What an amazing day.

Woke up early, had some free breakfast of eggs and coffee (my favorite) and ventured out into Nha Trang.

The oceanfront walkway is well constructed, this being a beach town. Easily found the bus office to buy my ticket for tomorrow. The walkway ended at my first stop.

Po Nagar Cham Towers is a complex of extremely poorly reconstructed Cham buildings. The site is lovely, on a breezy hilltop overlooking the bay and ocean. The admission is only a dollar. The bathrooms are clean,  the coffee shop inside isnt overpriced. The archaeological value of the buildings is the problem. It’s a tourist attraction, and pictures look nice, but I’m glad I’ve been to the Cham Museum and My Son. Anyway, it was a nice place to sit in the shade. There was some kind of music performance too.

After a hot walk across a bridge or two, I found the Long Son temple and pagoda. It’s free, so that’s awesome. It’s also very beautiful.  I got there between tour buses, so that’s even better. The guards are serious about keeping order, thank goodness. Free sites in Vietnam are completely nuts sometimes. So this place is fairly peaceful. There’s a big Buddha on a hilltop with great views of the city, and another shady spot to cool off in the breeze.

A short walk on my sightseeing tour brought me to my last stop, St Josephs Church. It’s one of several Roman Catholic churches in the area, popular bc of its proximity to the beach. It’s also quite nice on its very own. Also, the church is open, which is unusual. Most of the Catholic churches are locked at all times.

I was done sightseeing early, so I had a couple of expensive beers at a beachside bar. Lovely!

Time for a late lunch, then a nap and shower. It was hot today! 

Before dinner, some laundry and a long walk.

Dinner was a pretty good meal at an Indian restaurant, my first “western” food in a while. It  was still only 6 bucks.

What a nice day. I got 40,000 steps in, sunburned feet, a nap, beers, yummy dinner, and 3 sightseeing stops all managed by 8 PM. 

Life’s good.

Only long cause it was a little boring. The train was almost empty, so no stranger watching possibilities.

The snacks were good, though.

Happy to be in Nha Trang. My hostel is in the “Russian Neighborhood”. If I wanted a love motel or a massage, I’d be in luck lol

It’s a resort town for sure. LOTS of foreigners and restaurant prices are up.

That is all

So cool! I love old archaeology stuff so this place was great!!

The bus ride to the site was less than one hour. The local guide who walked us around wasn’t a scholar but he was very entertaining. I think his first career should have been acting. So dramatic!

The site itself was rediscovered in the 1800’s by a Frenchman, who promptly stole most of the really important pieces. Kinda like the British museum and the Elgin Marbles.

In the 60’s the US bombed the site pretty thoroughly. They are slowly rebuilding. I’d like to come back here in 20 years.

The temple complex is apparently a smaller, more destroyed Angkor Wat. Another, similar but muuuuuch larger ancient Hindu structure is in Indonesia,  Borobudur.

We spent two hours there (which was enough), a boat ride and lunch made my day complete. A shower and rest took me to dinner and bedtime.

And it was good. Read a bunch, ate some overpriced food…you know the routine.

Dinner was made for us, the folks at our homestay, by the owner. There’s nothing like a home cooked meal. Tofu bun (thats tofu noodle soup), tea, and a banana.

Then a short bike ride to digest. The night market was crowded and the sellers especially irritating, so I called it a day.

Goodnight beautiful people