Vietnam: Mar.2017(a)

Back to the beach - Nha Trang!

Like most of Vietnam, the number of scooters outnumber the number of cars and trucks by at least 20:1.

There are at least three professional B&W photographers in Nha Trang. Here is Roxanne's contribution.

John at the book-sellers.

There is a small Disney-like park on an island a 3km cable car ride across from Nha Tran. This is our old-man fish.

The aquarium contains a huge, interconnected underground series of transparent tunnels.

There are also lots of reptiles and large insects. This is a white python.

Water play.

Deep-fried bananas and sweet potatoes. Yum!

Temple prayers.

White Buddha.

Reclining Buddha.

Beach day.

Another exciting new product!

The water table is pretty close to the surface, so underground wiring is rare.

Solitary confinement, death row...

Embroidery is an art form in Nha Trang.

Embroidery close-up.

As the weather warms up, we are moving further north into the middle of Vietnam: Hoi An, Hue (pronounced 'way') and Da Nang.

Guesthouse on An Bang beach near Hoi An.

The historic old town in Hoi An looks much like it did several hundred years ago, except all the old Japanese merchant houses are now restaurants and souvenir shops.

Hoi An also has 300-500 tailor shops, happy to sew up anything your heart desires.

These sweet little fruit ladies don't take 'no' for an answer. All the vendors are extremely clever and sophisticated at providing opportunities to help you spend your money.

The fruit ladies insisted that we let them take a picture of us holding their fruit baskets, then of course we had to buy something. They finally allowed us to escape after buying a bunch of bananas.

Same story with the water buffalo guy...

... and the round boat ladies. We were out biking around the rice paddies and a lady on her scooter started talking to us as she rode along beside us. She was heading home, and offered to lead us to where we were trying to go (called the water coconut groves, where water coconut trees grow on little islands all through a river delta.) That was good, since it was really hard to find. We had to cross the river to continue our ride, so she procured two of these little round reed boats, and ferried us across - her in one boat with the bikes and her Mom and us in the other boat - how wonderful! Except, of course, until the bill came due....

Water and rice paddies everywhere - a farmer herds his water buffaloes across a stream.

An Bang beach at night.