Where is Jillian? Nha Trang, Vietnam

I’ve been the absolute worst at updating lately; my absolute sincere apologies to my 4 readers.  3 weeks ago, I was rushing to meet with everyone I could; two weeks ago, I was finishing up my last week of work and moving out of my apartment, and last week- well, I was just being lazy.

I left for adventure last Wednesday, knowing from Aeon textbooks that the flight would be a lot longer than expected (“I simply could not believe Japan was that far from Vietnam”), especially as I had a stopover in Shanghai.  When I first purchased my tickets, I hadn’t gotten so far as the purchase confirmation page before having a slight heart attack as I realized my layover in Shanghai required an airport change, and it had to be done in 6 hours.  Sure, maybe it’s a bit tricky, but my main cause for panic was that the visa to China costs $130.  But, praise The Lord, a little research revealed that there is a sneaky way around this trick- the 72 hour transit visa.

So I was confident when I pulled up to the passport check counter…until they looked at my passport and my plane information, doing a few too many checks for my taste.  Soon, the line behind me slowly disappeared and i was the only one left.  my heart really started sinking when the man at the desk told me to have a seat on thesidelines as he took my passport to the man at the big counter behind him. Everyone else had been cleared, and to my surprise, all the clerks at the counters suddenly stood up, grabbed their locked metal boxes, and formed a line near the end of the desks.  They stood still for a few moments before filing into a nearby office. Must when I started thinking this might not be a good sign, the man came back with my passport and granted me access into China.

Now, I had been a little stressed for time, but after I found the subway and my destination on the map, I thought, “Hey, how often do I get a free pass into China?”   So I looked at the subway map and decided People’s Square looked like a good choice.  After walking through what felt like endless pathways, I finally found an exit that lead outside.  I stepped out, and in the amount of time it took my eyes to adjust to the sunshine, I was approached by a group of Chinese people wanting to chat.  It turns out I’m a much hotter commodity in China than I am in Japan, or perhaps Chinese people are just a lot braver, because I was approached multiple times (but thankfully, no wine tried to touch my blonde hair, which is something I’ve heard of happening).  After looking around (and getting a very delicious vanilla boba-y drink), I decided to finish my journey to the next airport by MagLev, the world’s only functioning magnet train.  For the $4 it cost, I’d say it was a fun (and frighteningly fast) journey.

I made it to Vietnam without any difficulty (though I admit, I had my doubts about the whole “visa on arrival” thing).  I was thankful for my foresight of hiring a ride beforehand, as I arrived in Ho Chi Minh around 2 am.  Since I am returning to HCMC at the end of my trip, I’ll wait until then to talk about it.

After Saigon, I took a short ride to the beach town of Mui Ne, which returned out to be pleasant- but very tiny, with only guest houses available, which can be lonesome for a solo traveler.  That evening, I got a FB message from my friend Rachel, and in it, she mentioned that Mui Ne wasn’t worth spending much time in.  That was the final confirmation I needed to cut my time there short. I spent some time on the beach, ate some good seafood, did a tour of the sights on the back of a motorcycle (which included a 4 am wake up call), and then boarded a midnight train to Georgia (or rather, a very late 1 a.m. Bus for Nha Trang).

Duplicate from Instagram

I was my intention to write more about Nha Trang in this blog, but my iPad is autocorrecting every other word with the most absurd suggestion (for example, “that evening” became “Nathan even”).  So I’m going to cut it short and hollaback when I get to Hoi An-  which, if this bus arrives on time, should be in about 13 hours.