Nha Trang Islands
I had to see the sunrise if I stay so close to the beach, so I woke up at 5:30am and went to the beach. I thought that I would be alone but the surprise was beyond me to find, before the sunrise, the beach and the waterfront full of people who were jogging, caring their squash rackets, playing soccer and doing Tai Chi. It was a rush of activity that hardly you see later in the day when is hot and everybody is dozing in the shade. I watched the kids playing soccer on the beach in the morning dark and latter I watched the sunrise and went to eat the same delicious omelet with crusty hot French bread and crepes, all with a fruit shake, for a good morning start.
Packed my stuff, paid for the room and got in the bus that took us to the boat with which we went in a tour of several islands ($10) where we will see some touristy stuff, but over all the whole experience being in on the water was great. First stop was to to see ostrich that we fed and we took lots of pictures of them to show Victor the bird. Latter we moved to see some white spotted deers. Again a close-up on ostrich! We saw an elephant and a walked to a waterfall on the second island and we had a great lunch in an international companion. But before lunch we went swimming in a water so warm like I never experience before. These seas are warm and extremely pleasant. I used my short/long pants for this deep, like I did in Easter Island and it worked again like a charm and getting dry back in no time. After lunch we went to the third island of the day: The Monkey Island, an island full of monkeys that were eating from your hand where I took lots of pictures again , to show both Guveti. They had also a show with animals, kind of a circus but I don’t like these kind of things. At 4:00 pm we were supposed to be at the hotel, but I stepped down from the bus earlier and I took again a walk on the promenade of Nha Trang, a very pleasant walk where you can see how the city grows but also you can see the slums creeping by the water. Paradoxically, in Asian underdeveloped societies the rich are on the hill and the poor have waterfront properties! I had some great chats today: two Russian guys from Vladivostok who told me that is cheaper to get a flight to Asia than one to Moscow, with an Italian father who came to join his 24 year old daughter in Vietnam to do a vacation together, the girl traveling in South America for 1.5 years. The guys were from Bergamo and the father, who was older than me took a two months vacation, “a normal thing in Italy” and he gave me important tips for Laos travel, including the Plains of Jars and the Hanoi connection. Apparently it takes shorter than I expected for the bus rides, or he is just optimistic! Further I met a Vietnamese from Saigon TV, Diem, who has a weekly show on air. He came with the girlfriend for a stroll in Nha Trang. Finally, I met an Amerasian, a daughter of a Black Vietnam vet with a Vietnamese woman, who left Vietnam in 1989 after she finished high school to come to the USA to her father who was living at those times in Philly. Now, the woman came back to Vietnam to visit some relatives. But the major event of the day was that I was able to fix my travel book pouch I bought from Lijiang in 1999. It was ripped for a while and I saw last night a shop that had a sewing machine so I gave it to the lady. Today was done and it was so insignificant for her that she did not know what to charge me so I gave her 5000 (30c) and she was very happy. This was great because I walked with the bag ripped for days and things were falling thru. Now I am waiting for the bus and hopefully a good night sleep. 10 hours to Hoi An.
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