Nha Trang, Vietnam - December 2018.

We'd arrived under a brooding sky and sailed out under one as well.

From what I can work out Nha Trang is like Vietnam’s Gold Coast, complete with kilometres of beaches and even it’s own amusement park. I don’t think we saw Nha Trang at it’s best today though as unfortunately it rained for the majority of time we had there. During the Vietnam War Nha Trang was home to the Cam Ranh Air Base which was one of the most important US bases in the war, I’m thinking that the long golden beach must of looked like paradise to the troops on R&R during the war. Leaving our ship early this morning it was a wet and grey as we made our way through the streets of Nha Trang and there’s little more forlorn sight than a wet and grey beach resort I don’t think.

Our first stop today was Ponagar Cham Towers.

Still, we were on holidays so really we had bugger all to whinge about. Our first stop today was at the historical Ponager Cham Towers. From the beginning of the 2nd century AD until over run by the Khmers from the south and the Vietmanese from the north, NhaTrang was home to the Champa Kingdom. Ponager Cham Towers are a relic of those times with the four main towers built between the 7th and the 12th centuries, while the towers copped a bit of damage in WW2 they have been restored fairly faithfully to there original glory. Each of the towers represents a different Hindu deity and the towers are open for tourists to check out, although once again I didn’t feel comfortable wandering inside with my DSLR.

Ponagar Cham Towers date back to the 2nd Century AD.

Photos were a little challenging due to the persistent light rain.

The Ponagar Cham Towers have a commanding position looking down over the Cai River across the flat land to the main beachside strip of Nha Trang. Not only did that mean that we got a good view, it also meant that we didn’t have far to walk in the rain before we jumped onto a boat for a cruise up the Cai River. I’m guessing that the Champa might of been thinking that the hill was a good spot for the towers due more to it being above the swampy ground that exists nearer to the coast, than it’s cruising potential though.

Ponagar Cham Towers

The grounds around Ponagar Cham Towers are worth checking out, this spot is like an island of tranquility surrounded by a sea of humanity I think.

Ponagar Cham Towers overlooks the Cai River.

Leaving the grounds of Ponagar Cham Towers we were back into it.

Ponagar Cham Towers from the Cai River.

Cruising up the Cai River on our little boat we passed by numerous fisherman shacks. These ramshackle houses are where the fisherman live but they are quickly being pulled down and the river front land developed. Our Vietnamese guide assures me that the fisherman are happy about that as the government gives them enough money to relocate and buy a nicer house, I’m not so sure of that though, so once again I’d treat that as a Feral fact. Apart from the fisherman's shacks the river banks are also home to a lot of boat building sheds. Talking of development it was mildly shocking how much land was being reclaimed and developed into shiny sanitised tourist facilities, and yes I know I’m part of the problem and it’s something that I wrestle with constantly in my mind.

The hats were better for keeping the rain off us today rather than keeping the sun off us.

The Cai River cruise was an interesting little sojourn.

Fisherman's shacks line the Cai River in some spots, although the local government is trying to move than on to develop the land apparently.

Cai River

Looking towards Nha Trang from the Cai River.

In some spots every spare bit of land is utilised.

Cai River

A little further up stream we passed some boat building yards.

Boat building yard on the Cai River.

After jumping off our boat we took a drive to check out a ‘rural’ village, we’ll that’s what the blurb for the tour said so I was expecting rice paddies and farm animals. In reality I’d probably call it ‘Suburban Nha Trang’ I think as we definitely weren’t out in the green county side. Still it was an interesting little interlude in the day as first we stopped at a typical farmers house, complete with the farmer who seemed happy enough to share his private house with a ship load of tourists for the day. I’m guessing he makes more in that one day than he makes farming for a year but it still feels a little intrusive. After the farmers house we continued and checked out another house, this one owned by a local Mandarin family who had been in the area for 75 years, this house was a lot larger and had an elaborate garden, as seems to be the case in a lot of places it appears that the Chinese have the most money, prestige, and clout.

After finishing our cruise up the Cai River we visited this temple, the thing is I can't remember the name of he temple.  I do remember the touts though....they seemed to follow us from place to place on their motorbikes.

Rural Nha Trang.

After jumping off the boat we checked out a rural village, although this old truck was probably the most rural thing there.

It looks like most family homes have a shrine, this was inside the farmers home.

The well at the farmers house.

We then moved onto a wealthier families house.

They actually had a couple of shrines, including a smaller one for visitors.

Rural Nha Trang.

With the tropical rain now coming down a little harder we visited one final temple before heading to a small industrial type of area, here we visited a workshop that make the clay ovens by hand. Apparently the local people of the Khanh Hoa Province mark the onset of Tet, the Lunar New Year by smashing their clay ovens, so I guess these guys have a guaranteed market. This spot was a bit rougher around the edges than some of the other spots that we visited and wasn’t quite as sanitised, the workers here had set up a cock fighting ring and here were a couple of sorry looking birds fighting for their life. Now I definitely don’t condone any kind of animal cruelty let alone cock fighting so I’ve had to wrestle with myself whether to post a photo of the cock fighting, in the interests of telling it like it is I’ve decided to put one up, however I want to make to clear that I think those practises are barbaric and the people that facilitate them are gutless wonders.

Next up we visited a clay pot maker.

It took him only around five minutes to knock out one of these pots.

I don't condone this for one second but seeing as I like to put stuff up warts and all I've included a photo.

After leaving the clay oven workshop it was time to head back through though the chaotic back streets of Nha Trang to the ship. With a couple of hours up our sleeves before ship was due to sail we would normally of jumped off the bus in the main tourist strip and checked things out a bit more, however with the rain still coming down this afternoon (and with us being soft) we decided to head back to the ship. Our tender back to the ship from the pier took us under the large cable car that takes the tourists out to the big Vinpearl Amusement Park. This amusement park looks like it does big business with the tourists in Nha Trang judging by the number of fast boats scooting back and forth as well as the busy cable car. The whole set up looked a little ‘Wobbies World’ to me though, although fat, old white man probably isn’t the demographic that they are after I’m thinking. By the time the ship sailed tonight the rain had more or less stopped and had left Nha Trang framed by cloud covered mountains which actually looked pretty good.

Yeah, I know I'm soft.

Heading back to the ship on our tender we passed under the cable cars servicing the Vinpearl Amusement Park.

Heading back for a shower and some fresh clothes before we sailed away.

Vinpearl Amusement Park

Once back on our ship the sun came out for a few minutes for the first time today.

The Dirt.
We visited Nha Trang on a Princess cruise out of Singapore. So being on a cruise pretty well everything was well run and all the logistics sorted for us meaning all we had to really do was to turn up. I'm mentioning all that because it means that I can't actually say what the costs of the individual attractions are (or even if you can visit them when not on a tour?). The tour itself was called Cham Tower, River Cruise & Rural Village and it cost us $90 American each, which I didn't think was too bad. Nha Trang looks to be pretty well set up for tourists, with a long wide sea front boulevard lined by plenty of hotels, restaurants and shops. Vietnam is generally a country where you get a fairly good bang for your buck and Nha Trang didn't seem to be much different in that regard.

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We're about to sail back out into the South China Sea, the mountains behind Nha Trang are still brooding under dark clouds.

Sailing away from Nha Trang.

The scenery around Nha Trang was very good, definitely worth spending time on deck to check out - although it's always surprising how few passengers bother to watch these sail aways.

The fishing boats were heading back in for the night.

Sailing away from Nha Trang out into the South China Sea.