Nha Trang

I knew I had to be in Bangkok on February 20 so my time in Vietnam was limited. I wasn't sure if I'd be back, so I had to pick the one spot I most wanted see. I really wanted to see Halong Bay, but that's in the far north, so it didn't make sense to travel to the other end of the country. I chose Nha Trang.

It's the top beach destination in Vietnam, as well as the top scuba spot. Hard to go wrong.

The beach is long and wide and gorgeous and ... empty.



It was a pleasant change after Thailand, where sunbeds literally cover the beaches. There were only a few vendors walking the beach, whereas in Thailand I'd have to fend off 10 or 12 per minute, and that's no exaggeration.

On the other hand, Nha Trang has a reputation for being a dangerous place. Everyone you meet in Southeast Asia has a story about someone they met who was robbed or beaten up in Nha Trang.

Surely some of these stories are apocryphal. But the locals I talked to warned me that, yes, as a Western tourist, I needed to be careful. Most of the warnings were of the "don't get drunk and do anything stupid" variety, which hold true anywhere.

But I talked to a guy at a dive shop who said one of his clients fell asleep on the beach and woke up robbed -- and naked. In broad daylight. One thing I was told to look out for was a group of unusually friendly women approaching. I was told to run away or yell at them. That's because they will approach a Western man as if to flirt, then beat him up and rob him.

So it was lucky that I met what I thought was a young Vietnamese couple on a boat trip. It turns out that he lives in Saigon. She's lived in Australia for eight years. They're childhood friends, and were hanging out while she was home visiting friends and family.

They took me to some real Vietnamese restaurants, where locals hang out. I got to try lots of fun food I would never have known how even order, let alone eat. I treated them to dinner one night. An appetizer and soup for three for $3. I couldn't eat alone that cheaply at one of the tourist restaurants downtown.

The boat tour is basically required of tourists in Nha Trang. They all follow the same itinerary. Here's a shot looking back at all the tour boats at the dock as we were departing.



We stopped at a really lousy snorkeling spot, then had lunch on the water. It was a pretty decent spread.



Next to us was a series of lobster farms. Here's a guy tending the nets, and one of the world's unluckiest dogs, living on a manmade island with no shade.



The water is gorgeous and clear.



After lunch the entertainment began. I was dreading this part, but it was actually a lot of fun. One of the boat boys plays a decent guitar. Another fashioned a drumset out of plastic buckets and hubcaps. Our tour guide was the singer.

He pulled people out of the group from different countries and had them sing along to a song from wherever they were from. Apparently the "band" did a passable job. Here is a terribly shy Korean girl who got pulled up on stage, but ended up enjoying herself, despite her protestations.



I was the only American on the boat so of course I lied and said I was Australian. Vietnam is a country where it's better not to draw attention to yourself if you're American, as I was to learn.

After lunch we all jumped in the water, a bunch of floats were thrown in after us, and we all floated around as our tourguide poured wine from a floating bar. You can see the glare off my bald white head.



(That was several weeks ago. Since then I've actually spent enough time in the sun that, for the first time in perhaps 15 years, I have a tan.)

When I got back on the boat I discovered that my snorkel and mask were missing. The brand spanking new one I had bought on Koh Tao in November and only used for the second time that day. The equipment I paid $65 for and hoped to use the next day when I went diving.

I notified the tour guide, who made a show of being concerned. But he no doubt knew what I knew, that it was a member of the crew who took it. Only someone familiar with such equipment would know that my mask was a good one.

I went to complain to the tour office onshore but they wouldn't help me. I talked to an Austrian ex-pat who owns a tour agency there and he said to forget about it. He said the police don't speak English, and even if they did, they wouldn't help an American. He added that it would not be in my interests to draw attention to myself. So it turned out to be an expensive day on the water....

So, if you are in Nha Trang, by all means take one of the boat tours, but DO NOT go with the Mama Linh company.

Favorite sign of the trip

This is the travel agency where I bought my plane ticket from Saigon to Bangkok. It's run by an Austrian ex-pat. There are so many places that claim to be "Number 1" or have the "best price". I just love his honesty.

Imagine what his commercials would be like.

I don't want to go out on a limb here ... but I think we're pretty good.

My life as a non-sex tourist

Southeast Asia, and Thailand specifically, and Bangkok even more specifically, are famous as destinations for sex tourists. For reasons I won't go into here -- stacks of books have been written on the subject, after all -- the culture here is more tolerant of prostitution. There are few places in the world where a man can walk down the street or sit in a restaurant with a woman (or man) who is obviously a prostitute without inviting public scorn.

Expatriates, or expats, are people who take up residence in a foreign country. Southeast Asia has its own variety, men who move here to enjoy the sex trade. They're called sexpats.

I haven't sampled the wares, so to speak. Honest. But I can't help but wonder what it would be like to be a sex tourist. I see men all over the region traveling with women who -- I'm going to go out on a limb here -- are being paid for their company. They travel with them for days or weeks, to beaches, on boat trips, etc.

How would it feel to be a Western guy walking down the street with a Southeast Asian woman? What kind of looks would I get? (And what the heck do they talk about?!)

Now I know.

Sort of.

While I was visiting the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh I was approached by a Southeast Asian woman. She was friendly, gorgeous and effortlessly glamorous. I had no idea how to react... Something was going on that was beyond my experience.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover she was another solo tourist from Indonesia. She wanted to know if I was having any luck deciphering the map. (I wasn't.) We were both planning on visiting the main tourist sites in Phnom Penh so we spent the day sightseeing together.

Until she mentioned it I had never thought about it, but you just don't see Southeast Asian women traveling alone in Southeast Asia.

Luckily she has a sense of humor, because no matter where she goes in SE Asia she looks just enough like a local that other locals assume she is a prostitute.

We went to a club one night. A guy checked me through security while a woman checked her. The security woman spoke to her in Khmer. I heard her saying "I'm sorry, I don't understand. I'm Indonesian." It was like that everywhere she said. Locals speak to her in the local language.

When she pointed out that everyone assumed she was a prostitute I realized that meant that everyone assumed I was a sex tourist! I noticed the looks we got. Because men assumed she was a prostitute they made no secret about looking her up and down and then sizing me up.

There were more prostitutes in the bar than actual customers, and they all gave her nasty looks, presumably because they didn't recognize her and thought she was poaching on their turf.

When she got up to use the toilet or take a photo two or three of the local girls would approach me instantly, trying to arrange a future business transaction.

I had wondered what the girly bars were like in Bangkok but was afraid to check them out. I just wanted to see the inside of one. I had hoped to find a group of people to go with but hadn't had any luck.

I am pretty fearless in some ways. Traveling 5,000 miles on a train through Siberia didn't scare me at all. But there is no way I'd go into a go-go bar by myself. I'd be helpless!

So it was quite a learning experience to visit one with a Southeast Asian woman.

In Nha Trang, Vietnam I met what I thought was a young Vietnamese couple on a boat trip. It turns out they were childhood friends. She had been living in Australia for years and was home visiting friends and family.

I hung out with them for two days until he had to go back to Saigon for work. I hung out with her for two days after he left.

In Vietnam the sex trade isn't as prominent as in Thailand, but it's there. It's not quite as accepted, though. In Bangkok, for instance, hotels and guest houses will charge a fee for any "guest" who stays the night. In Vietnam most guest houses don't allow "guests" at all.

My Vietnamese friend is a gorgeous young woman. She was concerned about how people would react to seeing us together. We were just eating, drinking and sitting on the beach together, but she's obviously Vietnamese, and I'm obviously not, so we did get some looks.

So now I know how it feels to be a sex tourist in Southeast Asia. Except without the sex.

Somehow, somewhere, something went terribly wrong....

Rough Morning Vietnam

I know, I know ... it's a pretty weak title for a blog post. Even worse than The Secret Treehouse, which sounds like a Hardy Boys mystery. Bear with me. I'm feeling a little rough around the edges after a couple nights checking out the nightlife in Saigon.

I generally don't go out drinking when I travel. It's expensive, for starters. From what I've seen bars everywhere look the same for the most part, and drunks all look and sound the same, no matter where they're from or which language they speak.

If I have people to hang out with I'll go out, but I don't like going to bars by myself.

But perhaps the best reason for not going clubbing while traveling is that I end up waking up feeling the way I did today and wasting an entire day. I thought I'd spend the day bringing the blog up to date but the creative juices just aren't flowing. It's hard to write when your muse is nursing a hangover. I've got a lot to write about from Cambodia and Vietnam, but not today.

I've been wrestling with a long post about Phnom Penh, but I'm still trying to get my head around the place. It's fascinating, exhilarating, wild, beautiful, horrifying and sometimes dangerous. I'm intrigued by Cambodia, probably more so than any other country I've visited. Of all the countries I've visited, this is the one I'd like to spend more time in and get to know more intimately.

Tonight I'm heading to Nha Trang, which is supposed to be the best beach and scuba spot in Vietnam. I'm taking a sleeper bus for the first time. It has actual beds, so I might actually get some rest. I'll hang out there for a few days and then fly back to Bangkok. A friend of mine from the US is joining me there and we're going to do some diving. I'm looking forward to having a travel buddy for a while.