Day 8- April 24, 2009

Hoang
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Day 8: Nha Trang

I started my day at the breakfast buffet. I had a full plate of the local fruits like papaya, dragon fruit, passion fruit and water melon. I also couldn’t resist the steamed dumplings, salted eggs and bowls of beef noodle soup. After finishing my second pot of green tea, I joined my group for a tour at the Yersin Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Yersin) which is next to our hotel, the Sunrise Nhatrang Resort.

The group didn’t have to meet again until 5:30pm so I decided to visit the local market, the Dam Market. I got some small gifts for my nieces and nephew. My nephew probably will enjoy the miniature black metal cyclo. I also got my nieces similar bikes but they were more girly. They can use their collection of tiny stickers to decorate the bike. I couldn’t resist collecting different sizes of purses made from colorful plastic crystals for my nieces. All of them range from $1.5 to $3. I bought a small size wooden lamp in the shape of a courtyard lantern for $7. When I got back I showed the ladies what I bought and they really liked it. Miss Helen and I went back so she could buy some things for her grandchildren too.

I still had a couple of hours before dinner time so I took a long, slow walk along the beach. I enjoyed watching a group of guys passing a ball around in a circle. Other locals were out too, either walking along the beach on the clean white sand or swimming in the warm and clear water. I stopped at the private beach of our hotel and lied on a lounge chair. I ended up falling asleep and the next thing I knew 40 minutes had passed by. The cool, breezy weather by the beach was very soothing.

The group met at the hotel lobby at 5 pm. Miss Denyce enjoyed showing her first-time polished nails to everyone that she got done the day before at the private island of Chef Khai. She forgot that she had already showed them to me though. She insisted that I had to take a picture of her new nails. I took some group pictures of everyone while they lined up at the staircase near the lobby. The group then headed to Chef Khai’s childhood home. Chef Khai’s sisters greeted everyone at the gate with pink lotus flowers. And then each of us got handed a special drink of fresh sugarcane juice with Grey Goose and orange slices while other relatives of Chef Khai’s served us seafood crispy rolls, roasted mussels with fried green shallots and barbecued pork rolled with rice noodles. The group then surrounded Mr. Goerg to sing “happy birthday” to him while he blew out the candles on his surprise birthday cake that was presented by Chef Khai.

At about 7:30pm, the group went for dinner at Bien Ngoc Restaurant by Nhatrang beach. We were all still so full from the food that was served at Chef Khai’s home but couldn’t resist some shaking beef, steamed mussels, barbecued and fried fish dishes.... all the while with candle light and breezy weather. Mrs. Chu walked around and offered everyone Baileys and Grand Manier that she had brought from Hong Kong and San Francisco. On the way back to the hotel, the “happy birthday” song was sung a few more times to Mr. Goerg through our laughter.