Explore the 
Experiencing
Besides swimming and sun-bathing in Nha Trang’s world-famous bay, you can also explore Phu Vinh, an old village on the city’s outskirts. The over 200-year-old village in Vinh Thanh Commune, four kilometers from downtown, is home to dozens old wooden houses, built in typical central region style.
Residents here call these houses “bat can dan”, meaning they have three compartments and 36 pillars.
Most of the houses in the village are at least 100 years old but several are intact, offering visitors a chance to see the original wooden doors and pillars replete with sophisticated carvings.
An original feature here is that in front of each house is a large garden with various kinds of fruit trees.
Along the path from the garden to the house, there are usually two rows of betel trees or fences formed by hibiscus plants.
Foreign visitors are intrigued by this concept of marking the borders of a house with hibiscus fences
but it’s very popular in many Vietnamese villages.
Since Phu Vinh residents are fond of apricot flowers, each house also has some apricot trees in front.
Their blossoms turn yellow come spring.
The highlight of the tour to Phu Vinh is an excursion to the house of Nguyen Xuan Hai, a 200-year-old “bat can dan” house set in a 4,000-sq.m. garden.
Nha Trang Girl
HOW TO GET THERE
■ You can take a tour on the Cai River departing from the boat wharf at the foot of Thap Ba, or the Po Nagar Tower.
■ Or you can go by motorbike or car from Nha Trang to Dua Bridge, turn into Village Road 45.
The house is still in good condition though it has never been repaired by any of the six generations that have lived there, according to Hai.
Visitors can see wooden furniture and altars made two centuries ago, and sit under the shadow of trees in the garden and enjoy fruits and tea from a pot covered with a coconut-shell lid to keep the tea warm.
For city dwellers, it’s fascinating to see a hen incubating or a brood of chickens or ducklings or learning how to cook rice in an iron pot on a tripod with the stove lit by twigs collected in the garden or straw.
Sitting there and taking in the idyllic atmosphere is a sure-fire way to forget the pressures of city life and the daily grind.
The tour to Phu Vinh also features excursions by horse-drawn carriages to craft villages that make sedge mats and incense.
The carriage goes along roads lined with rose-mallows on both sides.
Here and there are vegetable gardens, orchards, and tile-roofed and thatched houses.
Visitors can see the different stages in the process of making hand-woven sedge mats and incense.
The incense is made by mixing aroma, sawdust, and glue.
Bamboo plants are cut into small pieces and whittled before being dipped in the materials to form the final product.
Tourists can buy ladles or teapot covers made from coconut shells to remember the visit.
Reported by Huy Tram
--------------------
Nha Trang - Vietnam
The city of Nha Trang is becoming more popular with the tourists in recent years. Yet, with a population of 400,000, Nha Trang still retains its small town atmosphere. This resort town is well known for its miles of beach and the friendliness of its people. The city is flanked by nearly ten kilometers of prime beach where the water is warm year round. The average temperature in Nha Trang is 26 C. Nha Trang also has the lowest level of humidity in all of Vietnam. Today, Nha Trang ranks among the top of all beaches in Vietnam.
Nha Trang is 1,287 km south of Hanoi, 624 km south of Hue and 442 km from Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon). Nha Trang has several famous islands. Most notable are Hon Tre, Hon Yen, Hon Rua and the Spratly islands.
The name Nha trang is a Vietnamese pronunciation of a Cham word Eatran or Yjatan. Ea or Yja means river, and tran means reed. According to the locals, there once were a lot of reeds along Ngoc Hoi river. The river winds its way through the town. Ngoc Hoi was later renamed Nha Trang river.
Another theory of the origin of Nha Trang's name has a more amusing twist. Long ago, in this part of the country, all the houses were made out of the reeds and mud gathered from Ngoc Hoi river. The only house that was made out of bricks were the house belonging to Dr. Yersin, a French immunologist who made his home here. The house itself was painted prominently white and could be seen by vessels coming from far away. Once there was a foreign vessel passing by. The captain asked his translator where he was. The translator not knowing where they were blurted out Nha` tra('ng or white house in Vietnamese. The captain duly noted on his chart Nha Trang. Because most foreign languages do not make use of tones, the captain's name for this part of the country stuck.
----------------
