29 September Nha Trang
Arrived in Nha Trang after dark last night and had about a 45 minute bus ride from the airport to the hotel. Some bright lights with an huge Ferris Wheel lit up across a bay, somewhere on the way. Nha Trang seems to be essentially bars (some Karaoke), lots of hotels and the beaches... so lots of noise and lights. After getting our rooms sorted, we all took a walk to have dinner together (which is mostly how it’s been with our tour party).
The tour day started this morning with us piling on to the bus dressed for the beach (us, not the bus) - just togs and towels, not buckets and spades! Although one of the beaches is just a block from here, we were destined to greater things and had a half hour bus ride to a busy small-ish boat port which seemed to be in rush-hour. Lots of noise and people and boats going in all directions. We have done quite a bit of time in boats of one sort or another on this trip (but I guess there is a lot of water in and around Vietnam) but this one was for a trip to an island where we anchored for several hours and snorkelled or just rested with a cooling breeze to make life just that more pleasant. On the way to that spot, we got off the boat at a fishing village.
The pathway between there and the next time we saw the boat was through a (we were told) traditional fishing village. The path was about 3m wide and used by both people and vehicles. It looked remarkably clean and neat to me (D) compared with many traditional Asian villages I have seen. We stopped at one point to talk with a woman who was knitting a fishing net and minding her toddler. She invited us to take a look around and demonstrated the art of knotting fishing line to make a net. (We took the “big” camera today so many of these photos will have to wait till we can download them which is not as simple as a phone pic).
Once though the village we found ourselves on the edge of what turned out to be a fish farm/market - many (many) sectioned-off areas of water with a series of floating wooden pathways, some with sheds or huts on them for the people tending or harvesting the fish. Transport was by “basket boats” from land to the floating fish-farm. Our mission was to fit ourselves into four of these (along with a member of the local community practised in the art of making a round boat go a long way in a.straight line) to get to the next point across the water where our boat was waiting. The pictures should tell the story (more or less) and we carried on to the island to spend a few happy hours in (and out) of the water.
Nothing particularly to do with today but we are often amused by our lovely guide who has some great expressions - “anyone need the happy place” (toilet), “dog bombs” (dog poo). She also told us how some of the young Vietnamese prefer English but add their own interpretations e.g. shy is soho (which translates to ugly tiger) so they say “no I can’t do that cause I am too ugly tiger”. That phrase has been used a number of times by us since. Also if you don’t know someone they might say “If I know them I am dead now” which translates as not dead = don’t know them.
Tomorrow we fly to Hoi An.
Arrived in Nha Trang after dark last night and had about a 45 minute bus ride from the airport to the hotel. Some bright lights with an huge Ferris Wheel lit up across a bay, somewhere on the way. Nha Trang seems to be essentially bars (some Karaoke), lots of hotels and the beaches... so lots of noise and lights. After getting our rooms sorted, we all took a walk to have dinner together (which is mostly how it’s been with our tour party).
The tour day started this morning with us piling on to the bus dressed for the beach (us, not the bus) - just togs and towels, not buckets and spades! Although one of the beaches is just a block from here, we were destined to greater things and had a half hour bus ride to a busy small-ish boat port which seemed to be in rush-hour. Lots of noise and people and boats going in all directions. We have done quite a bit of time in boats of one sort or another on this trip (but I guess there is a lot of water in and around Vietnam) but this one was for a trip to an island where we anchored for several hours and snorkelled or just rested with a cooling breeze to make life just that more pleasant. On the way to that spot, we got off the boat at a fishing village.
The pathway between there and the next time we saw the boat was through a (we were told) traditional fishing village. The path was about 3m wide and used by both people and vehicles. It looked remarkably clean and neat to me (D) compared with many traditional Asian villages I have seen. We stopped at one point to talk with a woman who was knitting a fishing net and minding her toddler. She invited us to take a look around and demonstrated the art of knotting fishing line to make a net. (We took the “big” camera today so many of these photos will have to wait till we can download them which is not as simple as a phone pic).
Once though the village we found ourselves on the edge of what turned out to be a fish farm/market - many (many) sectioned-off areas of water with a series of floating wooden pathways, some with sheds or huts on them for the people tending or harvesting the fish. Transport was by “basket boats” from land to the floating fish-farm. Our mission was to fit ourselves into four of these (along with a member of the local community practised in the art of making a round boat go a long way in a.straight line) to get to the next point across the water where our boat was waiting. The pictures should tell the story (more or less) and we carried on to the island to spend a few happy hours in (and out) of the water.
Nothing particularly to do with today but we are often amused by our lovely guide who has some great expressions - “anyone need the happy place” (toilet), “dog bombs” (dog poo). She also told us how some of the young Vietnamese prefer English but add their own interpretations e.g. shy is soho (which translates to ugly tiger) so they say “no I can’t do that cause I am too ugly tiger”. That phrase has been used a number of times by us since. Also if you don’t know someone they might say “If I know them I am dead now” which translates as not dead = don’t know them.
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| Basket Boats |
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| Three people in a basket (and a local) |
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| The Island |
Tomorrow we fly to Hoi An.
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