Belated posting
Saigon. November 5, 2001
Just back from a long weekend in Nha Trang, one of Vietnam’s coastal towns, with Chuong. I left the office at 2 on Friday and was sitting on the beach in Nha Trang by 4. The flight is less than an hour, and the airport is about 200 meters from the coast. Chuong picked me up from the airport and took me straight out to the Café Lousiane where we hung out on the beach chairs in the unseasonable sunny weather we were lucky to have. We then dropped by some friends’ where we were staying, and later in the evening went back out around town. Chuong also took me to the Ana Mandara resort – one of Vietnam’s nicest – where we sat at a private table on a dock and shared Grand Marnier’s with the full moon and its glorious reflection.

Our weekend in Nha Trang met us with perfect weather – it rained only at night or while we were indoors – and we managed to take a little motor boat along the Cai River, where Chuong owns some property. He also drove me all around the small town by motorbike along the main roadway where kids play soccer in the middle of the street. Nha Trang is really sweet, but unfortunately, it’s undergoing a lot of construction. Chuong and I have decided that what each town in Vietnam needs is an Aesthetics Director. The Vietnamese have supremely bad taste in quite a lot of things, and the construction of a WATER PARK along BEACH FRONT property is typical of their inanity.

Chuong was raised in Nha Trang, and half the town still knows his father. We had a jellyfish noodle soup at a place he frequented for 40 years. I also got to go to Hon Chong, a rocky overlook near a small bayside area of the ocean (I’ll send a few photos later) and had snails, cuttlefish, and clams by the shore. Sunday afternoon we spent outside of the city at Anh’s house, a friend of Chuong’s, where we had a local dish called “Goi Ca.” It’s a salad dish with fresh fish and endives that you roll in rice paper and dip in a special soupy egg-drop sauce. By late afternoon, he and I were back on the plane to head for Saigon and I was ready again for western cooking (this time, I’m craving good salsa and enchiladas).

I’m back in the office with a book to layout by Thursday and a flight to catch on Friday. It looks like Jeff is coming for REAL and we’re gonna visit the north by week’s end.
H.