The Riviera, Vietnamese Style

Posted under Southeast Asia 2009

Nha Trang, Mediterranean north, the beach area of Vietnam. An area of blue-green water and white sand. Gentle waves from the Pacific break along the shore, building in the heat of the day then lying down as the sun lowers in the sky. Like the rest of us, energy spent — a time to relax. This is more like the Vietnam we had hoped for. Well, with the exception of our room that is. We are booked into the Green Hotel, a new structure of some sixty rooms, air conditioning, Internet, etc. etc Now the “Green” in Green Hotel, has nothing to do with its desire to save the planet or anything, it is the colour. Light greens, dark greens, bright greens, and soft greens. It feels as though we are being swallowed by Kermit the frog. At a guess, I believe that it may well have been new in the late nineties, plus they have the original mattresses on the beds. The reason that they have stood up this well is that they were made by Goodyear, as conveyor belts. Not a formula for a memorable sleep. We spent the remainder of the day looking for new lodgings. Hey, when you are spending $35. per diem, you do expect some luxury. Managed to find one with a bed that we could actually sleep in, closer to the beach as well.

 

In celebration of our successful hunt, we decided to have a real sit down meal. You can eat all the “chicken –on-a-stick” and grilled corn on the cob that you could ever want from the street vendors, but a “sit-down” is a nice change. From one of the locals, we got the names of a couple of restaurants serving good Vietnamese food, settling for the one closest to us.  A rather nice establishment, opening on to the street. Oh! A small word of advice, — don’t sit next to the street as you are within verbal reach of the beggars and peddlers. Anyway, we bypassed such old family favorites as “fresh field mouse” and “lightly cooked frog”, and went with the noodles. You can’t go wrong with the noodles, and they were also very good — as was the remaining several courses of our dinner.

 

The restaurant must be the gathering spot for the foreign crowd, as in addition to the group from Mother Russia; there was also an impressive representation from Scotland. The odd part of this last group was the numbers present who were named Glen. As the evening wore on, it became easier to just call them by their last name, Livet, Fiddich and Morangie. A lively discussion took place, generally filled with wisdom, and at times the conversation bordered upon absolute brilliance, but the  night wears on, and our bed calls out to us.

 

Not a great deal to see in Nha Trang, from a historic viewpoint, but the weather is not quite as hot, and the beach is great. We did do a bit of a temple tour, one from the days of the Cham (or Champa) rule, and a Catholic church from the days of the French rule — both still in use. And yes, there was the obligatory market for “just a souvenir or two”, as well as a shiny new backpack for the luggage overflow. We only travel light sporadically, as we ship boxes of extra back home to Canada. On the down side, this now makes room for new purchases — oh well. Also picked up a new embroidered silk picture, our second of the trip. Have to avoid those galleries.

 

Next to Hoi An —