We started off day two with complimentary breakfast from our hotel. I ordered a pineapple crepe and a banana smoothie. The crepe was all sorts of bland so I dipped it in The Astronomer’s honey, which made it much better. After we finished breakfast, we headed off on a snorkeling tour!
The Astronomer and I had such an awesome time on our snorkeling tour in Phu Quoc, that we had to sign up for another one in Nha Trang. While I usually dislike tours, I think that snorkeling ones are wonderful because there’s usually lots of interesting people to meet, beautiful sites to see, and good food to be had.
The Astronomer loves being out in the open sea. Just look at him—the boy is deliriously happy. The coral along the islands off the coast of Nha Trang weren’t as colorful as the ones in Phu Quoc, but we still had a great time swimming and floating around. The Vietnamese girls on our tour liked to squeal before getting into the water. What a riot.
After snorkeling, we were served lunch on board. This here is shark with tomatoes. Shark, as you can imagine, is a meaty fish.
The squid with pineapple was my favorite. The squid was much more tender than what we had for dinner the first night.
I ate two plates of tofu with tomatoes by myself. I just love how deep-fried tofu soaks up flavors like a sponge.
I used the fish forcemeat with black peppercorns (cha ca) and a baguette to make a lovely sandwich.
Matt says that the shrimps were damn good, but I was too lazy to take the shells off. Lame, right? Sorry.
I did not try the ramen noodles with vegetables because I was too busy eating tofu and baguettes.
Now this is my kinda dessert. These types of bananas are called chuoi gia, which means old bananas. They taste very similar to the ones the U.S. imports from South America.
After lunch we were treated to live music! This was THE best part of the whole trip. I had an especially good time because they honored my requests and played both “Hotel California” and “My Heart Will Go On.” Eee!
Who has four thumbs and loves cover bands? These guys!
After the concert, the crew busted out the floating bar and handed everyone a bottle of wine. A boy from Australia got super drunk and made out with a British girl. I never thought I would encounter such shenanigans post-college, but I guess we’re never too old to whoop it up!
Good friends sharing a bottle of wine on the open sea.
A slightly tipsy Astronomer swimming back to the boat.
And just in case you wanted to drink what we drank—the wine is from Dalat and made of mulberries. Look for it the next time you’re at Beverages and More.
Once everyone was thoroughly wasted, we had a fruit party! We invited all of our bestest friends—pineapple, watermelon, oranges, dragon fruit, guava and even water apples.
Our last stop before heading home was the Nha Trang aquarium. This unagi looks more scary than delicious.
Shark.
After our day of snorkeling fun, we returned to our hotel and went for a run. Later that evening, we walked around town in search of dinner. “Spaghetti Street” was calling our names, but we passed. We ended up at another seafood emporium because I didn’t do proper research before my trip.
Our first course was a plate of onion rings. These were sliced really thinly and battered lightly. I prefer fatty onion rings with a thick panko crust like the ones at Buddakan.
Our main course was a deliciously prepared fish with woodear mushrooms and glass noodles. Mmm boy.
I ate the fish straight up, but The Astronomer chose to wrap it properly with rice paper, green mangoes, cucumbers, herbs and lettuce.
We closed out the night with some fried rice. It tasted just like my mama’s, minus the Chinese sausage.
