Vietnam Weekend

Day 1:

We flew from Daegu to Cam Rahn airport in Vietnam. The flight was relatively normal until we went to land. On the airport runway, there were firetrucks shooting water at the plane. Then, when we got off the plane, there were Vietnamese men and women dressed in very bright clothing and music and a lot of smiling faces greeting the passengers from this flight. This was extremely strange considering it was nearly 2:00 am. We soon found out that this was the very first flight to fly directly from Daegu to Cam Rahn airport! The hotel pickup took roughly 45 minutes to get to Nha Trang from the airport. After some rest, the group got up early and decided to take a trip to the Ba Ho Waterfalls. Most of the group called a taxi and headed to the falls that way. I took a much different route. I went down to the hotel staff and asked to rent a moped. The hotel staff told me that renting one for the entire day it would cost 5 dollars. I was happy as a clam and quickly obliged. The ride to the falls was beautiful! We drove along the cliffside by the ocean nearly the whole way. We drove through a fishing village and along the winding road until we eventually reached the highway. This was by far the most stressful part of the trip. The vehicles on this highway were flying by at high speeds and I was not brave enough to drive that fast on a moped. In Vietnam, the roadways don’t work the same way that they do in the United States. Mopeds and cars will drive extremely close which gave me a lot of anxiety. Eventually, we did make it to Ba Ho Falls. It took about two hours for me to drive there but really it should have been much quicker. The falls were a blast! The blog post I found online had said that it was a very easy hike with just a few boulders to climb. There were tons of boulders and part of the hike was super steep. It was fun to jump in the water and swim around the natural falls. On the way back down, we ran into a Vietnamese park ranger who urged us to jump off one of the cliffs into the water. Naturally, I went first! After the cliff jumping, we headed back to the hotel where we purchased a massage to relieve myself of the stress involved with driving a moped in Vietnam.

Day 2:

Today, we were picked up early by a snorkeling tour group that we had booked. We hopped on the boat with free fruit, sandwiches and, of course, snorkeling gear. We island hopped and snorkeled around. We saw all kinds of fish, coral, and starfish! We spent a lot of time jumping off the top of the boat as well! It was a long day, so at the end of the day, we decided to get a massage and then get drinks along the beach.

Day 3:

Today is the least eventful day of the trip. We hung out along the beach, went to markets and ate some really great food. I ate a hollowed-out pineapple full of rice, meat and vegetables. It was delicious! We spent some time along the markets and got some really great deals! Most of us got at least one shirt with elephants on it! Alas, it was time for us to go home. This is definitely a vacation I will not forget anytime soon.