Vietnam North to South – Day 10: Nha Trang

We left for the airport very early in the morning, as there are not very many flights from Hội An to Cam Ranh. Having left our hotel at the ungodly time of 4:30, we arrived in Nha Trang by ten o’clock. We first stopped at our new hotel by the beach, after which we boarded our bus once more and did a little sightseeing. Our first stop was the two centuries old Long Sơn Pagoda, which is famous for its massive seated white buddha. Inside his pedestal is a little shrine with decorated walls and constantly burning incense. While unpleasant in the midday sun, the walk up to the Buddha statue does offer some respite in the form of other attractions, such as a giant lying Buddha.

From Long Sơn, we continued to a local market. Much of our time was consumed by our visit to a little eatery, where my dad and I made numerous vain attempts at explaining the concept of vegetarian banh mi. We pointed at meat and vigorously shook our heads, we pointed at vegetables and nodded approvingly, we even managed to source the word for “vegetable” in Vietnamese. Still, instead of two avocado milkshakes and two banh mi, we got one avocado milkshake and one meat banh mi. As the group had to leave, we did not litigate the matter any further.

The last stop made by the entire tour group was at Po Nagar, an eighth century Cham Temple. Founded as a Hindu shrine, the temple initially venerated the goddess Bhagavati. Later on, it became a centre for the worship of Yan Po Nagar, the legendary founder of the Cham people. This changed somewhat in the 17^th century under Vietnamese occupation, when Yan Po Nagar became the Vietnamised Thiên Y A Na, and Chinese script replaced Sanskrit. The shrines at the temple still serve as places of worship, and it does feel somewhat jarring to see very Vietnamese forms of worship within these indigenous walls.

Following the group’s return to the hotel, my dad and I went out into the city again, making a stop by the performing arts centre, called Tháp Trầm Hương, and touring the major church of the city, called Nhà thờ Núi. The sheer size of both was impressive even if I did not find them very intricate. More interesting, perhaps, was the city itself. Home to an impressive array of towering hotels, it could be a suburb of Miami, though I doubt any city in the world can match the sheer concentration of spa and massage parlours in Nha Trang. It is clear that the city runs on tourism, with most signs written in three languages besides Vietnamese and English: Russian, Chinese, and Korean. Just as in some of the places we have visited before, massage parlours seem to focus predominantly on Korean visitors.

After dinner, we feasted on mangosteens, mangoes, and durians, which seem to be sold on every corner here in southern Vietnam. Nha Trang also has delicious durian ice cream, which ticks off a category on my list that I never even knew existed.