Thursday night in Nha Trang, we took it pretty easy because we were both a bit low energy. We decided to splurge a bit and went to an Italian restaurant for dinner to have something other than rice. And really, both meals still added up to less than $10. It's funny how quickly you adapt to the cost of things here and think paying $5 for a huge meal is a lot. Also, the exchange rate can really fuel this - when walking home, we were looking to buy a bottle of water. The shop on the corner by our guesthouse was selling the 1.5L bottles for 10,000 Dong, but Mark knew we had bought some earlier for 6,000 Dong so he was upset and walked away. Really, the different is between 35 and 50 cents once converted to Canadian! (We went back for the water in the end.)

Friday morning, we had an amazing breakfast down the street, we both had banana crepes with chocolate sauce! I just can't quite get used to the idea of having the traditional Vietnamese breakfast of noodles or rice when we are in heavily touristed areas and can still get a western breakfast! We spent a good part of our afternoon laying on the beach, alternating between reading and dipping in the sea. The coastline here is absolutely gorgeous, and the beach is lined with tall and shady palm trees. It was fun just to people watch sitting on the beach as well - so many Vietnamese ladies walking by selling their food (including a lady selling fresh lobster she was cooking right on the beach!).

Once the sun set behind us, we went back to the guesthouse to get cleaned up and went out for a nice dinner on the main street. After dinner, we took a long walk down the boardwalk along the beach. It was nicely lit behind the palms so it made for a nice place to spend the evening, and since it was Friday night, that is just what a lot of locals were doing. We wandered through the night market before walking back along the beach to our room.

This morning, we went back and had another great crepe breakfast before wandering the main streets, talking to all the dive operators, looking for a good deal. We took all the prices and information and went back to our room to do some internet research. Ultimately, we decided against diving in Nha Trang - although it is known as the best diving reef in Vietnam, the reviews kept us away. After our crazy snorkeling experience in Thailand, I think we'll just call it good. We saw the best in Australia.

After lunch, we went and relaxed on the beach until the hottest part of the day was over. Once the sun was starting to set, we grabbed 2 bikes from our guesthouse and biked over to one of the big Buddhist temples in the city. The grounds of the temple were beautiful, and set about 100 steps up off the main street. Here, a Giant Buddha sits and looks over the city and the green rice fields that surprisingly grow right behind the buildings of the main street. Before the sun set completely, we hopped back on the bikes and peddled home - we weren't keen on being on those busy roads after dark without lights. Riding bikes on the busy roads of Siem Reap was definitely challenging, but a new skill to add to our list tonight was biking through busy roundabouts. It was nuts entering the circle that held what felt like at least 200 motorbikes. They were 10 deep and coming from every direction!

We made it home safely, had an amazing dinner out and again walked along the beach. It was just as beautiful as last night, however, we were a bit stunned when a huge rat ran across the path just in front of us! Seriously, if I hadn't started and jumped back a bit, I probably would've stepped right on it. Just a little sign telling us it's time to move on. We'll have one more day of relaxing and eating at the beach before we head north to Hue.