Asia Paradise Hotel Nha Trang

I'm always entertained by my conservative colleagues paranoia of communism and its people.

If you look at all of the touristy places I've been in Vietnam (things are probably different in other parts), it's kind of hard to see it as this monolithic, atheistic, amoral version of socialism that all blow-hards seem to stereotype about the economic scheme. Everyone here seems to be obsessed with profit, competition, and doing better. Merchants constantly haggle with you trying to sell ...

Today we took a 31/2 hour bus ride from Dalat to Nha Trang. The drive was very scenic but very very curvy and a bumpy and SCARY! We kept flying around these sharp curves in a BIG bus and I thought several times that we were going to go over the edge! It didn't seem to bother Burt and Charlene though. Halfway through we stopped a one of the hill tribes and had some Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk and then walked through part of their village. We walked across this long suspensi...

Well after the fun we had the night before Aunt Charlene was dragging a little bit! I gave her a really hard time about it just to poke fun, be we are all on vacation her so I am glad she let loose...although, I don't know if I said anything about the 15 hour plane ride over here... you might have to ask uncle Burt about that one! It is actually a pretty funny story. This morning we went to a pagoda, I think this one was for the Cham people and I am not sure but I think it was a buddhist temp...

Our stay at the Rex came to an end a bit too soon. 8AM a driver came and picked us up to take us to the Cu Chi Tunnels. On the way he did the ubiquitous 'ferry these captive tourists into my friends shop/restaurant' thing but it was actually quite interesting, He had taken us to a laquer wear factory where they made the laquerwear, eggshell art and mother of pearl inlays. They showed us the process and we got to walk through and view the production line. It is all hand made and takes anywhere...

We left a very rainy Ho Chi Minh City and arrived 40 minutes later in the Beach side Town of Nha Trang...Oh Nha Trang what a gorgeous place! Prior to landing our plane did a complete circle as we were in a holding pattern - it gave us a fantastic opportunity to see it all in its splendour as we were not up all that high. We knew once we were on the ground it would be something to behold. Our hotel is one block back from the beach and we have all amenities close by - restuarants, laundry facit...

Nha Trang 27th January 2007 Today we travelled from Hoi An to Nha Trang on the SE1 train, soft sleeper class, which means we have beds we can lie on even though it's a day train. The train takes just over ten hours and although the view is lovely, the journey is a bit of a slog. The weather is still grey and a little miserable so we are hoping that things will improve when we arrive in Nha Trang. The train pulls in at around 22:30 so we check into our hotel (The Asia Paradise) and go straight...

Tet Holiday Vacation

HE SAID: At least we had a few hours to lay by the pool before our bus journey to Nha Trang Beach. I was able to snatch the last 2 available chairs by the pool since I was up at 7:45 AM. By 1:00 PM we began our 5 hour bus ride from Mui Ne (Phan Thiet) to Nha Trang. At 1:03 the bus stopped, turned off it's engine and we took a 30 minute break. Good thing since we were exhausted from that 3 minute adventure! Well, at least it gave us some time to enjoy another Vietnamese coffee. Soon we realize...