BIG BUDDHA NHA TRANG VIETNAM

Hi guys, Steady Eddie here. This time coming all the way from sunny Nha Trang in Vietnam. Okay so I've got tied to this rather grim town centre and now I'm in a taxi and I'm headed for the Big Buddha. It's a metered taxi fare of course. Taxis tend to be very good value in Vietnam and the drivers tend to be very trustworthy as well. Yeah I've been to Vietnam many times but this is my third visit to Nha Trang and it's a good place. Well the beachfront is a good place anyway. Can't say the same about the town centre. Okay so the taxi driver has just dropped me off here. I said I want to go to the Big Buddha. That taxi ride from the town which is close to the beachfront that cost 50,000 đồng which is about two US dollars. Taxi is a good value here and it was a fair distance as well. But I'm here at the Big Buddha now and hopefully I can go in to see it. But look at the state of me. I'm wearing the wrong t-shirt and shorts and sandals and all this kind of stuff so I wouldn't count me chickens to be honest with you. But anyway let's see what happens. Okay well I got past the security guards. No entrance fee up to now. They've got a little cafe and little cafe there. So here we go. Here we go. Nice little bit of culture coming up. And there you go. The first glimpse of Nha Trang's Big Buddha. There we go. Well it's good to see some other fellas here wearing shorts so I'm not the only one. That's a good sign anyway. Yeah there's a few fellas wearing shorts around here. Okay here we go. We're going that way yeah? Not for me thank you. How much? 50. It's not for me. I couldn't carry it. I don't know what to do with it. I don't know what to do with it my dear. I don't know what to do with it. Okay okay thank you. Thank you. Here we go. Little look up here first of all. Nice pleasant day today. A bit of cloud but you know it's nice. Very nice temperature. Okay don't know what it's all about but it all looks nice. Oh somebody's left the um somebody's left the bear or donkey or whatever the hell it is. Now what I have tended to find in Vietnam when I've visited temples, Buddha's temples, that sort of stuff is that monks and officials tend to be a little bit touchy about photographs. You know you photograph in these places but it doesn't seem to be a problem here. Well in Thailand I think you can photograph Buddha's temples to your heart's content but in Vietnam you know a lot of these places have signs up saying no photos. Well that would be a pity because this is actually quite a lovely environment here. Let's get a photograph of matey boy up here. Oh he looks quite angry doesn't he? No he's not very pleased about something. Okay look at these outfits here. There's a guy there. The official there has just told me that I can't enter with these shorts on. I have to put one of those sari things. I've got to presume you've got to purchase one of those sari looking things in order to go in there. Somehow I don't think that's for me. I'm not going in there. I'm gonna put one of those things on. My god almighty. What's that? I'm Russian? No I'm British. I am from I'm from England. Okay they won't let me in with shorts on. Okay well I've just been told that I can go this way to the big Buddha. So no one's told me to put any sari gear on or anything like that whatever it is. No one's told me to wear a grass skirt or anything. So I'm going to climb these steps now. These these look very formidable steps here. There we go. Just look at these. There we go. Okay. Okay so I'm climbing the exorcist steps. Looks fairly airy up here. Don't want to get in the way of anyone's cameras. Wow just look at this. This is well this is impressive. There you go. This Buddha is asleep with a very satisfied smile on his face or hair face. Must be dreaming. Must be having a lovely dream. Love to know what it's all about. And there you go. These chappies are praying. Praying for Buddha to have a peaceful sleep. Okay up some more steps. There we go. How many more? That's the second flight of steps and now the third. I've said it before on previous videos but they'll they'll come a day when I simply can't do this sort of travel anymore. Okay so before I brave those ones may as well give these ones a look. Okay what have we got here? What have we got here? Well these steps have seen better days. There we go. There we go. Nice little shrine. Nice little bell there. I've just spotted something which could well be alarming to begin with when you first see it. But I've seen it before in these kind of temples around Vietnam. It's this here. Whoa. Now forget the origins of the swastika. It's obviously it's got more famous connotations. Infamous I should say. But I believe originally, I believe originally it was a sign of peace. I can't quite remember. I'll have to look that one up. But you know you do often see the swastika around Buddha's temples in Vietnam. I don't recall seeing that in Thailand. But you certainly do get them here. Okay more steps. There we go. Wow. So in a strange way I'm quite enjoying this. A bit of physical exercise. I wasn't planning on doing this today. But I'm rather glad that I'm doing it. Look at that view up there. Look at that view. There you go. There's a nice view of Nha Trang. This time I've had the proper view of the mountains. Got a shot of Nha Trang from this angle. So many white buildings. A few more steps to go. And I've got a sneaky sneaky feeling that the main event is just about to come upon us. There we go. A bit of a bland coloured dragon there. Could do with a bit more colour. Yeah I think I'm right in saying that Thai Buddha's temples tend to be a bit more colourful than Vietnamese ones. Are you ready for this? Nha Trang's Big Buddha. And it looks pretty magnificent. Okay last flight of steps here. Oh here we go. Oh it's huge. It is big. That one's seriously Big Buddha. I'll make a donation. It's lovely to come to a place like this. Really is a pleasure to see something like this. Okay well I'm now going to do a little tour around the Big Buddha. See if we get a nice selfie shot. Sometimes you know you see these huge statues and things but when you get up close to them they're not always easy to take a photograph of because you're so close to them. I found that the Christ in Rio de Janeiro was like that. You see this marvellous statue and you get up there it's so awkward to take a photograph of it. So from this point here. Nice view of the mountains there. Nha Trang is surrounded by some very nice mountains as well. Which is something I never really considered much before. Oh and would you believe it you can actually go in there. Okay so you can actually go in there and there's no one telling you that you can't take photographs or anything. I've taken my my sandals off. Yeah about time I replaced them. Okay here we go. Here we go. Here we go. See my camera is holding up with the low light. It seems to do all right. It seems to do all right in that regard. So I'm actually inside the base of the Big Buddha. Wow it's quite eerie in here. Quite impressive. Well I don't profess to know the meaning of all these statues. But these guys don't look too happy do they. Here we go. Oh and it's the column is actually rested on a huge turtle. Here we are. Okay so I'm going to give her a small donation here and I will give another donation to the one outside. There you go. A little look at Nha Trang from this angle. It's a very mountainous place. I was never aware until this day that there were so many mountains surrounding Nha Trang. Looks really good from this angle. There you go. A view over the city there. Still trying to get the perfect selfie shot. Is that it there? Oh well. I suppose that's as good as it's gonna get. Okay well there's the good bit now anyway. After the visit of the Big Buddha and climbing all those steps. The good bit is climbing down them all again. That's a lot easier. Jesus my leg muscles are aching. I need to get a bit more exercise. Okay nice view of the town over there. Beautiful lovely view lovely view. Sneak a little little shot through the window of this. This is the place here where you're not allowed to go in there without covering your legs up. To be honest with you it doesn't really look anything special. Okay so that was one of those I'm glad that I did it moments. I've seen more spectacular buddhas more colorful buddhas but that was that was good. You know I always feel better after I've done something and I'm glad that I got that taxi for what was it five thousand no fifty thousand Vietnamese Dong. That's about two US dollars from the town up to here. I'm glad that I've done it. It was worth saying and I've had a little bit of exercise climbing those steps and now you know it's time for a nice cold beer. I've earned it don't forget climbing up all those steps. Taxis are very very cheap here in Vietnam and the drivers are really good. That one on the way back he's dropped me from the Buddha to that building there down the beach and that was only 35,000 which is about that's barely more than one UK it's only a bit more than one UK pound it's about what is that is that about well it's less than one and a half US dollars so you can't argue with that. At least Vietnam cities like Nha Trang are easy to get around good reliable taxi service. Anyway I'm down at the beach now it's a bit cloudy but never mind beer is coming up very very soon at my favorite little beach bar.