Wednesday March 30, 2016 – At sea between Hong Kong and Nha Trang, Vietnam. A welcome day at sea after a full and exciting day in Hong Kong. Time to catch up with the blog, pictures etc. However, still some busy times on the ship. Graham Howell gave his talk on our next port after Saigon – Laem Chabang, which is the port for Bangkok, Thailand which we are greatly looking forward to seeing. Sir Max Hastings, is one of the new “Celebrity Speakers” on board. He has written 28 books and a long career as a correspondent at the BBC during the Vietnam and Falkland wars and regularly writes for and was the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail in Britain. He spoke well on his time as a war correspondent during the Vietnam war or as it is locally called “The American War”. It was very interesting to hear a first hand view not only of the situation on the ground, taking one of the last flights out of Vietnam as well as meeting President Johnson and interviewing many other influential people during that conflict. Jim Jimirro spoke on “It all started with a mouse” – a history of Walt Disney as a man and how he and his brother Roy Disney made drawing a mouse for a cartoon into a world-wide mega business that it is today. Interesting to note that the largest Disney theme park is to open in Shanghai, China in June of this year and the tickets for opening day (100,000 places) was sold out in the first 5 minutes and the first week tickets of 100,000 a day were sold out in the first day. I was not aware that Disney’s character was a rabbit when he started out, but the studio he worked for claimed the intellectual property and copy-write as well as retaining his group of animators, so he decided to go off on his own and start anew with new animators and a mouse. He (Jim) was the founder and head of the Disney TV Channel and thus close to all the Disney action. He will be giving other talks on different subjects during the voyage which will be fun. Other than those, we worked on writings and pictures, Tachy had a gym session with trainer and an early night. An interesting aside – our neighbours (Joe & ?) at the dining table took a tour in Shanghai in which their coach suffered a minor accident and then in Hong Kong were in the midst of a pile up on the shuttle bus when they crashed into the third of a set of vehicles that had crashed and a tractor trailer crashed into them. Fortunately all were OK with minor scrapes and bruises.
——
Thursday March 31, 2016 – In Nha Trang, Vietnam – It is great to be back in Vietnam, after being here a year ago. We could come back every year as it is such an amazing place and the people are so terrific. This is the first time we had been to Nha Trang which is on the coast in the south central part of Vietnam. It has now developed into a charming resort town, with International resort hotels, amazing beaches, while still retaining its Vietnamese flavour. The population is about 400,000 covering some 257 Sq Km. The population of Vietnam is 90 Million and there are 45 million registered motorcycles! Not surprisingly about 9,000 people die each year of traffic accidents, a small number, however if one experiences the traffic first hand! The key to remember when crossing the road is – muster up the courage, step off the pavement and keep walking at a steady pace without stopping, until you get to the other side. The motorbikes will go around you like water flowing down a river coming across a stone in it’s way. Tachy and Roger took one tour while Diana and Nelson took another, however it seems like we went to the same places – Market, Catholic Church, Buddhist temple and embroidery factory. However Diana and Nelson also went to the Oceanographic Institute and another temple.
Nha Trang derives its name either from the Cham – Meeting point of the river and the sea (according to our guide Quan) or a false Vietnamese spelling of a geographical name in the Cham language of the site Ya Trang (reed river) which was the name of the (now called) Cai river which has its delta in the town. So similar interpretations of the name of this capital of Khanh Hoa Province on the South China Sea. The Cham people came from India and ruled part of Vietnam for many years. Nha Trang became Vietnamese territory in 1653. From then until the 19th century it was a deserted area filled with wildlife like tigers. Since then it has developed into the city it is now, which is divided into two main sectors. One a traditional Vietnamese fishing village and the other a resort town with hotels, restaurants, tourist shops and beaches. We only got a chance to visit the latter, but greatly enjoyed what we saw. As we arrived, we could see a cable car going across the bay. We anchored close to, but on the seaward side of this cable car system which joins the city with the Vinpearl complex on Hon Tre (Bamboo) Island, a luxury resort and aquatic theme park owned by the richest man in Vietnam. Crossing on the cable car (return) is US$30, which is a lot, when one considers that the average monthly salary of a high school or community / junior college graduate is US$130-$180. It is a very impressive cable car system which together with the pylons are lit up at night – it is the longest cable car over a body of water in the world at 5 Km. It was fun that as we anchored offshore and went by tender to the port, that we travelled underneath the cable car and got some good pictures. The downside of tenders, as we found out later in the day was that we wasted 1 1/4 hours taking the tender back to the ship to drop our shopping (big and bulky) and return to the port.
We took a half day tour as there is not all that much to see and took the coach past the oceanographic Institute with its amazing fish specimens (as per Diana and Nelson’s pictures) along the water’s edge (sea) where there was a park filled with topiarised trees – some circular resembling short drums, while others were conical with small slits dividing the levels of the cone, there were even dragons and “Welcome to Nha Trang” all in topiary bushes. We passed the “Pasteur Institute and Yersin Museum” where the microbe that causes Bubonic Plague was discovered under the founder – Dr Alexandre Yersin (1863 – 1843) and still operates as a medical research institute. We crossed over the bridge that is the confluence of the river and sea, heading to the market. The colour and variety of products for sale at the market was amazing, bringing back all the memories of the markets we visited here a year ago. Time went by all too quickly before we needed to head to our second stop – The Catholic Cathederal. It is a nice enough modern church, built in the 1930’s, in French Gothic style of reinforced concrete, but nothing spectacular, so a bit of a surprise given the many temples and local colour. However, we climbed up the steps, as it was on a hill, and got a bit of a view over the neighbouring roof-tops. There were several features of note – The tower with clock, a grotto with the Virgin Mary and many plaques in Khmer (local Language) and many statues all around the perimeter wall on the outside. The impressive aspects in the interior were the stained glass windows in particular the Rosetta window and a large crucifix above the organ, nice Windows behind the altar and carvings. Our guide dropped us off at the bottom and said come back by 12:15PM. There was no explanation given, we heard the noon bells and about 12:10 started to head back down the stairs. That entrance had been padlocked while we were inside, we looked at what appeared to be another way back down the 150 steps, but that was padlocked also. Anxiety started in, but we found another couple on the tour, so at least there would be 4 missing when they counted on the coach! Eventually we discovered a ramp down the back side of the church where there is an extensive “niche” burial / Plaque monument that ran some 50 meters (150 feet) so we took that and found the exit, getting to the bus just in time. The driver took off while the guide was counting the people!
Our next stop was a Buddhist Temple – The Long Son Pagoda, which was destroyed by a storm and rebuilt in 1940. In 1963 a huge (34 meters / 102 feet high) seated white Buddha was placed atop the hill behind the Pagoda which affords a good view of the city, if one climbs it’s 152 steps. Our guide took off, up the steps while we used the facilities, but we got a private tour with one of the local young girls. The complex contains a school, the pagoda, a reclining Buddha (18 meters / 54 feet long) and other ornamentation and the young girl in her teens had apparently been dropped off there as a young child for the monks to care for as she had been orphaned. This is a common practice that either started or became more prevalent during the Vietnam / American war. She grabbed us by the hand and proudly showed us the reclining Buddha, took pictures and helped us down the steps. Unfortunately the temple was closed, so we couldn’t see it, but from the pictures that Diana took inside when they went, it looks amazing. The young girl eventually sold us some postcards, some funds exchanged hands and we wished each other well. A charming time seeing the place with its dragon statuary and other Buddhist symbols.
Our final stop was the XQ Nha Trang Arts and Crafts Center and Embroidery factory. A beautifully laid out place with nice tables and chairs where tea and ginger were offered as one perused the spectacular wall hangings / pictures made by the girls all in silk embroidery. The creations were spectacular, some taking months to complete and with such fine detail and colouring, that it seemed almost impossible to achieve. We watched some of the girls working with infinite precision and marvelled at the works. We then returned to the port area where there was a make-shift “tent village” of local merchants with their handicrafts. However, as previously stated we decided to return to the ship, drop our purchases and then go back ashore where we enquired about the location of the nearest nice restaurant and proceeded out of the port, wandering along the street past a series of repair shops, stands (like hot dog vendors) selling unrecognisable food, until we were practically out of the town. The temperature was very hot (42C / 108F) as we walked past these “so called” restaurants!
Finding a taxi in the street we explained we wanted food – he asked seafood – we agreed, together with a price to take us, stay and return us to the ship. Thus off we went to some unknown place on an adventure. Eventually he pointed at some hole in the wall on the other side of the street, saying seafood. We took one look and suggested the best hotel in town or at least anywhere but there. He agreed, but turned the taxi around, taking us to the place he had pointed out. We were soon whisked into this place open to the street fumes, with blue flimsy plastic chairs and rickety tables. A couple of other tables were taken with locals participating in a meal, but cleanliness was not the first word that sprang to mind. We sat at a table, noticing that at a nearby table a Parton or worker was lying asleep on one of the tables with his feet at what would usually be the head of the table. We recalled that in Vietnam it is common in the countryside to have hammocks set up next to the eating areas in restaurants, for the patrons to sleep after a meal, so we’re not overly surprised by the action, just the location! One of the restaurant workers soon pointed towards a far wall saying Menu, Menu. We had no idea what he was talking about, but decided if we were to get any food we probably should venture to that side of the place. We were greeted with some 20 plastic wash tubs and a few glass enclosures all filled with clams, eels, sea urchins, shrimp and fish. We discovered some lobsters and decided on them, so out of the water they were plucked put into a plastic bag and whisked off to the kitchen amid cries of garlic and BBQ to which we responded noodles and rice. Not knowing what was to come of it, we sat at the table and ordered a Saigon Beer. We were half way through our second one when these two large (5 lb) lobsters appeared with some sort of greenery, 20-30 whole large cloves of garlic in olive oil. The “waiters” pulled out pairs of pruning shears and chopped the lobsters into pieces, then placed them for our enjoyment with a dish of soy sauce laced with very hot peppers (piquin type). We took pictures and tucked in with the provided chop sticks eating chopped lobster in the shell with chop sticks, dipping the morsels in the spicy soy sauce making for a suprizingly delicious meal. Noodles, Rice, vegetables or anything else was not forthcoming, but we did get what appeared to be boiled peanuts in their shells. We asked for napkins, upon which a half used roll of toilet paper was placed on the table. We knew we were safe as no bathroom ever has toilet rolls, so now we found out the real use for them! Despite all the misgivings, it was crispy (even the shell was crispy) and delicious and made for a memorable repast we shall never forget.
The taxi took us back to the port, where we picked up a few other items at the temporary market, then headed back to the ship where we found in each of our rooms a lacquered / mother of pearl inlaid, wooden set of 4 pictures, each was 2 1/2 feet high and 1 1/2 feet wide making up a series of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Our cabin steward Bert Espinosa, had gone ashore and bought us this very kind present. It was very touching and extremely kind. He felt indebted as we bring him odds and ends from ashore when we find things that might be of interest to him or his family. All too kind for an amazing chap with a family in the Philipines, which we have watched grow up (in pictures) over the years, particularly his youngest, a mongoloid boy, who he is always taking to us about. After watching the sail-away, that evening, we saw the show – a very funny comedian – John Evans.
Friday April 1, 2016 – At sea between Nha Trang and Phu My (port for Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City). The day started with a jolt as Roger had forgotten he had an appointment with the trainer in the gym, but soon got down there following a call. Tachy had her session later on in the day. The rest of the day was filled with lectures – Graham Howell, the port lecturer spoke on Sihanoukville, Cambodia as well as Singapore. Sir Max Hastings gave a dry, but informative account of “The. Secret War: Spies, Code-breakers and Guerrilas in WW II”. An interesting account of all those who were never on the front lines yet did so much for the war effort. We then had a conversation with him and had him sign a couple of his books we purchased. Jim Jimirro (who was the founder and Chairman of the Disney Channel) spoke on the “Great American Songbook” – music from 1915 to 1965, decomposing some of the songs and forms, which was very interesting, but poorly attended. I chatted with him for nearly an hour after the talk and it turns out he lives one block away from me in NYC! We chatted at length about Broadway theatre and agreed to meet back on land, as he also lives in Los Angeles. After dinner, as the show was a repeat, we adjourned to the Atlantic room to play Majong, then to bed as we have an early (5:30 AM start tomorrow heading to Saigon.
Roger & Anne Travels 