Last day in Nha Trang.
At daybreak, when Jim was up, there were dozens of people doing what looked like Tai Chi alongside the ocean in the park area, and lots of people swimming.
We eat our leftover bakery items for breakfast and sit out on the hotel room lanai in the blinding early morning sunlight sipping coffee and tea.
This morning's purpose: find the sports store we were in yesterday. I want to try on--and purchase--some sports pants that I spotted yesterday. Trouble is, we can't recall the little store's exact location.
We walk up and down streets where vendors are already lighting their cooking fires, walking their wares, and calling out to come into their shops.
So much construction, remodeling of flats and laying of stone tile sidewalks. We dodge the motorbikes, bicycles, cars and occasional bus when we cross streets. We can't find the sports store.
But we do find the Hawaii cafe.
And the post office, where I buy and mail my mom a promised post card.
Sultry finally gets to us. We stop in for an air conditioned breather at the big department-type store along the beach road. We were in here yesterday, too--and today try on a few things once our sweat dries. We buy! Deb gets a super-nice linen skirt and top for work and Jim a linen shirt.
Revived but not crazy, we hail a taxi--they all have AC--to take us to a restaurant a couple of kilometers down the road.
Lunch smells like smoky garlic but alas, not as tasty as Da Lat.
Spring rolls, mushroom soup, chicken with veggies and white rice cone. And since I didn't want mine spicy, Jim's "yes, spicy for me" gets him a visitor-level of heat.
Two rotating fans cool us and the other diners.
We can't let go of the hunt for that elusive sports shop. Once more we re-talk our wanderings from yesterday, and think we've finally remembered which street the store is on. On the way we come across a bakery and ice cream store, and vow to return after this final hunt for the store.
We find the store!!! but Disappointment. The pants are too baggy. No other sizes. No purchase.
But the ice cream store is two blocks away. I pop out my umbrella against the sun and we troop back to sample the homemade flavors: a tiny sample of durian (no kidding, and it was kinda good), then fully committed to fast-melting tiramisu and cheese cake.
Taxi back to the hotel for a relaxing hour of internet and reading. Watching the ocean from our terrace, we decide to get onto the sand but between our 7th floor room and the front door of the hotel the rain ensues--can no longer even see the sand or the ocean which is just across the street. We're pinned in for a couple hours of TV and reading and watching the landscape fade into wet and the streets become temporary rivers. Then at 6 p.m. as appointed, we make a quick round-trip taxi ride in the downpour to pick up our $1.50 laundry. The taxi ride cost as much as the laundry...doesn't that seem odd?
We stuff our backpacks with our clean clothes and our new clothes and are ready to burn our fatigued, current clothes. But won't. It will be hot in Siem Reap, Cambodia, tomorrow, and Angor Wat the following day, and no one will notice our wilted wardrobe.
At daybreak, when Jim was up, there were dozens of people doing what looked like Tai Chi alongside the ocean in the park area, and lots of people swimming.
We eat our leftover bakery items for breakfast and sit out on the hotel room lanai in the blinding early morning sunlight sipping coffee and tea.
This morning's purpose: find the sports store we were in yesterday. I want to try on--and purchase--some sports pants that I spotted yesterday. Trouble is, we can't recall the little store's exact location.
We walk up and down streets where vendors are already lighting their cooking fires, walking their wares, and calling out to come into their shops. 
So much construction, remodeling of flats and laying of stone tile sidewalks. We dodge the motorbikes, bicycles, cars and occasional bus when we cross streets. We can't find the sports store. But we do find the Hawaii cafe.
And the post office, where I buy and mail my mom a promised post card.
Sultry finally gets to us. We stop in for an air conditioned breather at the big department-type store along the beach road. We were in here yesterday, too--and today try on a few things once our sweat dries. We buy! Deb gets a super-nice linen skirt and top for work and Jim a linen shirt.
Revived but not crazy, we hail a taxi--they all have AC--to take us to a restaurant a couple of kilometers down the road.
Lunch smells like smoky garlic but alas, not as tasty as Da Lat.
Spring rolls, mushroom soup, chicken with veggies and white rice cone. And since I didn't want mine spicy, Jim's "yes, spicy for me" gets him a visitor-level of heat.
Two rotating fans cool us and the other diners.
We can't let go of the hunt for that elusive sports shop. Once more we re-talk our wanderings from yesterday, and think we've finally remembered which street the store is on. On the way we come across a bakery and ice cream store, and vow to return after this final hunt for the store.
We find the store!!! but Disappointment. The pants are too baggy. No other sizes. No purchase.
But the ice cream store is two blocks away. I pop out my umbrella against the sun and we troop back to sample the homemade flavors: a tiny sample of durian (no kidding, and it was kinda good), then fully committed to fast-melting tiramisu and cheese cake.
We stuff our backpacks with our clean clothes and our new clothes and are ready to burn our fatigued, current clothes. But won't. It will be hot in Siem Reap, Cambodia, tomorrow, and Angor Wat the following day, and no one will notice our wilted wardrobe.
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