Banana Pancake Trail
The Banana Pancake Trail is a conceptual route in which the average Western budget backpacker follows. When I heard of it, and then saw the route, it was a bitter pill to swallow. We were on it, and our plans almost played exactly to its tune. I didn’t want to have the ‘typical backpacker’ experience. Instead, I wanted ours to be crazy, different, unique. I guess you can’t escape this so easily. Anyway, today we had a train to Nha Trang!
Just to rub salt into my wounds, the hostel’s cheapest breakfast was, yep you guessed it, banana pancakes. As the cheapest breakfast, it’s what I went for. This was a sweet breakfast to swallow. However, I pondered all of this, and just carried on. After having quickly devoured breakfast, we checked out of the hostel and caught a taxi to the train station. Again, the process was a breeze compared to China. We hopped on board and away we were, advancing further East. The train to Nha Trang was roughly 4-hours long, definitely not the worst I’ve had. The scenery was nice as usual, there are always silver linings.
Poor sleeping arrangements
When we disembarked the train to Nha Trang, we found this town/city to be quite lively, bustling with activity. This is the place we’re staying for a few days as we’re doing our Open Water scuba diving course. It’s worth noting we’re both incredibly excited for this. The first task was withdrawing money for the scuba diving as it’s not exactly cheap. As I was withdrawing, some random fellow was hanging around the ATM booth. Thankfully Mat was able to scare him off.
We made our way through winding side streets, avoiding the oncoming barrage of scooters. The hostel was confusing to find as there weren’t any signs. It turned out this place was no different, we just entered through a standard doorway. We attempted to check in to the hostel, but the receptionist (a very strange young fellow) told us that there’d been an overbooking, and our beds weren’t available. After making a little fuss, and deciding to go elsewhere, the fellow explained that we could use a double bed instead. He took us up to our room, which was a dorm, and showed us our double bed. This was going to be a cramped night with a lack of sleep for me. Our hostel was called Vector Hostel. It’s quite close to everything that’s happening, including the sea front. The dorms are tight, but you get plenty of locker space.
Pancakes, glorious pancakes!
After having dumped our stuff in the dorms, at least we had lockers, we decided to go exploring. First of all, we were heading towards the beach. This portion of the city is laid out like a grid, so it’s quite easy to follow. Along the way to the beach, we noticed there were copious amounts of Russians, similar to Phan Thiet. There were even some shops with Russian signs. The closer to the beach we got, the more touristy it got too. Again, it felt like a Spanish tourist city. Lots of restaurants and shops trying to draw you in.
Eventually we got to the beach. It was dark at this point, so we could only hear the waves of the ocean. For dinner, I had a pancake in the style of a burrito. The pancake was stuffed to the brim with chicken, mushrooms, cheese, and tomato. It was absolutely divine, I never expected something so simple to be so delicious. As for pudding, we decided to stay here and have another pancake. This time, my pancake was stuffed with fresh mango slices, whipped cream, and orange sauce. I didn’t think it possible, but this was able to beat the previous pancake. Having never really tried mango, I questioned why I’d never had it before…it was amazing! There were several of these stalls scattered around the city. I have a feeling we’ll be visiting again.
After this, we had a brief look through a night market. Most stalls were selling clothes, but some were also selling trinkets and little gifts. We weren’t too interested, so we made our way back to the hostel, looking forward to scuba diving tomorrow!
