Vinpearl

Yesterday we all went to Vinpearl, Vietnam's version of Disneyland. It was a rainy, windy day, but we all had a great time. Vinpearl is on an island, and we took an aerial tram across the two miles of ocean to get there. With the wind, it was the scariest ride of the day, although I'm sure the new, Swiss-engineered tram is quite safe. Amusement park safety standards are pretty lax, so we used our discretion and passed up several rides. There are all kinds of huge, scary waterslides and we all had a blast climbing big towers and sliding down at high speed. We all had various bumps and bruises but we survived the day. We had vowed to find a boat to take us back to the mainland, but the wind let up and we took the tram.

We have had a great time here in Nha Trang, staying at Carlos house, just a couple of blocks from the beach. It is a narrow, three story house with twelve foot ceilings on each floor, three bedrooms and four baths with two big verandas that overlook several soccer fields where dozens of people are playing in multiple different games, often to rousing Communist marches blaring over the tinny PA system.

At dawn there are hundreds of people of all ages, including the elderly out along the beach doing Tai Chi and calisthenics as the sun rises up out of the S. China sea. I go out first thing in the mornings in search of Vietnamese coffee and French pastries, both of which I have become addicted to. There are so many great restaurants here including French, Indian and German when you need a break from Vietnamese cuisine. All of them are ridiculously inexpensive.

Carlos had his driver take Jeannie and Heidi to the big outdoor market and buy big prawns and loads of produce. Carlos brought home a bunch of fish from his operation and we had a great barbeque feast. Today we are going to jump on a bus and head up into the mountains to the city of Da Lat.