21st January - We do like to be beside the seaside

The view from our lofty erie in the Rosaka Hotel takes in a great swathe of the city as well as the mountains that lead up to the border with Laos. Bags of choice for breakfast including several fruits that we have never tried before. Perhaps we are missing something but we are unlikely to try them again. On the bus our guide finally introduces himself as Dien, pronounced Dean. His English is not as polished as our other guides but is better than our Vietnamese. He is wearing a blue tee shirt emblazoned with Liverpool FC. badges and phrases. When we point out that it is the wrong colour he tells us that he supports Chelsea. No tip for him.

He explains that Nha Trang is Vietnam's leading resort and that it is very popular with Chinese and Russian tourists. Half of the shop signage is in the Cyrillic alphabet. D's third form Russian is not really up to deciphering it. Much of the city appears to be being redeveloped and the traffic is horrendous. The bus crawls a couple of miles to a ferry quay where we transfer to a small passenger ferry and set out into the bay. Above us is a cable car, the longest anywhere in the world that crosses the sea, we are told. It connects the mainland with an island that has been bought by Vietnam's richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong. He has already built an amusement park and hotel and is currently building a shopping mall, which involves blasting away great chunks of the island. As we pass at a distance there is a loud bang and a cloud of dust where the latest blast has occurred.  

We are heading for a different island with a small sandy beach and a terrace filled with sunloungers. It is warm enough but the sun has signally failed to break through. The Russians have occupied the furniture on the beach so we are compelled to look down on them. We take a quick dip and the water temperature is quite comfortable but things get a bit crowded when some local entrepreneurs turn up to use the beach as a launchpad for their parascending business. None of our group are tempted to have a go.

Dien calls us to move on and we take another ferry and ride out towards the open sea. The waves build up a bit and R starts to look queasy until we turn back. There are lots of fishing boats out here and each one has a fibreglass coracle floating behind at the end of a rope. The boat is anchored about 50 metres offshore and we are invited to swim and look at the coral. D has his goggles and manages to see a few fish and some rocks covered in oysters before the water clouds up a bit. Hardly the Great Barrier Reef but something a bit different. 

For lunch we disembark at a bamboo thatched restaurant that has been rebuilt in the last two months since being obliterated by a typhoon. We sit in an airy upper room and enjoy oysters, clams and spring rolls. To be honest half the group run screaming from the oysters so there are plenty for those who like them. Afterwards a thing like a a savarin tin with a conical charcoal burner thrust up through the centre arrived full of broth containing beansprouts, lemongrass and chunks of fish. Is this the elusive Pho? We ask the staff who say "Fiss soup" and look at us as if we are daft. There is plenty of sticky rice, stewed greens, spare ribs and delicious kingfish in a spicy sauce to go with the soup.

Sated, we board the boat back to Nha Trang jetty. It starts to rain as we make the crossing so we are delighted that we have had the foresight to pay a bit extra for keeping the room until 6 pm. This means that we can get a shower, a cup of tea and pack at leisure. At checkout we have to remind them about last night's sandwiches. After the obligatory farce of loading the luggage the coach takes us to tonight's restaurant.

The Lanterns is a bit different, being a big open space above a shop. It is set out like a industrial canteen with long tables in parallel rows, but is open sided so there is a pleasant breeze. The food is tasty Vietnamese and plentiful and the drinks reasonably priced. We treat ourselves to a carafe of wine which is really rather good. The staff all seem very young but anxious to please. One odd thing is that the urinals in the gents each contain a large block of ice. We send the girls to check whether the lemon slices are kept in the ladies. The place seems to be doing well and we pass quite a queue on the way out.

As we head for the station on the bus Dien explains that the restaurant was founded by an Australian who wanted to provide employment opportunities for Vietnamese orphans. Good on 'im. The streets of Nha Trang are decked out with illuminations, a bit like Park Street in Kolkata except that they work properly. These go up for Christmas and stay until Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, which is during February in 2018. The waiting room at the Ga Nha Trang is very Indian, with steel seats, high ceilings and lots of fans. Our train arrives on time and we climb aboard. Half the party are in a modern coach and half in an old one, including us. We don't mind as we have realised that the beds are wider in the older coaches. The fuss made about the bed linen in the other compartments is something to behold. God help them if they ever take the Rajasthan Sampark Kranti to Jodhpur.