Beach Bums

Today we slept in, had eggs and toast for breakfast, then walked one block to the beach. Nha Trang is kind of touristy in a Gold Coast/Maui way, but the beach is still beautiful, and there are plenty of grass shade umbrellas and lounge chairs with cushions on the sand. We sat in the shade for a while, just enjoying the ocean view. We found it funny (not really) that most of the westerners were out in the blazing hot sun, frying themselves up and cooking their skin and all of the Vietnamese people were fully covered up with hats, sitting in the shade. Most Asian cultures view tanned skin as unfashionable as most dark people are assumed to be farmers and peasants. The women especially go to great lengths to keep the sun off their skin, including using whitening creams and wearing full length gloves, a hat, and even a scarf covering their faces except for their eyes. Then Nigel went and had an hour massage (on the beach) while Kel read her book. Then Kel went and had an hour massage while Nige read Kel's book. We had a nice lunch on the beach afterwards. Late in the afternoon, the wind picks up, and we'd had enough sun anyway, so we went to the local pub next door to our hotel for a 'bia hoi' (draught beer). We sat on tiny plastic stools on the street at tiny plastic tables and drank beer served in a tiny plastic bottle...actually, it wasn't a tiny bottle, as it was a litre. And it only cost 25 cents AU. Despite the price, it was actually good and ice cold. They did try to trick us into thinking we were about to have a good Mexican beer though, as it's called San Miguel. We then went to a great Italian place for dinner, called Little Italy. We had a fresh pasta meal for dinner (our first pasta since Mac and Cheese for Christmas in China) and it was surprisingly fantastic. After such a trying day, we were exhausted and headed to bed.