Nha Trang, Vietnam - Monday, March 10

We arrived in port at noon today and sailed out again at 4:30p.m., so our time was short here.  However, we squeezed every minute we could out of the afternoon and had a fun adventure. First, we climbed on a small bus and drove through the delightful town of Nga Trang.  We were pleasantly surprised with the charming nature of this town.  It has a beautiful, long sandy beach with cabanas set up, just waiting for tourists.  There were quite a few luxury hotels along the beachfront road.  We spotted a Hilton and Sheraton, among others.  It looked like a nice place to spend a leisurely vacation.  We thoroughly enjoyed our drive through the city and into the countryside, where we got off of the bus and boarded a small riverboat. 

It's always so interesting trying to balance while getting on and off these small boats.  I always feel like I'm just about to fall in the water!  Once safely in the boat we started our afternoon cruise down the Nha Trang river.  The weather was perfect.  It was sunny and 84 degrees.  Of course, there was the ever present humidity, just to make sure we were completely soggy by the end of the day.

We sailed past numerous fishing boats and a lively fish market.  Soon after we started our cruise another small boat came along side us and presented each of us with a conical straw hat (coolie).  She didn't expect any pay for them and as soon as we each had one she sailed away.  Such a sweet and kind gesture.

Although the town of Nha Trang is very nice, when we got out into the rural villages we realized that this country is really quite poor.  Unlike Taiwan, there did not seem to be the same pride in their communities.  In many cases yards were not well cared for and there was quite a bit of litter scattered over private property, as well as the side of the roads.  We did learn that people here are allowed to own their own land.  They can buy and sell at their discretion.  I didn't realize that was allowed in a communist country.  Vietnam does not feel like a communist country in the south.  In fact, our guide told us that the people aren't communist - only the government is!!!  Quite interesting.  They certainly appear to be moving towards a capitalistic society.  You an just feel the western influences taking hold in this country.  People are quite hopeful and there is a feeling that Vietnam has a very bright future.  You can see a few U.S. companies already doing business here, and evidently more companies are considering it.

Our first stop on the cruise was to see a small rural village where they produce clay ovens.  Evidently, this is big business in Vietnam.  Each oven is individually made by villagers, using traditional methods.  As we walked through the property to see the large kiln the residents were quite proud to point out their prized fighting rooster.  They boasted that he was very aggressive.  I think they expected a positive response, but the comments we made were mostly about how sad we thought it was for the rooster and how cruel it is to train animals to kill.  I was very happy to leave this place and return to our boat.

The river was quite calm and the shores were very lush and lined with fruit and coconut trees.  We stopped again to enjoy water from freshly opened coconuts.  It was a lovely rest stop.  There were hammocks and a wooden love seat hanging from the trees.  Bob made quick use of one of the hammocks.  Not sure how relaxed he was since his backside was hanging on the ground but it made a good picture!  After a nice break we reboarded the boat for our return trip up the river.  What I didn't realize at the time is that I got many mosquito bites while we were there.  A few hours later my legs and arms were filled with bites and I was trying desperately not to scratch them (without too much success). 

After our cruise we boarded our bus and drove to a traditional Vietnamese home built 150 years ago.  At least that's the story we were given.  Perhaps a small part of this house is that old, but it's hard to believe that a "traditional" house could accommodate seven tour buses filled with our passengers!  Now, granted that once our individual groups had toured the house and looked at the Buddhist altars that they used for worship we went outdoors to their lovely garden.  However, I'm not certain that 150 years ago this would have been a "typical" rural farmer's house.  Perhaps a bit of propaganda? 

We were served delicious fruit plates of watermelon, pineapple, banana, mango and passion fruit.  We were told all of it was grown on this property.  Guess we must have missed those gardens!  The garden we saw had beautiful oriental gardens with meandering rock paths and meticulously pruned bonsai trees.  Lastly, they also had a retail merchandise store in their house, so we had an opportunity to spend money there.  Evidently, the family receives money from the government to open their house and gardens to tourists.  Whether or not it was really a "traditional" house, it was a lovely rest stop with electric fans to help cool us - very appreciated.

That's it for our visit to Nha Trang.  This evening we set sail for Saigon, renamed Ho Chi Minh City by the communists.  We'll be there for a couple of days.  Internet connections are very limited in this country, so we'll post as soon as we can.