I can't remember how many times I've walked on Tran Phu Street, it can be said that this is the most beautiful coastal road in Central Vietnam.
I also don't remember how many times I walked on the streets of Nha Trang with so many changes, hundreds of years have passed there, from a small fishing village to now it has become a famous tourist city.
And even though there are times when I go far away, when I return I bring with me a very strange feeling, the feeling of love.
Yellow trumpet flowers on the streets of Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa province).
People dig through old documents, look at old pictures to remember the old Nha Trang, but I was born and raised in Nha Trang, more than half a century has passed with my footsteps on the streets, watching the blooming phoenix flowers, the rough seas and even the rare stormy days in the city.
The city has a beach that hugs its shore, so that anyone living in Nha Trang can go out to the sea, jump into the sea, or just let their bare feet step on the soft sand, and watch the waves quietly wash away.
Cow hoof flowers on the streets of Nha Trang.
When I was 10 years old in Nha Trang, there were grocery stores displaying glass jars of candy and cookies. The owner would give you as much as you bought.
There are small troupes singing bai choi, at night they spread mats on a lamp post and sing. The audience puts money in a hat in front of them. There are people selling sweet soup and beef noodle soup carrying their wares to each street corner, their cries echoing in the air.
Somewhere, the saleswoman displays some stools for customers to sit on and sell goods.
Nha Trang when I was 20 years old, I heard the sound of cicadas chirping in the row of royal poinciana flowers on Le Thanh Ton street (this row of trees no longer exists) or went to Ba Da Loc street (now Ly Tu Trong street) in the season when the mahogany trees bore fruit.
The fallen acacia fruits spread their wings and the acacia roots rose above the ground, creating strange shapes. Phan Thanh Gian Street (now Pasteur Street) with two rows of Royal Poinciana flowers intersecting each other, creating a romantic scene in the flower season, so at that time the street was called “the road of lovers” by students.
Nha Trang in the days when there were few people, when the roads had not been widened and connected to each other, on Duy Tan Street (Tran Phu) there were carts selling ice cream or selling green plums, guavas, pickled mangoes and even thinly sliced grilled squid spread with a little chili sauce.
Royal poinciana flowers. Photo: MK
Now the city has expanded, the roads have connected and the city has more flower seasons. In the old days, there were very few flowering trees planted on the streets, mainly royal poinciana and soapberry, some roads were planted with xoan flowers (Nha Tho street, now Le Thanh Phuong street).
The banyan tree has been in Nha Trang for a long time, for example on Tran Phu street there are some ancient banyan trees. And in the old days, sticky rice sellers often hired young banyan leaves to pick when the banyan tree changed leaves to wrap sticky rice. Sticky rice wrapped in banyan leaves created a delicious feeling.
In memory of the students of that time, during the season when the fruits of the Indian almond tree fell and were ripe, they would go pick them up and break them open to eat, even though the seeds were so tiny that it was not worth the effort to break them open.
In the following years, the city planted many flowering trees on the planned streets, and the flower seasons were so heartwarming. There were bougainvillea vines on many street corners, blooming brightly when the sun rose.
To go a short distance on Ngo Gia Tu street, where Tran Nhat Duat and Truong Dinh streets meet, you will see blooming sala trees, and in the morning you will smell a pleasant fragrance. Duong Quang Ham street, a part of Tran Phu street is blooming with lilies.
Hoang Hoa Tham Street has two types of trumpet flowers: pink and yellow. Ton That Tung Street has a carpet of bougainvillea connecting with the tigon flower slope to Pham Van Dong Street.
On Tran Phu (Chut) street are purple flowers, or surprise with yellow canary flowers blooming right at the six-way intersection... And in the fruit-falling season, you will see the pinwheels of the black star tree spinning in the wind. Nha Trang has a whole road of cow's hoof flowers (Truong Han Sieu) and there are square banyan flowers at Bach Dang Park...
Sala flowers. Photo: GC
100 years of Nha Trang, the waves still caress the wind, the city's change is truly miraculous. The city is entering its 100th flower season.
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