We awoke at 6:15 am to find we were pulling into port and the Holland America Westerdam was already docked in Cam Ranh, Vietnam. Usually, the Norwegian Sun is the only ship in port so seeing a HAL ship was a surprise.
Cam Ranh was a deep port and as such acted as a military operations base during the Vietnam war. As we disembarked from the ship around 7:30 am, we hopped on a bus that drove us for about 30 minutes through a military operations zone to Cara World – a resort on the beach. The area has a stretch of 5 or 6 km that is beautiful white sand beach.
Here we disembarked the ship shuttle bus and quickly found a taxi driver to take us to Nha Trang, another 45 minute drive to see some sights we had researched. Ping was our driver and we believe he understood some English, but he had to use google translate to ensure he communicated critical information to us.
We drove into the city and experienced the chaos of being surrounded by motorcycles and few law-abiding drivers. Our first stop was Long Son Pagoda, founded in the late-19th century. J, Lynn and I climbed the 152 stone steps leading to the giant white Buddha seated on a lotus blossom. We were rewarded with bright blue skies when we reached the top!
After that, we made a stop at Ponargar Cham Tower. This tower complex called ‘Thap Ba’ was built between the 8th and 13th Century. Currently 4 temples and 10 pillars of a mandapa (pillared meditation hall) remain. What is interesting about the Cham people is that property is passed down through women, not men!
We then tried unsuccessfully to stop at what we think was a church – but we weren’t allowed inside because a service was going on (it was a Sunday morning). Our driver, Ping, asked us if we wanted to eat rick or seafood – and we said yes seafood.
He dropped us off at Hai San Bo Ke, Xom Con 79, a very interesting seafood restaurant. We picked out our seafood (8 shrimp and 2 crabs) and they took it away and prepared it!
The shrimp we chose to eat.
The shrimp fully cooked and presented at our table!
The tables we sat at were comically small, like for a kindergarten class! The food was delicious.
After that, our driver took us to Dam market – where clearly busloads from our ship were being dropped off. Lynn bought a beautiful bamboo dress that she wore at supper tonight. I bought a few little things, and Jessica bought toothpaste!
After our shopping, Ping took us back to the shuttle bus – another 45 minute drive back. When we returned to where the ship’s shuttles were, we paid our driver, with a combination of Vietnam Dong and US dollars. It worked out to about $45 CAD apiece for the custom taxi cab today. We added in a tip and felt that was an excellent value. We would have paid about $89 apiece US for something similar (without the lunch stop) and been on a huge bus to do something similar through the ship.
We were able to walk a few hundred metres to go to the beautiful white sand beach. J had bought some local fruit – rabutan and a mangosteen – that we ate on the beach and were delicious! J walked in the water – where the surf was strong. We were all surprised to see the beautiful white sand beach was littered with plastic garbage.
We then caught a shuttle back to the ship and again enjoyed the stellar views.
Once cleaned up back at the ship, we all met for a sailaway view on Deck 12 up front in the Spinnaker Lounge to see the beautiful views as we pulled away from the dock.
Lunch in the Four Seasons dining room was its usual stellar affair. I will be ready for bed as soon as this post is done! A great day in Vietnam!
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