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Nha Trang (pronounced Nya Chang) is one of the two or three major beach resorts in Vietnam. Since we haven't been to all of them we can't really say which is best. But we liked Nha Tranh. It was the furthest point south for us. After nearly a week in Hanoi we flew south, spent three day, and then started our way north by bus to Hue and then air to Hanoi (and China).

Lobby of our Hotel, Checking in

This was by far not the fanciest hotel in town. Being inexperienced with Vietnam, we didn't really know how to look for a hotel. We got off the airplane, let ourselves fall into the lap of a taxi driver, and told him to take us to hotels along the strip of beach closest to the airport. We tried three or four and then settled on this one. The rooms were very basic, but we did have a small balcony and a view of the beach. On our second trip a year later, we splurged on a bigger hotel with a swimming pool.

Gerry, testing the waters

Vietnamese hero, Tran Hung Dao

Our first order of business was to go explore. In doing so, we walked almost the entire length of the beach to familiarize ourselves with Nha Trang. It is about 3-4 km long and about as nice a beach as you could wish for.

Near the south end of the beach is a statue of a hero of Vietnam from about 1250 A.D. who saved the country from Mongol invaders who had already taken over China and established the Yuan dynasty.

High-rise Beach Development

In the far distance as we looked back along the beach we could see two of the fancier hotels. Nha Trang caters to a wide variety of people from the typical beach bum, to the low-cost traveller like us, to the European and American package tourist in Vietnam for only one two weeks.

Buying bus tickets to Hue

Buying the bus tickets to go to Hue

Vietnamese Policemen off duty

These young men in uniform were probably policemen, but it was hard for us to differentiate between policemen and soldiers. Anyway, they were off duty and certainly not interested in bothering strange foreigners like us. We never had any real trouble with Vietnamese officials nor they with us.

Eating Breakfast Out

Our hotel didn't offer breakfast, so having discovered a nice restaurant with a terrace overlooking the ocean, we decided to treat ourselves one day and walked over for breakfast. The eggs were good, the fruit fresh, and the breeze cool. What more could one ask?

A Traditional Vietnamese House

During a day excursion in the Nha Trang surroundings, we came across this lovely example of a traditional Vietnamese house. We saw many similar houses in other parts of Vietnam and in Laos. They invariably are built on stilts, have walls of plaited plant material or of plant stalks, and roofs of some kind of straw thatch.