I got to Nha Trang in the morning and was able to walk to my hotel from where the bus dropped us off. The bus ride was pretty terrible. The seats were more like adult sized baby rockers that didn't rock and were too small. The weather was gorgeous and the city had a nice balance of tourist and local. It might be my favorite city in Vietnam. I treked up to the local market first. On my way this middle aged Phillipino lady stopped me on the street. I first suspected she was a hooker, but it seemed a bit too early in the day for that, so I chatted with her a bit. She claimed to be visiting her Uncle here and that her cousin was about to go to San Diego to work in a hospital. This was the 2nd time I've heard someone say they had a friend going to San Diego to work in medicine (and since I've heard it a 3rd time). Either Vietnam has a good relationship with San Diego, or these people all go to Scammer U. together.
Later that evening I popped into a Western style bar and there was a guy dressed with the pattern of the gutter in a bowling alley during cosmic bowling who tried to hustle me with some pool to get me to buy some of the books he was selling. It was one huge condtradiction as the bar was the center of a charity towards underprivelaged Vietnamese youth, yet they had tons of kids lurking inside who were trying to scam and rip you off.
On my second day I got up and took a trip through my hotel to do some Snorkeling out on the water. My boat had 4 people--me and a group of three from Thailand. The people from Thailand were awesome; They had all just finished medical school in Japan and were doing some traveling before starting to work. The scuba diving was ok. We also saw a floating market with some genetically mutated lobsters and cuttlefish. The cuttlefish remind me of the ships from the matrix movies. Our guide was really interested in English and I tried to explain to him how anagrams work but he really didn't get it.
After I got back I hit up the streets for some food. I found a Bahn Baho lady and quickly approached. There was another White guy there ordering some greenish bread. I tried to ask him what it was but it was his first time as well and he quickly made his escape with the rhythm of a puddle of ooze. Too bad because I was hoping he would stick around so I could watch his reaction to the food. I bought a green one anyway and it was terrible, so I had to buy a Bahn Bao to erase the flavor. The lady running the stand gave me a chair so I could eat there on the street. Three Bahn Baos later, I had made friends wih the lady and two other girls who were working in the Spa right behind me. This food car is just a side business for the girls who work the spa.
Next door to the spa was a Bia Hoi place, which was my next stop. 25 cent a glass fresh beer. I hung out there for a while. Nothing better than cheap beer and cheap egg filled bread buns.
For my last day in Nha Trang I wanted to go visit some tourist stuff. I had told some motorbike driver I would let him take me around to the sites for 3 bucks, but then I realized the sites were all within a few kilometers and flaked out on him--or avoided the corner he hung out on.
Before embarking I stopped by to say high to my new friends and load up on some Bahn Bao. I didn't get any Bao and somehow I ended up letting the girl who sold them to me take me on her motorbike to the two sites I wanted to see. It was a bit wierd because her English was terrible, which meant it was hard to say no. And then when we got there she wouldn't come in and I couldn't figure out why--if it was that she wanted to watch her motorbike, or maybe some culture issue. Turns out it was the culture issue--she was wearing shorts and thats not allowed for women. It was really nice of her to take me though, so I bought her some food afterwards.
After we got back I got some more Bia Hoi, then my Spa Lady friends came over and took me out for some Karaoke. Vietnamese are really good singers, and they really get into it too. I really couldn't understand the lyrics, but a lot of the songs had a Communist feeling to them. Go figure.
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