Precious Memories: Nha Trang, Vietnam

Nha Trang, Vietnam -- November 30, 2016

Our ship did not moor until 11:00 this morning, which actually was an hour earlier than schedule. We had a relaxing morning enjoying breakfast at the Rotterdam Dining Room, then just went around the ship a little, getting more information about future cruises and upcoming ports. The casino was not open because our ship was too close to port. I had nothing planned for this port because there was really not much that I wanted to go on an expensive tour for. Figured that we will see what comes our way when we get off the ship.

Breakfast at the Rotterdam.

Festive sign up inside the dining room.

Decorated entrance

Checking out the lunch menu.

Q & A with Ian, the Location Guide on Volendam.

I have read several reviews that the ship would anchor off shore but we were docked in port. Nice surprise. Cable cars to Vinpearl right near the ship.

Vinpearl is a resort type entertainment center.

town near port

Vendors set up for the day.

Luggage, souvenirs, clothes, anything and everything you may want to buy.

We decided that we should have lunch first before getting off the ship for the day. Rotterdam again for a quiet lunch.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

Mixed Seasonal Greens

Cheeseburger on Sourdough

Mahi Mahi with island fruit salsa

Raspberry Sundae

After the quick lunch, which took less than an hour, we left the ship at around 1:15. When we walked off, we were met by the taxi guy who sold us a day use of a van for USD $100. Not that cheap but we figured for $20pp it was OK. He hailed a driver over and off we went. We told the taxi guy where we wanted to go since the driver did not speak a word of English. Our driver was very courteous though and the van was comfortable and clean.

Driving into town. Not particular good weather.

Our driver dropped us off at the first stop--the Catholic Church.

Entrance fee was USD $1pp.

Statues of the 12 apostles along the hike up to the church.

A beautiful cathedral indeed.

Just wish that it wasn't so crowded.

Finally, a quiet moment after a huge group of tourists was gone.

Long Son Pagoda

Another site that was ridiculously crowded. In fact, there were Chinese tourists everywhere we went in this city. I suppose this is a very popular destination for Chinese tour groups.

Big Buddha which we did not climb up to see.

The temple and the Big Buddha in the background.

We only stayed there for a short time for a few pictures before leaving the place.

Then we crossed the river to ...

Cham Tower

Entrance to the Cham tower site.

Our first glimpse of the Cham history before visiting My Son in a couple of days.

view of the river from the top of the tower

Impressive!

Very well-preserved.

Descriptions in Chinese

We were inside the museum but I was then attracted by music playing outside so I went back out and found that they were having some kind of performance there.

musicians

and dancers

Nice!

Fountains in the garden.

Souvenir shops

Clean restrooms downstairs

Houses nearby

Looking down at the main entrance from the top.

Five-sons Rocks 五子岩

After meeting back up with our driver, he took us to an unknown place up the hill by the shore. I wasn't sure what that was as he told us to get off and buy tickets. Fortunately, the woman at the ticket booth was able to speak a little Chinese and told us that this place is called (Five-sons Rocks), at least that was what I think she said. By that time it started to rain, so we hurried inside and the musicians were getting ready to play some traditional music for us. I think entrance fee was again $1 pp.

Playing music with traditional instruments.

A very pretty musician.

They played for about 10 minutes.

Then I walked outside to the back of the building and saw the 'rocks', which I assumed is the main attraction here. I believe you can walk to the rocks when it's low tide.

It was still raining hard so we did not get a chance to walk around a little more.

Then the driver asked if we wanted to go back. No, no, we haven't been to the market or the beach yet. He didn't understand what we were saying so he called the taxi operator and we explained where we wanted to be.

Markets

We were taken to the central market first. This was also the drop-off point for the HAL shuttles which cost $10pp. There seemed to be a lot of stalls selling many different things here but we did not get a chance to check them out. As soon as we were at the entrance, the guys in our group wanted to look for fresh fruits, like durians and mangoes. So we left this place and looked all over the stalls in the open market for some fresh fruits. Didn't find any, so the driver called the taxi operator again to find out what we were looking for. Then he took us to another market which was mainly for locals. I suppose this was not the season for good tropical fruits because we did not find what we wanted. Even the vendors were telling us that the fruits were not in season.

Central market

Our driver brought us here to another market for locals.

While the guys looked for fruits, ChC and I went to explore the stalls in this market but we didn't find anything that was of interest. We didn't have local money on us which didn't help either.

No luck finding fresh fruits.

Beach

Our last stop was the beach. We were hoping to find the Lousiana Brewery that was recommended and maybe spend some time there. Our driver didn't understand what we wanted and dropped us off across from the beach so we just walked around, people-watched, and took in the scenery there at the park until it started to rain again. Apparently, Nha Trang has a long strip of beach along the South China Sea which makes this a great tourist destination. We were told that this is actually a very dangerous beach area because of the waves and tides. Many people lost their lives here every year but the government never publicize these incidents. I would have loved to at least take a little dip here if the weather was a bit better.

We were back at port around 5:15. By then it was rainy, cold, and windy so it was a good thing that we were back. Took a little peek at the vendors but did not find anything that we needed. After getting back on the ship we went to the Asian BBQ on Lido deck to see what they were offering. A lot of food indeed! Roasted pig, roasted duck, BBQ ribs and pork, noodles, fried rice. It was hard to resist all those good food.