Greetings from Nha Trang

This is not the Vietnam they show you in movies about the war. This is the Vietnam of sandy beaches, palm trees, the sun setting over the mountains in the ocean as you sit on the deck of the Sailing Club sipping a rum and pineapple juice. This is my kind of Vietnam.

There's a lot to love about Nha Trang. The water is just this side of hot-tub warm and crystal clear, and because of the breeze from the ocean it doesn't seem as hot as the other cities we've visited. There are vendors walking up and down the beach selling paperback books — which gets annoying after a while, but you have to admit, it's kind of a neat idea (especially since Nick Hornby seems to be quite popular in Vietnam). There are cafes where you can feast on banana pancakes or coconut ice cream or something that actually tastes like a hamburger — along with several beers — for what it would cost you to buy gum and a Coke in the U.S.

Yesterday, Ellen and I decided to take a walk inland to see this enormous white statue of the Buddha. You'd think an enormous statue of the Buddha would be easy to find, but neither of us had counted on my sense of direction. We ended up hot, thirsty, sticky, dusty and gasping from the smell that permeated everything surrounding us. Apparently, Sunday is trash day in Nha Trang.

We'd finally reached the temple, only to discover that the kindly old man who'd escorted us through its precincts wanted a whole lot of money for the favor. I'd decided I'd just about had it with everything — with the heat, the smell, the almost getting run down by a motorbike every time I ventured near the curb, with the constant parade of vendors asking if I wanted postcards, a motorbike ride, a shoe shine. I don't even wear shoes!

And then, as I descended the temple stairs, I looked to my left and saw the side of Nha Trang I hadn't seen until then — the houses made entirely of corrugated tin, the dirt roads where babies and dogs and intestinal parasites played together, the homes that made our one-star hotel on the beach look like the greatest mansion in Palm Springs by comparison. It put things into perspective for me, and made me think again about why I'm here.