Nha Trang, Vietnam (April 1, 2016)

Reading Length: Giant Tub ‘o’ Popcorn

Kristin Reporting!

*All pictures from this port were lost due to losing the camera in Singapore! 

Check out pictures here: https://www.google.com/search?q=nha+trang+pictures&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

We were on the earliest tour of the day today. We had to meet in the Royal Court Theatre at 7:45AM! Ugh. But, we made it, without any breakfast. Our tour was supposed to leave at 8:30AM.

At 8:30AM, the Captain came on the P.A system to inform the passengers that the Vietnamese Authorities would not, so far, clear the ship to debark passengers and there was no estimation how long it would take to clear the issue up. One of the Tour Assistants got the microphone and informed us that these problems are usually cleared up in 10-15 minutes. So we took the opportunity to go get some breakfast rolls and bring them back to the theatre.

The 10-15 minutes passed and still nothing. We had now been sitting in the theatre doing absolutely nothing for one hour... The Tour Assistant came back on stage and apologized but said that surely 10-15 more minutes will clear the issue.

At 9:00AM, I went to see about getting the tickets to see the pigeons that had landed on the ship while at sea, as they were the closest living relative of the extinct Dodo bird, so people were interested to see them, so they were going to hand out tickets. I decided to check it out since we were waiting and doing nothing. I got there and found that it was the ship's April Fools joke! Too funny! So, anyone who went to get a ticket was told, "April Fool's!"

[Davin Interjection: It was a pretty good joke.  In retrospect it was so ridiculous that it should have been obvious, but it was just on the edge of plausibility, and I really didn’t expect something like this from the ship’s crew, so we were fooled!] 

The captain came back on around 9:10AM and informed the passengers that the Vietnamese Authorities STILL would not clear the ship and that the Cunard Southampton Office was now involved and negotiations were ongoing... Lol! D wondered if the authorities were holding out for a bribe!

We went back upstairs to get some more breakfast because I was very worried about being hungry before the tour ended. (In the evening, a nice young woman named Hana, who works in the Lido Buffet and happened to be our Cunard escort on our Taipei, Taiwan tour, told me that the Authorities were concerned because the Queen Elizabeth is a sick ship– they didn't want us to bring norovirus into their country! But, norovirus is really quite harmless overall, mostly just uncomfortable like any illness but it passes quickly. It can go bad for some older folks though.)

Close to 10:00AM the Vietnamese Authorities cleared the ship and our tour was able to begin, albeit 2 hours late! The ship did extend its stay in port by one hour to make up for the delay in getting to shore– last tender back to the ship would be at 5:30pm. The tender ride to shore took about 15 minutes. Lucky for us, we were on the first couple tenders off the ship since our tour was the first of the day and shore excursion passengers have priority over passengers who are just getting off to do their own thing.

One thing that both interested and amused us was that two of the passengers have apparently brought full sized bikes aboard the ship and these bikes were loaded onto the tender. I had seen these two passengers earlier this morning walking their bikes through the casino! We've considered the possibility of bringing a bike with us on a cruise like this, but we suspected it wouldn't be allowed. Hmm... now we can keep this idea in the back of our minds for consideration in the future.

Once ashore, I noticed about six persons were there wearing masks and gloves, and one had an entire backpack of disinfectant on and was wielding a spray wand. As usual, we were loaded into our vans and buses. D had the problem that he was too tall for the van seats again. Lucky for him, one of the van seats in the far back row was lined up with the aisle and he snagged that seat.

We noticed that we got lucky being in one of the later groups of the same ship tour. This tour was called 'Life on the River Cai' and the meeting time was 7:45AM. BUT, most people arrive to the meeting point early despite the instruction not to show up before the meeting time. These people (90% of the tour ticket holders) snag all the first tour numbers. Say a tour has 100 people, and the vans hold 10 people each, they will have a certain color sticker (say yellow) and there will be numbers 1 - 10 on a yellow background, and 10 of each number in a stack to represent one van worth of people. The next tour of the day to leave will be a different color (say blue) and their group number will start with the number 11.

I say we got lucky this time because when we arrived at 7:45AM they had already given out numbers 1-5. We ended up in group 6, and the last bus for this tour was 7. We often get the LAST number, if not the LAST two stickers of the whole tour when we arrive AT the tour meeting time. People are just so ridiculous.

Anyway, we later saw that Group #2 was in a full size tour bus– say maybe 20 people. They must have had a couple full size buses and then several vans. Our van had 8 people assigned to it. So, we had one guide to only 8 people. Our van got us in the the stops faster and out of the stops faster than the bus. Our group fit on one River Cruise boat– we didn't have to wait and get split into multiple boats. It just goes to show that it doesn't always pay to try to game the system and arrive early to the tour meeting place to grab the very first group number tickets!

The port city we had arrived at was Nha Trang which is a beautiful resort town. The fact that it is a resort town dependent on tourism only made it more silly that a ship of 2,000 tourists were being prevented from coming ashore! If we had not been allowed ashore, they would not only have lost out economically that day, but every one of us passengers would leave Vietnam feeling jilted and would be unlikely to return or recommend others to visit! In the end, we really liked Vietnam and WOULD consider returning someday, so it would have been sad to have left without setting foot on shore!

Nha Trang reminded us a lot of Puerta Princessa and Manila in the Philippines. In terms of development it seemed to be somewhere in between those two cities (which were fairly far apart in terms of the development spectrum). It looked quite nice and modern, like Manila, but the traffic was much more reasonable than in Manila. D theorized that this is because they are still primarily using scooters here in Nha Trang so large vehicles have not yet flooded the roads to make movement impossible. There was definitely a haze of pollution around this city as well, but it was a low enough level that we could still see a reasonable distance, and they sky was still blue and not solid grey. The level made it slightly disappointing, but it is not bad enough to warrant writing off another visit outright! (Like in Manila! :-/)

We had a very nice guide named Ting. His English was pretty decent but it was hard to understand him at times because he could not really say "th" or "s" or "r". He said that the River Cai, when it reached the city of Nha Trang, was actually three rivers coming together to form an "Estuwy". I figured out that he meant an "Estuary". Then, I asked him was 'Cai' meant (as in, the River Cai), and he said "Model". He said this a few times, and then could see that I couldn't understand. So, he said, "Female, it means female." So, putting the concept of an "estuary", which teems with life, together with "female", I deduced that when he said "model", he must have meant "Mother". So, a very nice fellow but sometimes hard to follow! (The example for there not seeming to be an "s" sound in Vietnamese was that he said, "Hitowic", by which he meant "Historic".)

[Davin Interjection: On the way to our first stop we drove along the coast, and passed a bunch of bushes that were carved into multiple geometrical shapes.  They had squares and circles and triangles.  It’s hard to really describe, but they were cool to see.] 

Our first tour stop was the Po Nagar Cham towers. These towers had Hindu influence, but the Vietnamese modified/added their own gods to the Hindu scheme. There were four towers, each containing a temple to one god. We could take our hats, and shoes off and enter each one. Our knees had to be covered also, which was fine for me because I wore pants.

It was a hot day though so D had opted for shorts. Luckily, there was a rack of robes which anyone could borrow to put on over their clothes in order to become covered enough to enter the temples. We theorize that D may have been able to enter without a robe because his shorts were so long they actually passed his knees by a few inches. In addition, the robe he put on only covered about 3 more inches– he is just too damn tall!

The towers were beautiful and impressive for their age. The insides were very simple compared to most temples we've seen so far– the walls were pitch black from the soot of burning incense, there was one statue of the god, a few flowers and food offerings and a wall hanging that emphasized the color gold. D and I happily acquired our daily postcard at this location using some $USD. This turned out to be a good choice because we did not get another opportunity!

From Po Nagar it was a short walk to the pier where our river cruise was to begin. We loaded onto the boat and it paid off to be the furthest behind in the group– we got to sit at the front of the boat! The boat went out towards the sea and passed a woman in a round traditional Vietnamese boat. We passengers thought she was going to try to sell us conical hats from her boat! But, our tour guide said, "No, the hats are a gift for you!" So, we each ended up with a simple traditional conical hat. They are actually very good for blocking the sun!

The cruise ride was very scenic. We passed Po Nagar and were able to take photos of it from the river, and then we continued up the river and got to take in the natural scenery. It was perhaps a 15 minute ride to the village we were to visit. The village was not very rural, it wasn't that far from the main city. Here we were bombarded by people trying to sell us junk!

One of the things they like to sell though are big fans. I actually wouldn't have minded having one of those, so I let the lady show them all to me. She really worked for her $4 USD. I made her open about 10, and then waffled between four of them, and asked D, "Which of these two do you think?" So, at least she earned the sale! I have a legit fan collection at this point. I already own 4-5 at home, and now I have 3-4 more. Right now my four are on display in my Asian display case in the craft room. Now I think all, or most, will be moving to the walls of the craft room. I'll have to watch what the sun does in that room to decide where it is safe to place them!

At this stop, we watched a local man making a clay stove. He was molding it in another pot. We were then shown the huge kilns where the traditional stoves are fired. Our guide explained how the stoves work. He said that every home has an additional stove that is used for religious purposes– for making offerings to the gods. Even homes that now have gas stoves, still make use of a traditional clay stove as well! We saw stacks and stacks of finished clay stoves.

We headed back to the boat and on to the next destination. It was another 10 minutes up the river. Where we got off there was a very simple wooden bridge that connected both sides of the river. Men were sitting under a patio roof at the end where we had disembarked. Every time a motorcycle or bicycle crossed the bridge they had to stop and pay them 2,000 (Vietnamese currency). So, it was a local toll bridge! It was a short walk to the van and we loaded up to begin the "country" portion of our tour.

[Davin Interjection: If I recall correctly, I was also told that these bridges had to be rebuilt frequently.  Especially after the rainy season because they are often washed away.  The rivers here are only a couple of yards deep which makes it easy to build these simple wooden bridges.] 

While in the van, I told D that I suddenly remembered that I had a fan very similar to the one that I had just purchased but that it was covered in horses. When we arrived at our first stop, a local temple, and got out of the van, we were approached by another woman selling fans. She opened on to display it to us and I said, “D! That’s it! THAT’S my fan!” It was identical to my fan with the horses! How funny is that? It would be even funnier if my Dad had bought it in Vietnam, but who knows where these fans are made, he most likely could have picked it up anywhere in Asia!

We entered the temple grounds. This temple had a decorative barrier that prevented anyone from seeing directly inside the temple to the alter. Our guide explained this was a basic concept of Feng Shay. He said the Vietnamese, like the Chinese, place a lot of emphasis on Feng Shay. It is the same concept we had seen in China regarding temple/garden/house entry ways, and also encountered on occasion in Japan.

The temple inside had all the same emphases as Po Nagar did– flowers, food, incense, the color gold– but we thought it was interesting that this temple decided to include modern decorations as well. The temple made use of LED lights that flashed on and off, like a store advertisement sign, to add to the beauty of the temple. I didn't think it improved it because of my association with that style of lighting to commercialism and business, but it was interesting to see that they thought it was pretty and they weren't afraid to use modern decorations!

In front of the temple we spent some time watching some local people weaving grass mats. It was very interesting to watch, but we weren't interested in buying any. As we were leaving, D gave $5.00 USD to a man asking for assistance at the front gate of the temple. He had neither arms nor legs. He didn't even have leg stumps, and only one of his arms was almost as long as where his elbow once was. All he could do was use it to hold open his bag to let you drop in money. Very sad.

[Davin Interjection: I would have given him more, but I only had a very limited amount of money on me.] 

Our next stop was 'Blue Bamboo Resort'. This was a local hotel where we were given fresh coconut juice out of a coconut and a plate of fruit, including Jackdaw fruit– weird texture, like eating foam, but good tropical flavor!

There were tables set up next to the river and it was very picturesque. Huge collections of bamboo were growing and it was quiet and peaceful so you could hear their trunks creaking against each other and the leaves fluttering in the breeze.

In addition to this, three musicians were playing music on traditional Vietnamese instruments-- a Sao, a Bao, and a Jang. I have no idea how to spell the names of these instruments. The Sao (sounds like sow, a pig) is a flute. The Bao (like, to bow down to someone) was the most interesting instrument, it had only one string and a handle that was bent to modify the tone (like a wammy (sp?) on a guitar), and it almost sounded like a woman humming. The Jang (sounded like Djang to me, but could be Chang, who knows) was a multi string lap instrument. The music was very nice.

The last stop of the day was to visit a traditional Vietnamese house. This house belonged to a middle class family. Where our van dropped us off, we had to cross the road, and there, on one half of the road, some locals were drying their rice crop. It had been raked into nice rows. It took up half the road! Two people in our group very rudely walked right across the crop! 

We then passed a duck farm. There were too many birds for each enclosure but they could move around and had a large water area to float on, so all-in-all pretty decent conditions. I'm pretty sure I saw a one-eyed duck though. Next to the ducks was a field of delicious smelling mint.

The house was nice and simple. There was a temple in the main room, and we saw that the kitchen had a propane gas stove, but also three clay stoves on the back patio. The amount of ash in the stoves was a testimony to their frequent use. I noticed that there was also an altar in the kitchen. There was no kitchen sink as we understand it. There was a water faucet close to the floor which flowed into a pan (like a shower pan) and out a drain. Above this attached to the wall was the dish drying racks. We noticed the clothes were being hung to dry, and, besides a refrigerator, I didn't see any other modern appliance (like a clothes washer or dryer). Although I saw a water spigot in the kitchen, there was also a large well for them to bring up water in the front yard.

[Davin Interjection: An elderly woman who lived in this house had died recently, so there was a shrine set up for her.  From her picture the woman appeared to have been very old, so although it is sad she died, she seems to have had a full life.  Our guide told us that this shrine was maintained for something like 60 days after the person’s death.  If I recall correctly, this tradition was based on the time frame required for reincarnation. 

I always find it quite fascinating to observe the traffic in these less developed areas.  Nearly everyone in Vietnam rides motorcycles, because they are much cheaper than cars.  The streets are completely packed with them.  Unfortunately, this isn’t without its risks: one of our guide’s brothers had died in a motorcycle accident a number of years before.  Amusingly we also saw people riding motorcycles using their foot to push a more traditional non-motorized cart in front of them.]

The van returned us to tender port. We were starving and headed back to the ship for lunch. By this time, it was 2:00PM. I looked into the options for further sightseeing and it was determined that we simply didn't have time to go see additional sights and get back before the last tender left for the ship. We probably could have if we paid for a taxi, but using the tender, and then the shuttle, and then walking, and then the last shuttle back to the ship would be 4:45pm and if we missed that we'd be in trouble. So, we decided that we were done for the day in terms of sightseeing. It had been a very fun, informative, and wonderful day!

I would definitely come back to visit Vietnam, and recommend others to visit the country!

Next stop: Singapore (April 3 & 4, 2016)