Exploring Vietnam: Nha Trang

Left the highlands of Da Lat for the urban beach town of Nha Trang. Apparently the bus wasn’t full, so they put in a bus half the size, on which we literally bounced our way on the seriously winding road through the mountains back into the lowlands. The thermometer spiked accordingly. Along the way we saw trickles of waterfalls(it’s the dry season now), stopped along a wide river where kids played in the shallow water, and rode through thick tropical vegetation, having left all the pines in the highlands.

Once in Nha Trang, we came face to face with the first real flush of tourists. The beachfront has been very nicely redesigned, and sports shady parks with sculptures, public bathrooms(almost unheard of in Vietnam), and a nice long walkway/sidewalk at the edge of the sand, but still a short distance from the main drag, which is incredibly full of motorcycles, busses and taxis, making it a nightmare to cross at virtually any time of day. Settled into our hotel where the staff were extraordinarily friendly and helpful, as well as knowledgeable. All the staff also spoke very solid English. In the tourist/beach area, there are dozens upon dozen of eating establishments of all calibers, bars, tour offices, and the tourists are predominantly Russian. Everything is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, and the solid Russian women take over local “beauty” shops, where they are in line for all manner of massages, depilatory treatments, wraps etc. Late afternoons, once the sun has lost its real vigor, it’s off to the shops and massage places, immediately followed by bar hopping and eating the evenings away. Not entirely our cup of tea, but having some non-Vietnamese food is a nice change, especially since it hasn’t proved to be very vegetarian at all, and much of the meat does honestly look questionable.

We stay off the beach proper, but spend a lot of time walking along it, and early in the morning head north up the beach and then inland to the ruins of Po Nagar Cham Towers, a site containing a series of Chinese Buddhist temple towers of the Cham people who inhabited this area about 1300 years ago. A lot of the grounds were razed some time ago, but these four towers and a series of columns still stand on the little knoll. It’s crawling with locals, who still come to pray here—despite the admission fee—, and they are shutter-happy, clicking zillions of family photos in every permutation at every temple doorway. After looking around, we sit in the shade and watch the amusing commotion, and finally retrace the several kilometers back to the hotel.

The following morning we’re again up early—mostly to beat the oppressive heat—and walk through the chaos of the non-tourist area, to the large Long Son Pagoda. Not at all old, but certainly imposing, we find the main hall completely full of old men and women, all dressed in grayish jackets and pants, listening to a priest speak and chant. We then head up the 150 stairs, past a small pavilion where people watch a priest strike the bell, and some are anxious to put their heads inside the bell while it is struck repeatedly—perhaps some sort of sound meditation/therapy, although it seems a little too brief to be either. Further still lies the giant reclining Buddha, and at the very top of the hill, a colossal seated Buddha, who looks contemplatively down on the madness below. On the way back to the hotel—taxi this time—, we stop in at the photo gallery of local artist Long Thanh. The artist has many of his stunning photos on display—most of the daily lives of the people in the country. Check out his gorgeous work at : http://www.longthanhart.com/