Erin's Travel Blog

Day 66 Our last day in Nha Trang. I will miss this jewel of a place. We got up early this morning to visit the Buddhist Pagoda with the largest seated Buddha in Asia (I think?). When the bus pulled up there was a lot of activity. Motorcycles and scooters were zooming around, dropping off or picking up children and worshipers.  There were so many children there. It was either a visiting day (very unlikely) or there is a school connected to the pagoda (probable). So, as the kids were screaming, singing, running around, playing games, selling things and likely pick-pocketing, we talked about the architectural influences of the building. Basically anything along the typhoon trade route has some influence here. No duh. We made our way up the steps to the entrance of the pagoda. There was a worship session going on inside with all female monks. They  were chanting, knealing down, bowing. I took pictures of the shrine at the back of the temple and some chart that showed ...

Day 65 After a breakfast of eggs and Vietnamese coffee the group piled onto the bus and set out for the ferry to the Thúy Cung aquarium. I believe we sat in boats very much like the ones described in Andrew X. Pham's Catfish and Mandala . We sailed underneath the gondola that goes across the bay. As we turned around a corner, what looked like an old, stranded, ship came into view. There were also shark, tropical fish and shrimp statues chilling on the shore. After docking we realized that the sunken ship was the aquarium. This trip seems to have some Ship theme. The building itself was more elaborate than the exhibits. They had basically built home aquariums into the walls. There usually weren't many plants or anything in the tanks with the fish. It was pretty dreary. But the building was cool. In the gift shop Tess almost bought something we had been warned about: tortoise shell jewelry. The Vietnamese kill the turtles just to make jewelry from their shells to sell to t...

Day 64 I had a flight early this morning for my trip to Nha Trang peninsula. The drive from the airport from the hotel was the most beautiful I've ever seen. Even prettier than Pacific Coast Highway to Pepperdine. You could see all the fishing boats out in the water. The sun was rising over islands in the background. Picture perfect. I couldn't ruin it by taking a picture. Plus I was on the wrong side of the bus. At the hotel they greeted us with coconut milk drinks. They were much tastier than my first and only other coconut. From there we went to go see Husband Rock. It is the biggest rock on the peninsula, I guess. The story behind it is that a fisherman got caught out in a storm with big waves. His wife went out to save him, and they both got washed up on shore. Kinda sad, but romantic. The usual stuff. From there we visited a Hindu temple to Shiva and the Devi goddess. It was from the time when Hinduism had just developed out of woodland folklore. It was also very influen...