Nha Trang

Nha Trang, shot from one of the many hills surrounding it.

Nha Trang is known primarily as a beach resort, with several kilometres of beaches and the heart of the town built around it. It has excellent seafood and is as popular with Vietnamese tourists as it is with foreigners. I'm not a big beach enthusiast myself, so I'm happy to report that it has several other fascinating tourist sites, including the Long Son Pagoda, the Oceanographic Institute, Salingane Island (where swift nests are harvested), and the Yersin Museum at the Pasteur Institute. I loved the latter: Alexandre Yersin founded the Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang, and the museum there is about him. This is a man who collected an immense number of techno-toys - from 1900 to 1930! A fascinating collection, including 400 black and white stereo slides that Yersin shot of the area around Nha Trang. The curator was kind enough to show me about ten of them in the wonderful original 3-D viewer, and it was utterly fascinating. I should perhaps mention that Yersin was also a good scientist in his own right: among other things, he isolated the Bubonic Plague bacteria.