Friday 25th October – Nha Trang

After breakfast across the road we took a tour of the town with a car starting at the Cham Temples across the river. These are a series of Hindu brick tower temples built in the 10th century by the Cham regime of the time, on the top of a granite peak overlooking the harbour. They have been extensively renovated but the original fine brickwork can still be seen. From there we moved on to the giant Buddha which is in a monastic complex topped with a huge seated Buddha. In the temple monks were singing to celebrate the birthday of one of the monks who had set himself alight in protest during the war. The climb up 150 steps was quite hard work in the high humidity & we were glad of the breeze at the top. Finally we visited the Catholic church built in the 1930s which had some very fine stained glass windows.

Back at the hotel after lunch some went shopping walking past all the shop signs in Russian, the predominant tourist group here. This part of the town behind the sea front is dominated by huge multi storey chain hotels. The sea front stretches about 2km & the sea is reasonably calm but the waves dump on the shore. About 2-3km to the south east are 2 islands & between one & the mainland is a cable car system. Our hotel is set back & is quite small but comfortable but opposite a very tall building is under construction & on the sea front is another also being built, the latter on a 24hour basis.

After dinner we went south along the promenade & passed several beach restaurants before returning & watching a duo of singers opening for their evening gig.

Saturday 26th October - Nha Trang

Up at 7 for a walk north along the promenade towards the harbour mouth. The hotels seemed to be bigger than ever & quite a few bathers were on the beach on the loungers or in the sea. We walked about 2k to a restaurant for a coffee & watched as the fishing trawlers came around a rocky reef to enter the river mouth. As we watched a small circular coracle, about 2m diameter came out in front of us with 2 men in it about 50 m off shore. One was paddling & the other was tending what appeared to be a net & some cray pots, all in quite a nasty swell which was partially broken by the reef. I was surprised how well the little boat could be manoeuvred but one man was bailing most of the time so that it was shipping water & I certainly wouldn't want to have been in it. We returned for breakfast & after we did some shopping for gifts etc. In one shop many of the leather bags had a tag suggesting they were made of dog hide but luckily we didn’t fancy any of the designs.

After checking out we took a cab to Cam Ranh airport about 30 km south, passing huge holiday complexes on the way & following around a cliff area for a few kms.

We flew from there to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), formerly Saigon, in less than an hour & then took a taxi to our hotel which is in a lane in District 1 near the centre of the city. The 500m alley where we are is full of bars & restaurants & is a bit lively at night but our hotel room is very comfortable. For the next stage we talked to the hotel about tours of the Mekong delta & chose a cheap 2 day one starting tomorrow at 7.00am.