A day in Phan Thiet Jan 5

I had to make an ATM run so set off at 8AM this morning on the local bus for the 30 something km trip to Phan Thiet. That ride cost 10,000 dong, 50 cents.

The bus was pretty good and my seat was near the back. The driver was going fast for in town and every time we hit a raised spot in the road I was tossed in the air not touching the seat or the floor. It was happening about every 10 seconds for a short while and I started to laugh out loud causing the ticket girl to give me "the look".

When I arrived at the shopping center at 8:30 everything was open for business and the parking lot already full.

This is one of the streets which leads to the highway. Empty at 9:30AM. The streets in the older part of town were smaller though.

The bank was open too, so since I was done the necessities, I began to explore.

I walked to the sea side where it looks just like here.

was a nice breeze though so I sat and got out my book but had too many interesting visitors to read. There was a woman selling peanuts. She gave me one to try and they were mushy, probably boiled. Then a beggar stopped and after her a college student who spent some time chatting and practicing English with me.

Later I walked the other direction to the old town. I passed this along the way which I took to be a hearse.

I walked down an alley way that I didn't really like to have a look at this temple. This is the temple gate.

It was a smaller temple ......

.....with two lovely dragons on the steps.

From there I walked across the bridge to the old section hoping to see the buildings that survived the war.

Fishing boats on the river.

Parks are numerous and nice in Vietnam.

A flowering shrub. Flower for today.

I found this old building but didn't get very much further on that quest. Almost every store and building had a small but agressive dog and I was not comfortable with them running out at me growling and barking.

Nice statues of warriors but, of course, I couldn't read the informatiion.

Sometimes being your own guide is a disadvantage.

I am just having supper and blogging. I will catch some TV later. I have a couple of movie channels in English.

I really miss facebook. I think it is blocked in the whole country.

Now I really feel cut off from the home news.

Hard to believe I only have three days of beach time left.