Nha Trang, Vietnam

We arrived in Nha Trang to glorious blue skies—a much welcome change from the haze covering some locations. It was a beautiful site, but also another one with a painful history.

During the Vietnam War, Nha Trang was the site of a major U.S. military base. As I looked out at the surrounding green mountains, beaches, and luxury hotels, I thought of the sailors I trained with during the war who when receiving orders to Vietnam tried to make light of it saying they were going to waterski down the Mekong Delta; of being brand new in the Navy and typing posthumous letters of advancement to the families of sailors and marines killed there; of a classmate I recently saw who lost a leg there and still suffers from the effects of it; of another classmate who as an Army nurse cared for dying soldiers; and of the thousands of names inscribed on the Vietnam Memorial. I also thought of the suffering of the Vietnamese people and my friend Mai who escaped as one of the boat people—alone and with only a backpack. It was an emotional moment.

Nha Trang

The ship dropped anchor in the bay, and at 8:00 a.m. passengers should have been able to go ashore by tender. Shortly after that the captain announced that the Vietnam authorities would not give the ship landing authorization, and that the officers were working with Cunard headquarters in Southampton to resolve the problem. He made it sound like an administrative problem, but we all suspected that it was because the local authorities had heard that large numbers of passengers had been sick with gastro problems, and the Vietnam authorities were reluctant to allow anyone to land.

When they finally received clearance, we were hours behind—for a stay that was only supposed to last until 4:30 p.m. At that point, the tenders started making their way to the pier. Group tickets that passengers could pick up when they were ready to go ashore controlled admission to the tender. It helped prevent large numbers of people waiting at the gangway. By 11:00 a.m. they were calling group six out of 22, so disembarkation was really backed up. Some people had been waiting over three hours before they got called. We waited for the first rush to be over and went for lunch while we waited. Fortunately, when we went to pick up tender tickets, we received tickets for group 16 instead of 23 and were told that some people had turned their tickets back in.

Tender

When we finally landed, officials met us on the pier and pumped gobs of hand sanitizer into our hands. We then had to step through a foot basin filled with disinfectant. It was really messy for people who wore sandals or flip-flops. After we were sanitized, we then stepped onto a paved area that was filthy.

Official Greeting (Notice Disinfectant Pan)

Freelance Photographer Keith Larby getting disinfected (with permission)

Because of the long wait, the extremely high temperatures, and because I still wasn’t feeling real strong after being ill, we had been of two minds whether to go ashore or not but finally decided to at least have a look around the pier area. Since there wasn’t much there, we then decided to ride into town on one of the waiting shuttle buses and see the sights along the way—the bus at least would be cooler.

The route was filled with both the old and new. Small shops that were not more than a garage with the front pulled up sat next to new luxury hotels. At the rate of construction going on, it won’t be long before these small shops are pushed out.

The roads were filled with scooters, and we watched in horror as a taxi next to us attempted to push one off the road while trying to pass. Later a passenger told us that when they couldn’t walk across the road because of the continual flow of scooters, a local man took them by the hand and ushered them across the road. They said it was a hair-raising experience.

Scooters

Red flags with the Communist sickle and hammer symbol hung from poles all along the route. And if by any chance you hadn’t seen those, the symbols were displayed on large billboards downtown. That was in case visitors may have forgotten that Vietnam is a communist country.

We were told that Nha Trang has become a popular tropical resort that people come to from all over Asia. The surrounding nearby mountains made a lovely backdrop for a resort. Palm trees and other varieties of trees cut into different shapes stretched along the sandy coast. The area was beautiful but definitely not pristine like the places we had recently visited.

Nha Trang Beachfront

Beachfront

When the shuttle bus arrived in the city center, we watched street vendors approaching passengers as they descended from the bus. We looked at the swarm of people, felt the heat coming in the open door of the bus, and considering my flagging energy levels, stayed on the bus for the ride back to the tender.

One woman said that she wanted to see the mountains, curious as to whether they had recovered from the napalm burnings during the war. We could see large rectangular swaths of the mountains that were bare, but since they were quite angular and smoke was rising from the land, it was evident that the area had recently been cleared. Based on the location of the clearing near the Vinpearl resort, the land was probably being cleared for another hotel. We knew it was Vinpearl since large letters stretched across the mountainside in a Hollywood look.

Vinpearl Resort

A cable car system crossed the large bay connecting the Vinpearl resort area to Nha Trang. Later, as we were sailing away after dark, the numerous supports for the cable car system were lit up and looked like little Eiffel towers sitting in the water. The architecture of the buildings in Nha Trang still shows the French influence there.

Cable Car System and Supports

One of the most unusual buildings in the area was the aquarium. The front of it was shaped like the bow of a ship, while the top looked like an ancient stone temple. In fact, viewing it from the top deck, I thought I was seeing one of the temples the area is known for. John disillusioned me when he told me it was the aquarium. Now I came away without seeing one of the temples.

Later that evening at dinner, we listened to our tablemates’ experience on shore. Two of them had taken a tour of the outlying areas that included a stop at an orphanage. They had taken packs of pencils they had gotten in advance for the children along with white paper notebooks we had given them to take along.

As we sailed away, we passed dozens of fishing vessels that were doing night fishing using huge lights to attract fish. We had passed these types of vessels in other areas, and given the numbers of them, it is easy to see how areas can be overfished. The lights could be seen for miles and with so many of the vessels, they really lit up the night sky.

Leaving Nha Trang