After two weeks of intense traveling in India and Cambodia, we took a needed “vacation” in Vietnam and headed to a fancy resort. Reverting back to our “traveler” days, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City with no flights or hotel reservations but some ideas that we wanted to head to a beach resort either in Nha Trang or an island in Southern Vietnam. Since all the flights to the South for the day had already departed, we decided to go to Nha Trang and hoped that the resort we had heard of called Vinpearl would have some rooms.
After an interesting wait on the stand-by list (for a flight that was only 1/2 full) and an hour taxi ride through the rain in the dark, we arrived at the shuttle boat to VinPearl Island. Luckily they had room for us and we were able to reserve a room for a couple of nights.
The Vinpearl was a mini-Disney land with an amusement & water park, arcade, kid’s club, beach, and the largest pool in SE Asia. They had one of the longest cable cars in Asia and you could take that or the shuttle boats to the island. A typhoon had come through the area 2 days before we arrived, so the weather was not great, but we still had fun and relaxed. Luke and Ryan terrorized crabs on the beach, splashed in the pool, checked out the rides, arcade and water park, and played games at the kids club.
Before leaving Vietnam, we spent a day exploring Ho Chi Minh City. It is a modern city with great bargain shopping. With such a short time there, we only touched the surface of Vietnam during our short visit. After being away from the ship for 16 days, we were actually excited to see the ship again. It was amazing how much we missed our little cabin, friends and shipboard routine!
