Saturday - Xmas Eve

Up at six, taxi to the airport and I’m lifting off the tarmac by nine.

Goodbye for now grey Hanoi. About a third of the way into the hour and a half flight I can actually see the line of the thick blanket of cloud that has been covering the north, thin out into scattered cloud.

From the airport (an old wartime US airstrip) it’s a forty five minute taxi ride into town, it seems I overestimated the sun but not the temperature, it’s overcast and breezy but after I check in to the hotel I can get into thongs and a T-shirt again.  

Technically when I booked the room through “agoda” they weren’t lying, for seventeen dollars a night the room is an “ocean view” but the photo was obviously taken from the next floor up.  

I’m not complaining, I can see the ocean and more importantly, hear the waves crashing but there is a vacant block between my room one street back, the main road, the park and then the beach and through the afternoon there is a wall being constructed around the vacant block and the welders are doing their best to block my view.

I go for a walk and find what I’m looking for. “Something Fishy” is a restaurant run by an Australian guy called Bob who I met a couple of years ago through Max. He’s not here today but that’s not the point right now, after too many months without it, I order a hamburger with BEETROOT! 

I go for a walk around, the place has changed a bit since I was here two years ago or maybe I just remember it differently, lots of buildings coming down and going up. It is however much more relaxed than Hanoi which is a good feeling, Nha Trang has a population of only about three hundred thousand. It’s breezy and I’m sore so I go for an afternoon rest back in my room. 

Just after dark I wander out to find a vibrant, exciting town. Seems although Vietnamese don’t know what Xmas stands for there are kids dressed as Santa, decorative lights everywhere, a big stage on the beach with performers and awful Xmas music everywhere. 

I find I great little restaurant among the festivities on the main road running along the beach that’s not playing Xmas music and treat myself to grilled tiger prawns, an Australian sirloin and a couple of cosmopolitans. 

I enjoy the lights and sights on the way back to my room.