Ca Na
At the Beach!!!

October 16-19, 2003

Kath here . . .

We have been getting pretty tired from traveling in big cities with lots of resorts and people approaching us to sell things. We both wanted a break from that so that we could spend time with the ocean. We asked around and everyone said the best beach towns were in Nha Trang and Mui Ne. These also happen to be the places where the tour buses stop . . . so we took a gamble and stopped at a beach town called Ca Na. Apparently very few people stop there, so the bus driver "forgot" to drop us off. When we realized we had passed by the city, we had to fight to get him to drive back and drop us off.

After walking a little bit, we found a sweet little bungalow right on the beach. The above two photos are taken from the bungalow's back porch.

On our second day in Ca Na we went searching for a mask so we could check out the coral while swimming. We met two new friends, Be and Dat. Neither spoke any English, but through a series of hand signals we managed to communicate our desire to buy a mask. Dat took us into a local's shop and they sold us one of their kid's masks at a ridiculously low price. Then we spent about 4 hours with these kids: eating ice cream, swimming, and taking photos.

After being approached 80 times in a day by people in Nha Trang, most of whom were trying to rip us off, it was a welcome and needed reminder of the beauty of human relations and friendship. I really needed that reminder. Although we couldn't speak the same language, I never felt like we couldn't communicate sufficiently with them. They were awesome. Thank you, Be and Dat.

Dana here...

We hiked up to the temple on the hill for the view of Big City Ca Na...

   
Daily it would rain, as it often does in the tropics, with huge flashes of lightning and fat, sweet drops of fresh water falling from the skies.... Then it would clear up a bit and the sun would set.

One evening it started raining so hard and so fast, that the water ran off the roof with force literally within minutes. The locals put out buckets to catch the water and used it for bathing shortly after the rain slowed down.

   
Everyday some of the local fishermen would come by in their little boats laying nets or picking them up. One day a Bamboo Bucket Boat Brigade rowed by on their way who knows where. Apparently across the bay, but they only did it once so we could never figure it out. However, every night like clockwork the squid boats would go out and light up the ocean, plying the water for cuttlefish. Ca Na has a fairly prolific business in squid sauce, and some of the squid was absolutely fantastic, though at times somewhat overcooked.

One night Kath and I got to sit outside and count squid boats and shooting stars.
I love the beach.

We stayed at the:

Ca Na Hotel
KM 1589 National Highway 1A
Phuoc Diem-Ninh Phuoc-Ninh Thuan
068-861320 - office
068-861616 - reception
068-861320 - fax

Bungalow on the beach was $10 a night, and was absolutely peaceful and fantastic. It was right off the highway, so there was some road noise, but as I write from the fourth floor above Saigon's streets, the noise is far more noticeable. Another thing was also that there was some construction going on, starting at about 8 am or so. Anyway, look for 3 or 4 more new bungalows in the near future.

I think Ca Na is not the typical backpackers' town. There is no nightlife. There is no Disco. There is only a road and some small houses, a post office, and life. I loved it very much....

We were on our way to Mui Ne today, to stay in another beach town for a few days. But as we pulled in it was raining, and the bits of ocean that we could see between the beach resorts lining both sides of the street were brown and churning. We decided to stay on the bus for Saigon and leave Vietnam on an up note....

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Copyright 2003, Dana M. Brash. All Rights Reserved.