наш отпуск our vacation

Hotel MICHELIA(Michelia-4*), Nha Trang city (Nha Trang), VIETNAM (Jan-Feb 2013)
1) FLIGHT Yekaterinburg - Nha Trang. Airline - Nord Wind (Nord Wind), tour operator - Pegas. Fly about 9 hours. Arrival at KAMRAN airport, which is 30 minutes from Nha Trang. Other than Pegasus, we didn't see any other tour operators in Vietnam.
2) The Michelia Hotel is a 30-minute walk from the "European street", where there are many shops, cafes, restaurants, tours. agencies. It's even good, we were quiet and there were no crowds of walking tourists, compared to the center. If you go there by taxi, it turns out to be about 60 rubles, so in Vieta everyone takes a taxi when they get tired of walking, it's cheap.
3) Settled very quickly (5-10min), room on the 9th floor, overlooking the sea. From floors 1-8, the room will most likely have a view of the buildings. We flew as newlyweds and were pleasantly surprised by the bed and bath with rose petals, honeymoon cake and fresh fruit every 3-4 days.

4) MEETING WITH THE GUIDE: the guide scared everyone to death that in Vietnam - bags are stolen; tourists are beaten; do not take mopeds; here all the locals wear masks because they get cholera. In street travel agencies they are deceiving, in short, you only need to go with Pegasus for all excursions and then everything will be fine. Those who were abroad for the first time - 100% fell into the guide's trap. After listening to his “passions”, we took the price list and went to travel agencies (there are about 20-30 of them throughout Nha Trang). Prices are much cheaper, lunches are included, guides speak Russian, small groups of 10-12 people, in short, "EVERYTHING IS AS NECESSARY").
5) FOOD: After walking around different cafes and restaurants for several days, we wandered into “Sea Breeze Restaurant, (address - 111B Nguyen Thien Thuat, Nha Trang, Vietnam) and more from there for 2 weeks “did not climb out” !! ! Sometimes, they even had lunch and dinner there. The restaurant has Italian, Mexican, Vietnamese, European cuisine (the menu is huge)!! ! We met Russian tourists there who have been vacationing in Vietnam for 2 months and constantly dined at See Breeze. We met two more couples and then, without saying a word, met several times at See Breeze. They cook not in 5 minutes, but everything is fresh, and where to hurry, we are on vacation - we took rum and Coca-Cola and the expectation of dinner passed unnoticed. It even happened like this: they took rum for lunch, if they didn’t drink all of it, then they left it in a restaurant, and during dinner they drank it there !!!
There is also a cafe "The Local" and "The Local II" (also very tasty, but more expensive). By the way, in Vietnam they speak Russian almost everywhere (at least a little, but they also speak the menu somewhere in broken Russian, and somewhere without errors).
6) SEA and POOL: From the hotel "Michelia" the sea is 2-3 minutes. walk across the road. If you are a fan of jumping on the waves, WELCOME!! ! The beach is public. But Michelia has her own fenced area, 10 umbrellas, 20 deck chairs. They also provide mattresses if the sun loungers are all occupied. But sunbeds are still not enough! The swimming pool is located in the inner part of the hotel. Nearby is a regular school. So, as soon as the children have a break, the poolside hotel plays music to muffle the squealing children. Sun loungers by the pool are also not enough (13-14 pieces). In the evenings, they turn on music and show clips or Fashion TV on a huge screen. In the evenings, you can also swim in the pool.

7) SHOPPING: Near the hotel Michelia is the market "CHO ​ ​ DAM" (7-10 minutes walk). There is everything you want here: things, fruits, souvenirs, watches, glasses (although in comparison with Thailand - the choice of goods in terms of quality is NEVER).
There is a shopping center "Nha Trang - CENTER" (here on the 1st floor to the left of the entrance you can change money, well, or at the hotel reception). If you walk from the Michelia Hotel along the embankment - 20 minutes to the Nha Trang Center. If you leave the hotel and turn immediately to the right, when you reach the crossroads turn left, then in 10 minutes you will reach. If you take a taxi, then 2-3 minutes and 20-30 rubles and you are there. ($100 =2.080. 000 Vietnamese dong on 02/01/2013. By the way, banknotes are desirable -$50, $100 and not wrinkled).
8) Nha Trang is one big construction site. Hotels are growing like "mushrooms by leaps and bounds" (this is good, everything is growing, everything is developing). The Vietnamese get up very early and from 6 in the morning you can already hear knocking at construction sites, endless BEEPING on the roads. At 7 o'clock in the morning, children in schools are already singing songs to the fullest. At 22.00 - shops and almost all cafes are closed and the city falls asleep.
9) EXCURSIONS: it is necessary to compare what is included in the cost of excursions. Approximate prices: DALAT city (1600 m above sea level): pegasus - $ 70 per person, world tour - $ 30, exotic tour - $ 40. Yangbei Waterfall - pega-$45, world-$30, exotic-$35. Saigon city for 2 days: peg - $ 375 for 1 person. By plane (fly 1 hour), world - $ 200 (train, ride in a compartment 9 hours), exotic - $ 179.
10) Tourism has just begun to develop in Vietnam, do not expect such a variety of excursions and entertainment as in Thailand. On the contrary, we even really liked that we were able to see another "NEOTOURIST" Vietnam !!!
11) International law does NOT apply.

12) We rented mopeds from a Russian travel agency, no documents are needed. 1 day rental = 100.000 wnd (150 rubles). Be sure to wear a helmet! The police do not slow down, but the movement is like "random Brownian motion of particles". When we were pedestrians, we crossed the road with the motto “WE NEED!!! ”
13) Vinpearl Land - Water Park (Water Park).
We got into a taxi, said - Winperl and went to the cable car (110.000-120.000 wnd, i. e. 160-180 rubles). Taxi drivers know everything: the first stop is to buy an entrance ticket ($ 23 per person), the second stop is to go through the turnstile and get into the cab, and “fly” along the cable car over Nha Trang Bay for about 15 minutes. On Winpearl Island: neochen water slides (joints, seams - red scratched backs, if on bagels - then it's normal). Slides work according to the schedule, it is posted next to each slide. There is a 2-storey building - there are slot machines, karaoke, cars, bull riding and a lot of things to have fun and fool around. Is free. There is an electric sled (cool, we liked it). There is a huge aquarium. You can see how divers-workers feed turtles, sharks and cute fish. At 19.00 the show begins - "SINGING FOUNTAINS" - very beautiful! The food on Vinperl is mostly fast food. We ate at Lotteria, which is near the cable car.
14) We ourselves went to the Institute of Oceanography. Address of the Institute of Oceanography: No. 1, Cau Da Port, Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province. There was no guide, but if you follow the signs with arrows: continuation of the inspection (in Russian), then you can go around everything yourself in 1-1.5 hours. The aquarium on the ground floor consists of 23 tanks in which representatives of the local marine fauna live. The showroom displays several thousand dissected specimens of sea creatures. Also a huge number of shells from tiny to giant. It was very interesting to look at the skeleton of a giant whale: 3 meters high and 26 meters long.