Met some new friends last night. Three Spanish girls and one Irish. We drank too much. Good times.
Nha Trang is a town of beach resorts. I’m glad to say that the beaches are much cleaner than what I saw on the trip from Hue to Hoi An. Some litter collects at the high water mark but if anything, the Vietnamese know how to make a buck and their greedy self-interest informs them that they should pick up the shit on the beach. So the sand is mostly clean.
In Nha Trang, hotels rule the skyline and the large amounts of wealthy tourists walking among the impoverished locals creates some desperate and aggressive beggars. When walking home from the club last night I got my package grabbed no less than four times on the two block walk. And once by a girl that was about eight months pregnant. There’s something overwhelmingly sad about a woman eight months pregnant offering “sucky-sucky” for what amounts to $6. I jumped to the side and hurried off for my hotel.
My hotel room is on the fifth floor and can see over a nearby construction side to the ocean in the east. I have a balcony, AC, hot water, and one gecko. In Asia its either geckos or insects (usually roaches or mosquitos) so I’m glad to have a friend in the room. At $12 a night I can’t complain.
Today I’m heading out to the private island on which the Vinpearl resort is built. The girls are staying there and I want to see the place. So, I’m heading over for a mojito or the like. Tomorrow I don’t know and then I begin my very long trek home on Tuesday.
My trip back to Mountain View begins with a train ride from Nha Trang to Saigon. Leaving at 2:00 PM, it arrives at 10:00 PM. My flight leaves Saigon four hours later, at 2:00 AM Saigon time. I fly into Seoul where I have an eight hour layover before heading to SFO. Then a 10-12 hour flight home. Seems to me that I’ll be traveling for 30-35 hours. I look forward to my bed.