jasondorfman.net

Vietnamese tourists love the beaches of the coastal town of Nha Trang.  It is also become very popular with foreign visitors as well and with good reason.  The beaches are long an beautiful, but the city (at least not yet - it is growing fast) has not fallen into the resort like tourist trap like Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

I enjoyed the Long Sun Pagoda, Tram Towers, and little side villages where I met local fisherman making lines and the stores selling pickled sea horses in mason jars - but my personal highlight was meeting a multiple award winning Vietnamese photographer in his  Nha Tran studio.  I spent an hour talking to him about the Vietnamese people, his approach to photography, and the small B&W dark room he works out of.  I can’t wait to frame and hang up the beautiful signed print of women working the salt fields of Ninh Diem for everyone to see.

Maybe the second best highlight is when I yelled at a kid in the Oceanographic Museum for hitting a sea turtle with his sandal.  The whole place went quiet and I believe he deuced his trousers.  Justice served.

Oh, speaking of sandals, I am currently in Hội An which has over three hundred custom tailors ready to make you any piece of clothing you can imagine.  I am having leather sandals with a Vietnam star stitched on the side and a new shirt.  Ready in 12 hours!