Nha Trang - Cam Ranh Bay - Memories

I could feel my dad's surprise that the old terminal was still there at Cam Ranh Bay airport. He took out his camera and began snapping pictures. Some of the old barracks were there as well.

"I'm really surprised," was all he said.

We walked around, and then headed south in the taxi. The driver pulled over when we saw a walk way down to the beach.

Later, my dad would say he recognized the inlet as soon as he saw it. The mountains surrounding the water. The hill where the compound was.

We didn't get to see the old village. Someone told my dad this morning that it was destroyed by the NVA when they came storming at the end of the war.

The one thing I'll remember is my father and I standing at the water's edge. My father, 62 years old, taking pictures of scenes of his history from 40 years ago.

"I recognized it as soon as I saw it," I'll remember him saying.

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The rain in Nha Trang has been a downer and ended our idea of taking an island tour and sitting on the beach drinking. The locals are incredulous - it has never been like this in November, never, they said. Everywhere there is the fear of global warming.

Tonight we're taking a sleeper bus back to Saigon. Our idea is to spend Monday shopping and Tuesday resting. In the early hours of Wednesday, we'll be headed back home.