Nha Trang, Vietnam (Apr 2-6)

Nha Trang

Last night in Nha Trang, a vacation town on the ocean in middle Vietnam. It is a good litmus test for how capitalism is coming along in the country. The 5-star resort we were staying was the Sofitel Vin Pearl, built on its own Island about 3 Km off the coast. The resort hotel is beautiful, on a picturesque bay, with pristine white sand beach (kept that way by Vietnamese workers who pick up seaweed from it all day – you know labor is cheap when people are cleaning your beach). The resort was built about 2 years ago, and is accompanied by VinPearl Land, an amusement park with shopping center. The third stage of the project, a huge vacation community with condo’s and additional hotels will start next year. To get out to the Island, they have built the world’s largest Cable Car. From Nha Trang City, it looms as a hideous reminder what developers can do, even to pristine landscape. Luckily, from the hotel side of the Island, you can’t see it.

However, this place is basically empty. Its vacation season here, Nha Trang the city is bustling, but the resort is pretty much a ghost town. I think I saw maybe 50 people at the amusement park while I was here. Nobody ever seems to be on the cable car. The lesson I think is simple. Yes, Vietnam has great potential, and in the coming decades, developers will work hard to capture that potential. But….this stuff always takes much more time than people think. We ran into an American named Lou who works in the medical equipment business, who spoke about how quickly this place was taking off. It sounded similar to Melbourne-ites talking about Docklands. Things take time. The Vin Pearl though, is THE place in town.

This has been the absolutely idle, blissful holiday from the vacation that I wanted it to be. I basically did nothing. The last two days, I slept on the beach all day long, reading, meditating, swimming, eating, sleeping. Nobody really here to meet except Russian families and Asian tourists. Nothing really to do (there were bought trips and diving, but I opted out). I did go to town to do laundry and shop at the market, where I bought a $3 Diesel tee-shirt. But that’s about it. I have regained the calm I had back in Sydney, meditating in the gardens.

Seder Via Skype
One of the highlights of my trip so far, was virtually attending the Oleinick family’s Pesach Seder. On both ends, we hooked up Skype with a video camera and at 4:30 Am on Tuesday morning (5:30 PM on Monday Night in Cleveland, Ohio, 10,000 miles away) I joined in on my family’s Seder. I have only missed one Seder with my family, and that was 13 years ago when I was in Israel for a year. Every other year of my life, we have been together, along with 5-15 guests to drink, make jokes and read the story of the Jews departure from Egypt lo those many years ago. A few weeks ago, I thought of the idea of video conferencing in and helped the ‘rents set up their end.

It was truly an amazing experience. I felt like I really was there, with them, with my family and friends, celebrating the holiday. I even downloaded an open source copy of the Haggadah so that I could read, sing and pray along. Also attending, were the Schoenberg Jones (who we have been doing Seder’s with for almost two decades), my sister and my two nieces (Addi and Kasey), my Aunt Barbara, my grandma, and other friends of the family. I got to read aloud about the Matzah (why do we eat this?). every once in a while, I would ask my mom to “turn me” so I could face another part of the table. Very cool. And when they said the Motzi and were ready to eat, it was exactly 6:00 AM here, the time when breakfast is open – so I went and had a Pesach meal of my own of egg omelette. You have to treasure the time you have together.

The Sailing Club
Nha Trang has a very cool tourist scene. Though there are not too many bars and clubs, the few they have are top grade. We spent most of our time at the Sailing Club, which gets packed by 12 midnight, with a DJ that is one of the best I have ever heard (who would have thought?). Some of his mixes, throwing together 60’s hit “are you going to San Francisco?” with techno beats and Michael Jackson, are crazy good. The crowd is as international as you would expect. About 50% are locals or other Vietnamese. Lot’s of Brits, some Israeli’s, Russians, French. Nha Trang, in general, is becoming infiltrated with Russian and Eastern Block tourists, who are as close to here as they are to the Caribbean, but this is 1/5 the price.

I met a lot of people out. Also, I love it because it’s the first place with consistently good music for dancing, and have been averaging about 3 hours dancing a night. The first night here, I met Natalie, a Frenchie, who was rocking it on the dance floor. A great dancer. We fooled around, but I didn’t want to push it farther. The second night, I met Jeanine, a German who was with her friend Tom (not his real name, but I never could get what his name was). Tom had been living in Nha Trang since December because he wanted a vacation and this was the cheapest place he could find. In Germany, he and his business partner provided police and army props for movies. Tom hadn’t been in the Sailing Club yet. I know Jeanine and Tom were going out, but that didn’t seem to stop Jeanine from acting. Later that night, as I was going to leave, I met a Russian girl and we made out for a while as well.

Probably the most beautiful girl I have met on the trip so far was Hayli the Israeli. I met her the third night at the Sailing Club. Her gorgeous dark curly hair and face were radiant. And then I found out she was Jewish. Too bad, Ronen, her boyfriend of many months, was along for the ride. He was a cool guy, but…..