Nha Tram, Viet Nam

Sunday, March 13, 2011 Nha Trang

It is exactly two months since we left home. 

Last night I was rather raspy and coughed.  The air pollution appeared to be getting to me.  This morning I looked out to see more haze.  Welcome to Nha Trang, our first stop in Vietnam. 

Nha Trang is a relatively small town with miles and miles of carefully landscaped beaches largely but not totally empty. During the Vietnam War it was popular with the soldiers and remains a local vacation area.

  We were told that the local people do most of their marketing and beaching very early in the morning.  Smart people.  It was hot, hazy and humid just like summer on Long Island, NY, but it’s only March. 

The sellers, however, were out in force.  "One dollar, one dollar,” was the cry as we were offered post cards, caps and eventually beer.  Good beer.

We took a tour of the area since it was new to us.  First stop was the Long Son Pagoda on the outskirts of the city.  Built in 1940, it is a traditional temple.  Above it is the enormous white Buddha built in 1963 to commemorate the sacrifice of the monks who sacrificed themselves to protest the corrupt rule of President Diem. 

This part of Vietnam was, for about 1200 years, a center of Hinduism and we visited the Po Nagar Cham Towers built between the eighth and twelfth centuries AD.  In the main chamber there is a statue of a black goddess with ten arms.  The towers are well worth a visit.

 

We visited the local market which is mostly indoors although our guide spoke of the Vietnamese way of doing everything outdoors.  It had many watches, lots of clothing and a good selection of cloth as well as pearls, food and practical things. 

Finally we stopped at the National Oceanographic Institute and Aquarium which had a lovely collection of fish in rather basic facilities.  A good place to drop a few million to refurbish it if you have them to spare.

One of the things I have wondered about was how people stuffed in tea with the three rather large daily meals.  Today the tours ran overtime, and it was three when we returned lunchless, hot and tired to the ship just in time to enjoy tea.  We were very happy to see it.

We are in the air-pollution zone.  People on the streets often wear face masks.  I awake at night coughing and have lesser bouts during the day.  I hear others doing the same and wonder about how many tours, how many hours off the ship I should do.