Merry Christmas from Vietnam!

As you have already noticed, I’m quite behind with my blog (I do have excuses for that).
So, besides sending you these Christmas wishes, I will use this opportunity to give you a quick update on my current well being.

I spent the last 4 weeks in Nha Trang in Vietnam, where I’m currently taking a 2 month break from my travels. Nha Trang is a coastal town in the south of Vietnam. Even here I couldn’t help to notice that Christmas is coming up. There are plastic Christmas trees everywhere, Christmas tunes playing in the coffee shops and little Vietnamese kids dressed as Santa Claus. Here it doesn’t matter if Christmas trees stand right next to buddhist shrines.

I think part of the reason why Christmas is a rather big deal here in Nha Trang is because it is a very touristy town. On the other hand Vietnam has the highest percentage (around 8 percent) of Christians in South East Asia.
Still, the pre-Christmas time here is very descent and nothing compared to the hype in Europe.

With temperatures of around 20 to 25 degrees (Celsius), a sand beach 50 meters from my hotel, and the missing Glühwein booths I haven’t really gotten into a Christmas mood so far. But the 24th of December is still going to be special. Together with Gerhard and Sonja from Austria I will have a nice Christmas dinner at a beach restaurant.
During New Year I will also be here and will probably celebrate with a bunch of other backpackers and couchsurfers from all over the world.

My blog will continue after New Year in 2011. I will try to catch up as fast as possible with writing about my recent travels in China and Vietnam. Expect a new blog entry every second day. When I finally leave Vietnam in the mid of January, and continue to Cambodia and Thailand, the blog will be up to date, and I will continue writing “live” from my further travels.

I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May all your plans for 2011 go smoothly!