By Miku Sato, Semester at Sea, Spring 2017
Have you heard of the name of the city, Nha Trang? Nha Trang is one of the most important tourist hubs of Vietnam and well known for its beautiful beaches with fine and clean sand and the clear ocean water. I went to Nha Trang with Semester at Sea’s impact program. It took an hour to get there from Ho Chi Minh City by plane.
Outside the airport, I immediately found that Nha Trang is in the middle of development because many new hotels and buildings were being constructed. As a part of the Semester at Sea program, I visited Nha Trang University to interact with local students. Most of the students I met there study tourism or English because Nha Trang largely relies on tourism industry. Some students study fishery because in the suburban areas around the city, the shipbuilding industry has developed and contributed significantly to the local economy. Fishery and services are also important to the city. I also had a chance to go to a beach with local students and the beach was near the university. Since our SAS program was an impact program, we cleaned litters on the beach to preserve the nature. However, the beach was very clean and I could not find litters very much. When I went to Waikiki beach in Hawaii, I could easily find litters anywhere on the beach. So I put up a question to the local students: Why is the beach so clean? They answered that they have a time to clean the litters up on the beach as a part of the class, and local people in Nha Trang know that they rely on the tourism industry, so they are conscious of the cleanness of the beach.
I had never heard of Nha Trang before I visited there. However, I thought Nha Trang should be more known by many people because Nha Trang is ready for welcoming more tourists. Why don’t you be one of the tourists? I am pretty sure that you will like that place!
