Vietnam’s Gold Coast

NhaTrang reminds me of the Gold Coast – lots of big hotels and high rise on the road across from the beach.  It’s a little bit different in that you don’t have to fend off cigarette sellers on the beach at the Gold Coast like you do here and you probably won’t find someone offering to cook you a lobster and a few crabs for a couple of dollars on the beach at the Coast either!

Otherwise, it’s pretty much like most other beaches we’ve been to in Asia.  It’s fairly sheltered so there are no waves and the water is nice and warm.  Although we didn’t swim much here because we found this great place called the Louisiane Brewhouse.   It’s a microbrewery with a fullscale menu of their own beer, variety of different international food, including sushi and cocktails etc.  If you buy something off the menu, you can use their pool and lounge around on the sunbeds.  Why sit in the sand when you can swim and sip sand free I say!  BTW the sushi was just divine!

So we spent a couple of days lolling about and the one day at Vinpearl.  Truly the strangest theme parks I’ve ever been to.  The one ticket included the cable car ride to the island (ie the longest over sea cable car in the world at 3km), all the outdoor rides, all indoor games (like a giant Timezone), 4D movie theatre, Underwater Aquarium, Sound & Light Show and also the WaterPark.  All six of us went for about $85! 

This, of course, wasn’t the strange part – that was in the fact that there were so few people there.  We are still wondering how they can afford to keep it open.  The kids went on the rollercoaster and stayed on – there was no need to get off as there was no else lining up to get on!  It was quite a difference from Australia, particularly at the water park where you would normally have to line up for ages for each ride.  We all had a great time.