We've been in Australia a bit over two weeks, so I need to stop the laziness and catch all of you up on our last cruise. We saw several cities that were fascinating and have tons of photos to share. 

We stopped in Nha Trang, a city that thrives on tourism . The beautiful beach front is ringed by very nice hotels and tourists from Russia and all over Europe, as well as Asia, vacation in Nha Trang. We drove past beautiful parks and waterfront, making our way to the Towers of Po Nagar, red brick towers on a hill that are evidence of the ancient Cham civilization. They were built between the 8th and 12th centuries for Hindu worship. People still come here to take wedding photos and worship the Hindu gods. 

Our next stop was at the Hong Son Pagoda, founded in the late 19th century, and rebuilt several times since. A huge white Buddha seated on a lotus blosson is on the hill above the Pagoda. Since there were 152 steps up to the Buddha, we viewed it from below, and then went into the Pagoda to see the statues and altars for Buddhist worship. Everyone had to don long skirts for modesty to enter the pagoda but it was very interesting to see the altars and statues.

Our last stop was at a more modern embroidery workshop where women created amazing and intricate embroidered pictures by hand. These pictures were as fine as paintings and we watched the women working. This is difficult and detailed work that they do for eight or more hours every day. Heading back to the ship, we noticed that the traffic in Nha Trang was similiar to every other Vietnamese city. Many motoscooters drive in all directions on the road narrowly passing the cars and buses. They carry everything on those scooters and use them as all purpose vehicles. It's different and eye-catching, for sure.