Four Islands Of Nha Trang, Vietnam

Nha Trang is a great place for a holiday – it has a great beach culture and a city feel. I love the water and I love to swim, so what better way to enjoy both with a bit of snorkelling!

There’s a tour that takes you around the main four islands of Nha Trang: Mieu, Mun, Mot and Bamboo Islands.

You can book via any travel agency, but we went with Sinh Travel as it was the closest to our hotel.

The first stop, Mieu Island, is a chance to visit the Tri Nguyen Aquarium, the entrance fee is not included in the tour (90,000VND) and you only have 45 minutes before the boat will leave for the next island.

Next, Mun Island. Here you’ll stop for just over an hour and you should jump into the water and swim over to the coral reef. With your snorkel and mask the underwater world will be a sight for sore eyes, the colours and variety of fish is great. The water is actually fairly warm, so even if you don’t want to snorkel, then at least dip in your toes.

Dale and I got up and sang Waltzing Matilda, everyone got really pumped up and danced about and screamed in ecstasy for us on stage.

Lunch is then served at a floating fishing village. While the crew prepare the meal, you can enjoy a cold drink and walk around to see the nets full of live fish and sea creatures. Many of the edible varities shared the living space with aquarium fish.

The benches on deck can be folded down and it all becomes a giant table. A table cloth is laid on top and then lunch is served in plates intended for sharing. You get a bowl and chopsticks, that’s it – the rest is up to you.

There’s rice, soup, omelette, fried noodles, seafood, pork, chicken, stir-fried vegetables and spring rolls. I got to try everything.

After lunch, it is sensible to allow some time for digestion before again swimming. So on the way to the last stop, Bamboo Island (Con S’être), the crew set up their rock band instruments and have a live show for us. The boat was represented by four nationalities and each nation had to get up and perform a song in front of everybody. Dale and I got up and sang Waltzing Matilda, everyone got really pumped up and danced about and screamed in ecstasy for us on stage. Ha!

At the final stop, we had a chance to jump in the water – this time to have a drink at the floating bar. One of the crew sat in a lifesaver, tethered to the boat. He called everyone to jump in after him and he was pouring Vietnamese red wine into small plastic cups. After a while, people became quite affected by the alcohol and the crewman was free pouring the wine down the throats of the guests – including mine.

On the island itself, we had some time to visit the restaurant, Con S’être. I ordered grilled oysters, they served me five at a cost of 100,000VND!

The view over the water to Nha Trang was absolutely stunning.