Blogs from Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa, South Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 73

On Feb 18 (Saturday) -- we were still in Dalat. We spent the evening walking in the market area of town, where they close off cars and motorbikes. There were a lot of tourists, mostly Vietnamese, probably from Saigon. It is nice to see the people from the same country who are able to enjoy their vacations, and not just see foreigners, as in some places in Thailand. On Feb 19 (Sunday) -- We checked out of our guesthouse and took a bus ride from Dalat to Nha Trang. It took about 6 hours. On the way, we stopped at "Muon Ngoc Pass", where we can overlook the narrow road that we are going to take. The view is spectacular. The bus ride was comfortable. We reached Nha Trang in the early afternoon. Nha Trang is ... read more

So, time for a quick update again. On my last day in Nha Trang before leaving for Hoi An, I was brave enough to rent a bicycle. Early in the morning- around ten- I made my way to see all the bits n pieces that where mentioned in my travel guide. After suffering about 100 heart attacks due to the “proficient” driving skills of my fellow comrades on the streets I finally made my way to the ancient Cham ruins north of Nha Trang. Due to the fact that the weather was really nice and the place wasn’t to crowded as well- I actually did enjoy wandering around- looking and smelling at the ruins which date back as far as the 7th century (was I born then…?). Still today they are used as a place to ... read more

Have now moved down from Hoi An to Nha Trang. Really tacky sea sdie town. Only staying 2 nights. Moving to Da Lat tomorrow to see amazing waterfalls apparently. We arrived in Nha Trang at 6am and all hotels booked... apart from rooms in what seemed to be a private house. Quite scummy so moved out first thing this morning in to what we feels like a palace in comparison. Nasty getting up this morning as lots of rum ( they spell it Rhum!) and cocktails in a bucket last night!!! Today we went to a mud spa! This sweated the alcohol out!! Supposed to be relaxing but it seemed the whole of the local population were there too! So we sat in mud ( they sell it by saying 'the mud is very interesting'!!- well ... read more

Traveling Vietnam, a non-Rotary country makes me acutely aware just why I am a Rotarian and why I want to spread Rotary, the story of Rotary and what it stands for. Many Americans still think as Vietnam as a war. Indeed we should not forget our war experience here. We should study are past so we can avoid making the same mistakes over and over. Rotary had a presence here before 1975. Although it did some humanitarian things it was not strong enough to be a factor in peace. Achieving our mission statement of promoting world peace and understanding will take more effort than just doing a few projects. To be a factor in peace we would have to be large enough as an organization to foster human contact such as: Youth Exchange: Trang Nguyen was ... read more

My travels up Vietnam seem to have ground to a sudden halt in Nha Trang, or maybe not ground to - maybe drunkenly stumbled and collapsed in a heap in Nha Trang...... I met an English guy in Mui Ne who told me to skip coming here as he thought it was a hole and the weather was really bad, but I'd already booked my ticket and thought I might as well give it a maybe 2 days to see if I liked it. That was a week ago and I'm still here! I'm beginning to learn that people have different priorities when travelling, most people I meet are looking for hot weather and quiet beaches like Mui Ne but to be honest I find that a bit dull. In places like that most people are ... read more