.
At any rate it was interesting to walk around the store and see how expensive (or should I say inexpensive) things are here. The most expensive thing we bought was shaving cream- and that amounted to half our bill.
We did manage to by some fresh bread, some gouda, and veggies to make sammies on the beach with for dinner! Yum!
Even better- on our way back home from the grocery, we found the cutest little coffee shop. We popped in and got iced coffees with milk. They were SO good! Plus the girl who served us was adorable. She was literally as sweet as the condensed milk they use to make their coffees (VERY sweet). On our walk back home- we both decided we would come back the next day for breakfast. Especially so because there was a little bakery just across the street that we could get some food from.
Once we finally got home (and this had now turned into a days venture)... We were almost ready to hit the beach for some delicious dinner, when we realized that half our photos from our trip were no longer on the camera's memory card.
I almost started to cry. We zipped downstairs, and checked on the computer. Low and behold, the files were corrupted and we didn't have any of our photos. I was so upset. It took as a couple hours to try and retrieve them until we finally gave up.
Tash assured us that would could probably take the card to someone in Canada to retrieve them for us. I am banking on that and crossing my fingers it works!
It was such a bummer though because it was a damper on a really good day.
It was way past our bed time, and we decided to gobble down a quick sandwich before bed and call it a day. We would hit the beach tomorrow.

We decided to start this day off, putting the memory card incident behind us (this was hard for me). Seeing as we were leaving in the afternoon, Steve finally got his beach day (of course after walking back to our (now) favourite coffee shop for breakie!
After packing up the room and checking out of the hotel we decided to head down to the sandy shores to cool off. Again it was a million degrees outside.
Like I had said about Mui Ne- the beaches are so nice... But garbage floats in the water, and washes up along the shores. Its such a shame. Steve and I tried to find a more secluded place to go for a dip, though those are few and far between, and still extremely polluted.
Never the less we made it into the salty sea and were having a great time playing in the waves.
Then, all of a sudden we see something floating in the water. What do you know- two giant bloated rats. Isn't that nice.
After this discovery I found it very hard to go back into the water. To date it was the grungiest thing I'd seen.
We thought this was our cue to leave the beach and find a shower- where we could wash the dead rat off us.
I would like to make it vividly clear how huge this thing was. At first I mistook it for a puppy... A big puppy. The tail on this thing was as thick as my thumb. Uck!
We did end up finding a shower, and after that we got some food before jumping onto our next bus. Off to Hoi An we would go. This was going to be a 12 hour ride. Thought we had a sleeper bus- the rides are always extremely bumpy, and you never really good nights sleep.