Nha Trang: A Russian Holiday

Posted January 21, 2020

Where To Next?

We’re traveling for six to seven months with no set itinerary. Picking our next destination is always hard. Fun, but hard. It’s like perennially planning a new trip, every week or so. 

The Prep

For a normal sized trip of a few weeks, I buy destinations travel books, I read travel blogs and forums, and I watch YouTube videos. Ad nauseum. I calculate the weather, the average highs and lows for when we’ll be traveling, determine the dates for shoulder season (our preference), and research all the holidays and festivals that might coincide and impact our trip.  I research budget hotels, carefully balancing cost, location, and facility attributes. I make detailed notes on google docs, identifying both popular sites and hidden gems, complete with open days, hours, costs, and hints to avoid long ticket lines. In short, I plan the heck out of every trip.

Just Get Over It

But when you’re planning as you go, for extended travel, all that, well, most of that, goes out the window. I knew that was the case, but it’s still taken some getting used to. And some letting go.

The Bare Minimum

I still research our accommodations, some more than others. My criteria has gotten honed down to :

• Location – are things mostly walkable?
• Cost– I try to keep all SE Asia accommodations under $35 USD a night Often I’m well below that.
• Air Conditioning – seems like everywhere where this is essential, it’s already included.
• A private bathroom – I don’t actually mind sharing a bathroom, but a shared bathroom isn’t necessarily close to our room, and I’m not comfortable traveling down long, dark hallways or navigating stairs in the middle of the night, lol.
• An included breakfast – This is negotiable, but we find it extremely convenient (and economical) to know where we’re getting our coffee & grub first thing in the morning, and many hotels include breakfast, if you look.

No Real Plan

A fellow traveler recently asked us how we decide where we’re going next. That was hard to answer. We do have a few “for sure” destinations we hope to visit in each country. And, as our travels have progressed, we’ve learned that we’d prefer keeping our travel days reasonably short, like a maximum of four to five hours of traveling.  

Time to Decide

We’ve explored lots of northern Vietnam and we’re slowing making our way south. We’ve been in Quy Nhon for a week now. It’s a medium sized city on the coast of Vietnam and not touristy at all.   Keeping with our short travel day criteria, Nha Trang is the next logical choice, but it’s reputation as a heavily touristed, party destination, overbuilt with high rise hotels, was a bit daunting. 

We don’t do the club scene. In fact, we’re usually in bed by 8 or 9 pm (reading, watching Netflix, or on our laptops). We don’t especially like the Cancun or Miami-type beach scene, but we threw caution to the wind, and headed to Nha Trang. 

I’m Easy

Once in Nha Trang, I bit the bullet and quickly adapted. High rises everywhere?  Yes. Tourists everywhere? Yes. Hundreds of people on the beach?  Yes. But the good in Nha Trang far outweighed the bad, at least for us.  

Tourist-Town

We’ve already spent weeks and weeks in small and medium Vietnamese towns where we’d see very few foreigners (especially no Americans), so it was a nice change of pace to be in a place specifically catering to tourists, with our needs in mind. Getting up every morning and walking five minutes to the beach, with a readily available padded lounger and shade umbrella for rent ($3 USD a day with large beach towel & bottled water included), wasn’t a tough sell. 

The incredibly beautiful beach, glorious sunshine, fine white sand, and great waves are a winning combination in my book. Nha Trang has the kind of waves that come in so close together that the entire coast looks like it’s covered in white, fluffy bubbles that contrast with the bright turquoise water that’s accented with navy and all shades of blue.

The Russkies

I have yet to mention one other aspect of the Nha Trang experience.  Russians. And a few Chinese thrown in too, but mostly lots and lots of Russians.

The Allure of Nha Trang

We’d been warned about the huge number of Russians in Nha Trang by both fellow travelers and posts on travel forums.  For some unknown reason, the Russians have taken a very strong liking to Nha Trang, Vietnam, and they can’t get enough of it.  They are in Nha Trang in droves – and, in all of Vietnam, only Nha Trang. I don’t think I’ve ever met a Russian, but now I’ve spent every day for seven days surrounded by hundreds of them.

Big & Beefy

I hate to admit this, but my stereotype of a Russian is mostly from James Bond movies (and the like). Big, tall, muscular men, with commanding, deep voices, quite imposing, and often with a shaved head. And the women aren’t too dissimilar, except they have hair.

Well, after spending a full week with the Russians, I have to say that my stereotype wasn’t too far off.  I would guess that close to half the men, and a good chunk of the women, met my expectations.

Many of the Russian men are huge. It’s especially noticeable because we have been surrounded by Vietnamese that we tower over and outweigh (by lots, I”m sorry to say) for months. So, suddenly being surrounded by hulking guys and their hulking families is quite a stark contrast.

Beachwear

One thing I have to say, the Russian women are very comfortable with their bodies, and kudos to them! Regardless of size, age, or body shape, Russian women wear a bikini. Young, teen-aged, middle-aged, old, and very old are all in bikinis.  Skinny, chunky, pear-shaped, large busted, extremely large busted – any and all were in bikinis. I’m talking the kind of bikini that shows most of the behind, if you know what I mean. Not much is left to the imagination. In my opinion, this isn’t the most flattering look for all body types, but on the beach at Nha Trang, no one seems to give a hoot.  And more power to them.  

We’re Surrounded

There we sat, in our two beach loungers, among the hundreds of loungers filled with Russians. It was kind of surreal. We were a lone island of democracy (or a republic, if you want to be precise), in a giant Russian community of beachgoers. We were definitely the odd-men out, so to speak.

Even more Russians, that live and work in Nha Trang, roamed the loungers, advertising their restaurant or massage services, handing out discount coupons or sample menus. I’m not sure how, but most vendors could tell we weren’t Russian, so bypassed us, but the occasional vendor would approach us, chatting away in Russian. They wouldn’t stay long.  I think the blank stare and puzzled look on our faces were enough, and they would abruptly stop and quickly move on.

World Peace

I found it quite interesting being the only Americans (probably) in a sea of Russians. I really wanted to ask a Russian what they thought of us Americans.  We are taught to distrust and be suspicious of Russians. I was so curious what we would have in common, which I’m sure is a lot.

I never did get up the nerve to reach out. I’m fairly certain that very few of the Russians spoke English, so it would have been a short conversation.  And the only Russian word I learned all week, from hearing it a hundred times, was Nyet (means No or Not), which probably wouldn’t get us too far.

Like Bartells 

Not only was the beach full of Russians, but the whole section of town along the beachfront was like a Russian enclave. Advertisements along the street were in Russian. Menus in restaurants were in Russian (and often English too, thankfully).  There was an unusually high number of stores that carried toiletries, like lotions, vitamins, soap, and shampoo, around town, with Russian advertising all over the front windows. These toiletry stores were unusually large and modern (most shops in Vietnam are small, mom & pop stores), so they really stuck out.

Morning, noon, and night, the toiletry stores were packed with Russian shoppers. We went into one to buy some sunscreen, and the prices were normal (sunscreen is expensive in Vietnam too).   It was really strange, but obviously the Russians either use an extraordinary amount of toiletry products, or they are in short supply back home. I don’t know, but after our one experience trying to navigate in the crowded store we tried to steer clear of all the Russian-packed toiletry stores of Nha Trang.

Vacation In a Vacation

Being in Nha Trang was like a vacation from the Vietnamese-portion of our vacation. Of course, there were Vietnamese around, as well as Chinese, some French, and others, I’m sure.  And there was still bat-s*&t crazy traffic, Banh Mi vendors everywhere (Vietnamese sandwich on a french baguette), and super cheap prices for almost everything. 

We ate at an exceptional Indian restaurant several times, always surrounded (of course) by Russian families or couples. It was probably the best Indian food I’ve ever had.  All in all, our week in Nha Trang was kind of like a Russian holiday, with an Indian cuisine twist and a darn nice beach. Yes, I think Nha Trang was the perfect choice for us.  Now we’re refreshed and ready for more of the traditional Vietnam we know and love.  

Wins and Losses

Wins

The cashews.  Fresh cashews for sale everywhere. Best cashews ever.

Seeing the first signs of the Tet (Vietnamese New Year). The Vietnamese decorate with flowers. What a lovely tradition. And each city or region has it’s own flower. For Nha Trang, it is yellow mums. Yellow mums were being sold on every street corner and were already prominently displayed at the entry of many hotels and businesses.

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Seeing real Russians doing usual and normal things just like everyone else.  Wow, mind blown.

Happening upon a dragon competition along the beachfront. Amazing display of talented athletes performing incredible stunts and “dancing” as dragons.

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Realizing body shaming is not a thing in Russia. Loved seeing women proud of who they are, no matter their size, shape, or age.

Fresh fruit vendors on the beach – quite a treat.  A whole pineapple cut-up on the spot. Dripping, sweet, and all ours.

Losses

Why didn’t we buy any cashews until our very last day in Nha Trang?  What, are we crazy? We walked by the enormous bags of bulk cashews for sale all week.  Silly, silly foreigners.

Not taking the unique opportunity to start a conversation with a Russian. I think I was a bit nervous that we’d get into politics, and then who knows what would have happened (I was outnumbered, after all). I suppose if things got tense, I could have fallen back on how good Putin looks shirtless (Nyet!!!).