Nha Trang--A Russian Playground--June 29, 2014

For a minute I thought I was back in Russia because most of the advertising signs for Restaurants, Tours, shops, massage parlors, and hotels were in both Russian and Vietnamese. A few were also in English. One of the tour guides explained to me that for Russians to visit Vietnam, there is no Visa requirement. and that they have very cheap flights from Russia into Vietnam. As the weather turns colder in Russia, Nha Trang experiences a flood of Russian tourists with their families along with couples and singles.

I had planned to go out on a "party" boat for a visit to a number of islands, snorkel a few times and then eat and drink our way back to Nha Trang, but the weather did not cooperate. At times it rained so hard you could have snorkeled back to my hotel.

Fortunately, by afternoon, the rain clouds moved on and it cleared up enough for me to take a stroll along the beachfront on a paved walkway with restaurants and massage parlor offerings along with all types of water sports ranging from kite surfing to jet skiing.

Check out the warning sign in Russian at the beach.

I again ran into Carmen and Janno at a nearby restaurant and they too had just walked around the area and did a bit of sunning on the beach. They were eager to get down to Ho Chi Minh City and fly to New Zealand to start their new adventure there.

World Cup fever has overtaken all of the restaurants and bars in town with drink specials and big flat-screen TVs for all to watch.