Cam Ranh

This stop was originally scheduled to be in Nha Trang. However, after finding structural issues with the wharf in Nha Trang it was moved to Cam Ranh, which is some 30 miles south. Cam Ranh Bay is an enormous and has been used as a naval base for many years. The Japanese used it in WW2, the US used it during the Vietnam War, and the Vietnamese use it today. As evidence of this a Vietnamese submarine cruised by us as we entered the bay.

The change in venue meant that we did not have any real plans here. The ship offered two shuttles: one to a resort along the beach, and one to a “mall” in the city. We waffled between the two, but the weather was cloudy and windy, so we opted to go into the city.

It was about a 45-minute bus ride to the dropoff point. Once there we wanted to walk a bit, so we went up to a martyr’s memorial at the end of the boulevard the mall was on. It was not a real long walk, but it was nice to be out. We had no guide and couldn’t read the Vietnamese inscriptions at the memorial, but it appeared to be a cemetery for those who died in the 20th century conflicts, whether fighting the Japanese, the French, or the US. We were the only people there, and it was quite peaceful to walk around. The memorial is built on a low hill, which gave nice views back toward the town.

We walked back to the mall to see what that was about. It turned out to be one large grocery store with some satellite stores and food places attached. Most of the food places were closed. We did find a game in one of the smaller stores that we purchased for our nephew. With nothing else to see, we went out to catch the bus back to the dock. Unfortunately, many others clearly had run out of things to do and had the same idea. When the bus came, it went to a different spot than where we’d been dropped off. This caused a big shuffle over to the new pickup spot, and made the back of the line the front. The upshot was that there were no seats left when we went to get on the bus. So we had to wait an hour for the next one. We got some snacks and drinks from the one food place that was open and killed some time.

We’d reserved a spot in Toscana to celebrate Thomas’s birthday – one day early as on the 2nd we have a private tour set up that won’t get us back to the ship until the evening. To make it more of an event we invited Ken, Jennifer, Mike, and Sarah. They were all there promptly and six of us sat down while Liz dawdled with Thomas in the room. He didn’t know we’d have companions so he was pleasantly surprised when he came in. The others brought gifts, which was really wonderful. It was a very nice dinner to celebrate our new teenager.Read more