Good (Christmas) Morning Vietnam!!

After our long day on the Mekong, we boarded a "luxury" night train to Nha Trang on Christmas eve. We had paid extra to take the "5 Star Express" overnight train for Christmas. For our $40 we got a private, relatively clean sleeping berth, a nicer bathroom facility (better than European trains), a piece of coconut cake and coffee service in the morning. It was a rather pleasant experience. Christmas morning we watched the sunrise over the rice paddies from the window as we ate our coconut cake.

We arrived in Nha Trang around 8am on Christmas morning and checked into our hotel. It was a comfortable little place with a gorgeous rooftop terrace, AC and satellite TV ($15 per night). We had a fantastic breakfast and spent the rest day between the beach and the rooftop terrace.

Nha Trang is a bigger city than expected. The beach is gorgeous but the motorcycles still buzz, honk, swerve through the streets there. It resembles any other small western beach resort (think Mexico). We found a great little cafe that we frequented during our two day stay (pretty much ate breakfast lunch and dinner there for two days). Cafe des Amis had delicious, fresh baked baguettes with eggs and cheese, fresh fruit salads, stir frys with lemon grass and chili, fried fish, spring rolls, fresh fruit shakes....and best of all, we discovered the banana pancakes with chocolate sauce and ice cream! The owner was nice, the food was superb and we made new friends at the "cafe of friends".