Nha Trang

3:30 came early, and after a small breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee, our group was off to the airport. For what Semester at Sea calls an "overland trip" we were a small group. Myself, two other staff/faculty, eight students and an older couple who were traveling with SAS as "Life-long learners" - 13 in all. The trip to the airport and the one-hour flight was uneventful and soon we found ourselves in the coastal city of Nha Trang. The city is a fishing port that has over the last twenty years become a tourist destination. Thousands of Vietnamese crowd the city during Tet and the city gets its fair share of international tourists as well. It's popular with French and Russian tourists although we heard English and American accents from time to time.

We were met at the airport by our guide for the next three days, Liem. He was a jovial, upbeat native of Nha Trang who had some English, but was far from fluent. He was anxious to please and his default answer to any question was "yes", whether or not he understood the question. This took me a bit of confusion and laughter to figure out and I quickly learned to ask the same question two or three different ways until I was sure he understood what I was asking. Hard to be too critical, his English was a lot better than my Vietnamese.

Giant Buddha looking over his temple

We spent the morning traveling to several local temples including one with a huge cement, whitewashed Buddha. While these temples were obviously tourist attractions, they were also actively in use and folks were lighting incense and kneeling in front of alters while we tourists walked around snapping pictures. It felt a bit irreverent, but the local worshipers seemed to take it in stride - kind of how I stopped noticing middle-aged women dressed up in long black dresses with too much silver jewelry when I lived in Salem Massachusetts. Just the price of living in a tourist town, no matter what part of the world…

Noon time brought us to a much-needed lunch. When you eat breakfast before 4 a.m. you start to get hungry by the time the regular lunch time rolls around. This meal, like every meal we've had off the ship was wonderful. Spicy beef and chicken dishes combined with fried noodles and lot's of crunchy vegetables. I'm starting to grab the chopsticks first whether or not a fork is available. Following lunch we visited a local market, half food stuff with locals buying their dinner and half stalls crammed with the same tourist crap we saw the previous day in Saigon. Somewhere in the middle of the country there is a warehouse filled with this stuff and they just resupply the little carved box or the jug of wine with the cobra in it as needed. We toured around a bit more and then Liem deposited us at our hotel in time for a shower, an internet check and the short ride to yet another fabulous meal.

Dinner was close enough that we were able to walk back to the hotel. We did this on purpose as the way took us by the city's "night market" - a closed-off street jam packed with stalls designed to separate the tourist from his dollar. We were packed shoulder-to-shoulder as we moved from stall to stall looking at tee shirts, jewelry and other such trinkets. Everyone held on to their valuables which was a good thing. Other groups from our ship had wallets, phones and passports stolen on trips, but our group was vigilant and we held on to all our stuff throughout our visit to Nha Trang. Most of the crowd seemed to be Vietnamese on holiday and the stalls were doing a steady business. Following the market we continued down the main drag along the beach admiring the bright lights and decorations for the Tet holiday. It was very festive and street vendors grilling meat and seafood cluttered the sidewalks. Making our way down the street was a challenge as you often had to step off the sidewalk, nearly into traffic to avoid little temporary restaurants set up serving ten or twenty people sitting right on the sidewalk. Very informal - I don't think the street vendor business permit is a concept that has made it here yet.

Our hotel was great - very modern and western. I had a great night's sleep and we awoke early for our adventure day. Following breakfast, we took our little bus to the dock and got aboard a small speedboat that barely held all of us. A quick half hour speeding across the bay brought us to a little float that supported a small scuba and snorkeling operation. We spent a couple of hours or so swimming and snorkeling in the disappointingly cloudy water. The reefs here are in pretty bad shape. The water is clouded from boat traffic and there are very few, pretty small fish. I imagine overfishing and boat traffic are working to really beat up the reef ecosystem. I saw a lot of bleached coral and algae - both signs of a stressed reef. Disappointing, but not unexpected from what I had read about Vietnam. It was nice to get in the water though and by the time lunch time rolled around we were all pretty hungry. A quick boat ride brought us around the island we were snorkeling on and to a little beach-side resort with a restaurant and beat up bamboo lounge chairs under a bit canvas rooftop. It was pleasant to sit by the water side in the shade and have a beer or three with our great lunch. Lunch was heavy on the seafood, including grilled fish, octopus, cooked oysters and some spicy fish and rice. Yum.

We got back in time for a siesta (for most of the students) and a long walk through town by yours truly. I was accompanied by one of the students and she and I ended up at the same market from the day before. She made some gift purchases while I mostly resisted spending money. I did pick up a thing or two, spending a total of about five dollars. The difference between cheap crap in the US and cheap crap in Vietnam, is the crap is REALLY cheap here. We walked back along the beach and I just enjoyed being near the water watching the crowds playing on the beach. We got back in time for yet another fantastic dinner. Our Life-long learner couple were celebrating their 32nd Anniversary, so we surprised them with a little cake following dinner, thanks to Liem. The pastries here are excellent, likely a legacy of the French occupation. Who said the French aren't good for anything?

Our last day in town was completely free. I had originally planned to try to get out snorkeling again, but after the previous day's disappointing conditions I opted instead to take a walk. I set out in the morning and headed down along the water towards the north, in the opposite direction from where we had previously explored. It was a great walk and I got some great pictures of the local fishing fleet tied up and not working this week with New Year's celebrating going on. I wandered along the waterfront and wandered inland checking out the non-touristy areas. It's a cute town and I feel like I really got to see how the locals live - at least the urban locals. I found a little restaurant that fortunately had a picture menu - no English. I ended up with a steaming beef and noodle dish and a blended coconut drink. With seconds on the drink the entire meal filled me up and set me back around three bucks. I was a bit worried about the ice in the drink, but my stomach survived the entire Vietnam trip unharmed.

I kept walking through the afternoon eventually making a huge loop around the north end of the town and ending back at our hotel. I figure I covered maybe eight or nine miles - not a huge distance for me, but I was wearing flip-flops, not the ideal hiking gear I fear. I ended up with a couple of small blisters, but really can't complain. It was a great day. By early evening we were back on the bus and heading back to the airport. There was a bit of a flight delay (the only real bump in the entire trip) but soon enough we were back in Saigon and we were back on the ship just before midnight. A good trip.