time spent at the beach

The bus from Da Lat to Nha Trang only took about five hours, but I thought that the bus might fall apart at any moment during those five hours. I hadn't ever seen a sleeper bus, but they have these reclining chairs that line the bus and one set down the middle at two levels. The chairs lean all the way back so that you can go to sleep. This trip was during the day, but that didn't stop me from dozing off for a bit there. We traveled through the mountainous roads with lovely scenes of the countryside. The roads were a little broken down, but we were safe the whole time.

Nha Trang is a beautiful beach town. The sad thing is that it has become excessively touristy and there is a good amount of garbage in the water. We spent one morning at the beach where we met a guy from Holland who was traveling alone. It seems to be a trend that young Europeans take long vacations to travel on their own. We got lunch with him and then parted ways for the afternoon. The three of us walked along the beach and eventually turned off to go to the Yersin Museum. Yersis was a young scientist who worked with Pasteur and discovered the bacterium that causes the bubonic plague. After having walked through his museum, I can confidently assert that Yersin was the man. He studied anything and everything he wanted from physics to electricity to sailing. He spent a lot of time in Nha Trang, which is why his museum is there. He is a fascinating man, and I'm hoping to find a book on him so that I can learn more of his story.

While walking back from the museum, we came across this rather large mall. Walking into it was like taking a step out of Vietnam and back to Southpoint. Also, it was air conditioned, which was a huge plus. There were several floors of clothing, jewelry and other stuff all like we have (the same brands and everything), a floor with a convenience/grocery store, a floor of fast food and a giant arcade, and the top floor (according to a mall directory) was entirely karaoke. It was a surreal find.

We went to the photography gallery of Long Thanh. It was so neat because he was in there talking with us about the pictures, about his process, and his really old analog camera. He had some absolutely beautiful photographs. I was blown away by some of the moments he captured. If you want to see some of them, here's his website: www.longthanhart.com

My favorite thing I ate in Nha Trang was blackened Nha Trang sea bass over a bed of wasabi mashed potatoes. It was absolutely delicious, and that restaurant was so pretty. The one funny thing about that place is that there was an excessive number of things on the table. Water bottles were brought out in canvas sleeves, every canned beverage had a coaster and the glass in which to pour the beverage had a coaster as well to the point where there were too many coasters to keep track of.

Something I've noticed about advertising: Most picture advertisements and manquins for glasses, clothes, motorbikes, just about anything depict happy white people. The only visual advertising that is never white people are wedding dress tailor shops and wedding photo shops. It is really strange.