After Hoi An, it was time for another touristy beach resort town – Nha Trang. Nha Trang is known as the driest town in Vietnam and is also known for its beautiful beaches.
The trip to Nha Trang began with a bus ride from Hoi An to Da Nang. Once in Da Nang, we realized that the train was running a couple hours late, so we had a little time to run around and get some coffee and some last minute stuff. Unlike most of our other train rides, this was not an overnight train, but still it was a nine-hour trek. That was a bit of a pain, but after all of the 20-plus hour overnight trains we had in China, we could do a nine-hour ride standing on one foot. I laid down anyway.
We arrived in Nha Trang pretty late and took taxis to the hotel. Many of us were hungry, so we went to a little restaurant down the street for a quick bite and that was the first day in Nha Trang.
On the morning of the second day, we did a little tour of Nha Trang. We went to a Buddhist temple that is dedicated to five monks who set themselves on fire to protest South Vietnam’s policies against Buddhism in the mid-1960s. At this site, there was another giant Buddha. It wasn’t as big as the one in Hong Kong, but it was giant enough and I did get some better pictures of this one. Another thing that we saw a lot of at the temple is swastikas. The swastika, going in the opposite direction of the Nazi swastika, is a Buddhist symbol of reincarnation/circle-of-life and what have you. Still, it’s pretty weird when you run across unexpected swastikas.
Later in the day, I decided that it was time to take to the beaches. It was still cloudy, but the temperature was warm and the humidity was high, so I figured a little time in the water would be good. I went down to the beach and indeed, the beaches were beautiful. I took off my sandals and started walking in the tide. The water felt good, but it was a little nasty. Since Nha Trang is at the delta of a river, the water is naturally full of silt, which is okay. The real problem, though, is that there was a lot of garbage in the water. I saw clothes, boxes, bottles, bags, bodies, okay no bodies but all of the other stuff. It was harmless enough for me to walk in the tide at the beach, but I decided that I wasn’t going to go swimming in it.
Before leaving, however, I did manage to pollute the water just a little bit more. Just before I was planning to leave, I decided to put on my sandals when the Pacific Ocean (technically, it may have been the Sea of China) decided to come onto land and steal one of them. I waited for a while to see if the tide would bring it back, but it just wanted to tease me. I could see the sandal slowly floating out to the Philippines. Ultimately, I decided that my other sandal should have the same opportunity for freedom and sent it on its way to be reunited with its life partner. Since I was on the beach, I didn’t bring any money, so I couldn’t replace the sandals. Rather, I had to walk about ten minutes to the hotel across busy streets with no shoes. As I was walking people stopped me to try and sell me cigarettes and sodas. Nobody tried to sell me shoes. I guess Vietnam is still trying to get its hands around this whole capitalism thing.
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