Nha Trang Tour
Sunshine! Since leaving Shanghai. Today we tendered off the ship. Fortunately for our group, we are all Elite and secured a seat on the first tender. This is the first time I have used the Majestic's own tender boats and found them to be larger and easier transport. As we were the first to be seated in the boat we were in a good position to watch other passengers transfer. I was surprised to see people lowered down the ship's stairs on a wheelchair lift to the landing point alongside the tender. It was from there the wheelchair user stood and transferred themselves to the tender, then folded wheelchair placed inside with them. I am not sure how they managed once getting to the wharf as we needed to negotiate about 7-8 concrete steps to the top.
There were 9 of us (DH Paul, elected to stay on board) who joined Ahn's tour with phamtours@yahoo.com
We were picked up in a 16 seat van and enjoyed this tailor-made excursion, exploring the "true" Vietnamese countryside, farms, towns and village life.
Firstly the van drove alone the esplanade and foreshore of the resort style coastline. Tall buildings, hotels and office blocks lined one side of the road, overlooking the road to beautifully manicured gardens which lead down to a wide expanse of sandy beach. We drove on to follow a river along for a short distance before stopping at a concrete flight of stairs, leading to a small fishing boat on this river. After a bit of maneuvering we all managed to seat ourselves comfortably on the boat and move-off up river. As the boat started to move lots of small flying fish jumped out of the water from the bow of the boat......quite surprising to witness. We motored up river, past fishermen, waterside houses and past small islands which seemed to have coconut plantations growing on them. A short time later we arrived at a long rickety wooded, one lane bridge which connected a larger island in the river to the mainland. There we saw many motor scooters/bikes traversing from either side of the bridge. There were gaps of about 5 cms in he wooden planks which made the platform of the bridge, so when a bike rode along it made a 'thunk' sound on each gap. Now you can image the ca-thunk, ca-thunk sound we heard as we approached and alighted onto the bridge. We also had to watch out for the zooming motor bikes as they traversed the bridge! We were told it cost about 5 cents to use.
To be continued...ship's wifi is running sooooooo slow.
Ooops...photo is out of order. But this is a pic of noodle making we saw later in the morning
All abord our little run about.
riverside houses and local fishermen
Karthump Karthump...as the two wheeled traffic transverses the wooden bridge
Wooden bridge constructed yearly after rainy season. Toll of 5 cents to cross.
A short walk from the bridge to see two sisters weaving sleeping mats and table mats in an area in front of their home. The site is probably used for family living quarters when their day's work is finished. I only wish we were able to but some of their craft to bring home but with Australia's bio security laws, their would need to be forfeited at the border when entering Australia.
The two sisters weave just four mats a day from rushes which grow in the surrounding areas. These will be taken to the local markets and traded for food and other essentials.
Our next stop brought us to a short walk up a narrow way to the Pagoda Orphanage. It shelters and cares for around 120 abandoned, orphaned or street children ranging from several months to 9 years of age. They are cared by a group of Buddhist nuns and volunteers.
When we were there we saw several class rooms like this with some of the children.
On our next stop we saw rice paper making, one of the most typical foods from rice steamed and processed into round pieces and dried on bamboo brackets in the sun. Another cottage industry where members of a family work. The street we stopped at housed several such industries.
Bamboo brackets with the rice paper ready to be dried.
Another cottage industry, but appeared to be bigger than the previous industries, was a rice noodle factory.
Bamboo brackets with the noodle sheets drying before shreding into noodles.
Shredder.
On the last stop before lunch we saw conical hat making in the front area of this family's house. Granma, daughter, grand daughter were all there making these hats.
Working to even the rushes which form the conical hats.
Lunch alongside a river under the shade of trees and veranda.
This Traditional Vietnamese house managed to survive the War. (?)
After lunch we were taken to the Pongar Temples which were built by the Cham Dynasty. Most of us elected to stay in tye van whilst a couple of two decided to explore with the many Chinese Tourists there.
The last stop just happened to be my favourite stop.....Dam Market. We had a short time there to shop. I would have loved to wander around longer but time was getting short for our drop off at the port.
A great day in Nha Trang and countryside. I would heartily recommend phamtours@yahoo.com USD60 each for tours, a/c van, local guide, admin fees and Lunch.
PS we ran out of time to tour the embroidery factory.
Ooops...photo is out of order. But this is a pic of noodle making we saw later in the morning
Nha Trang's wide sandy beaches
All abord our little run about.
riverside houses and local fishermen
Karthump Karthump...as the two wheeled traffic transverses the wooden bridge
Wooden bridge constructed yearly after rainy season. Toll of 5 cents to cross.
A short walk from the bridge to see two sisters weaving sleeping mats and table mats in an area in front of their home. The site is probably used for family living quarters when their day's work is finished. I only wish we were able to but some of their craft to bring home but with Australia's bio security laws, their would need to be forfeited at the border when entering Australia.
The two sisters weave just four mats a day from rushes which grow in the surrounding areas. These will be taken to the local markets and traded for food and other essentials.
Our next stop brought us to a short walk up a narrow way to the Pagoda Orphanage. It shelters and cares for around 120 abandoned, orphaned or street children ranging from several months to 9 years of age. They are cared by a group of Buddhist nuns and volunteers.
When we were there we saw several class rooms like this with some of the children.
On our next stop we saw rice paper making, one of the most typical foods from rice steamed and processed into round pieces and dried on bamboo brackets in the sun. Another cottage industry where members of a family work. The street we stopped at housed several such industries.
Bamboo brackets with the rice paper ready to be dried.
Another cottage industry, but appeared to be bigger than the previous industries, was a rice noodle factory.
Bamboo brackets with the noodle sheets drying before shreding into noodles.
Shredder.
On the last stop before lunch we saw conical hat making in the front area of this family's house. Granma, daughter, grand daughter were all there making these hats.
Working to even the rushes which form the conical hats.
Lunch alongside a river under the shade of trees and veranda.
This Traditional Vietnamese house managed to survive the War. (?)
After lunch we were taken to the Pongar Temples which were built by the Cham Dynasty. Most of us elected to stay in tye van whilst a couple of two decided to explore with the many Chinese Tourists there.
The last stop just happened to be my favourite stop.....Dam Market. We had a short time there to shop. I would have loved to wander around longer but time was getting short for our drop off at the port.
A great day in Nha Trang and countryside. I would heartily recommend phamtours@yahoo.com USD60 each for tours, a/c van, local guide, admin fees and Lunch.
PS we ran out of time to tour the embroidery factory.
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