Nha Trang is so strange!

Nha Trang - it is not only a place name, but also a love. The city has now expanded many urban areas, many roads leading into the city. The roads are all bright with flowers as if welcoming visitors.

There, we, whether born and raised on this land, or have chosen Nha Trang as a place to live, all love the city strangely. That city has only two seasons, rainy and sunny, but one season is the season of love. The city faces the east, when the sun begins to greet a day, from the Hon Tre mountain range rising high, the people of the city go to the sea to greet the city.

Nha Trang is so strange, I thought it was just a slanted intersection with a lotus bud roundabout that changes color at night, to get used to the slope leading to Nha Trang Cathedral or suddenly remember that I haven't been to Hon Chong for a long time. I texted each other asking if I could meet this afternoon. The shops I've been to for a long time become familiar, like Lac Canh with grilled beef, Ninh Hoa spring rolls whose flavors linger for those who have been away for a long time. Simple dishes are now also in restaurants like banh xeo, banh can, and bun ca. Even the taste of drinking coffee is different, I only like filter coffee to watch each drop of coffee fall into the cup, to make it myself according to my preference.

Nha Trang beach always beckons tourists.

One day, because of studying far away, because of work, I left the city. Returning, on a bus or any other means of transport, I always feel anxious to meet again. The memories in my memory keep appearing like a slow-motion film. Because my memory is that place, with all the joys and sorrows there, the days when I was young until now when I have entered adulthood. Memories are sometimes just a coffee shop that has changed owners, a rainy day stopping at a bookstore, or maybe the day the street suddenly becomes romantic because of the season when the banyan trees change leaves. Returning, I chat with my friend: "Let's meet up", time passes by my life, and the city has also passed a hundred years old.

Maybe we still stay there, not paying attention to the rows of trees quietly growing every day along the road, not paying attention to the newly built houses... We all live in a city, we live on a street, in our neighborhood there are neighbors. Maybe the place we live is just a coincidence in our journey to make a living, maybe it is the land that holds our childhood memories, the tiled roof covered with moss in the rainy season, the old tamarind tree that grows taller every year despite the changes of the earth and sky. We grew up there, were happy and sad there, our friends were there and our first love was there. The change of all things is inevitable, our city also changes in the flow of urban development, we still walk on the familiar roads every day, we are proud when someone asks where we are.

There, is the house where we were born. It may just be the place we rented when we were young, a rented room in a small alley, next to us are also strangers, very randomly gathered.

That city has streets bearing the imprint of memories. Streets lined with green trees, rows of trees with names like: Lim xet, sao den, hoang can or just the hundred-year-old xà mật trees. The city has a beach with a sandy shore that stretches out to listen to the sound of the waves, with millions of footprints imprinted on that shore, some footprints that have been blurred by the waves after being left. The city is not just a name, but also our memories. The city is not just rainy days, sunny days, but also staying and disappearing. There, we pass by every day on the street to see rows of tra trees that were once planted on the roadside, now passing by and seeing the tall trees. It is accidentally stopping right at the intersection of traffic lights, meeting an acquaintance, even though we live in the same city but we have just met now. I love the days when theaters still showed Indian and Hong Kong movies, showing them on a regular basis (meaning they showed one movie after another, and you could buy tickets at any time). At that time, theaters also distributed flyers introducing the movie's content and pictures of the actors, so I asked them to keep them as souvenirs.

You and I have loved the city since a long time ago. And if you have lived in the city since you had a bicycle to go from Nha Trang to Thanh, you will feel it. It is a memory of the changes, although the ocean waves still hit the shore every day, and far away every morning the sun still rises from the mountains.

Nha Trang is truly strange. Nha Trang is not reserved for front and back seats at the train station, smiling at people you have never met before. Nha Trang is where when stopping at a red light at an intersection, encountering a homeless person waiting to sell a lottery ticket or a pack of toothpicks, not rushing to leave but stopping to buy something for that person to make them happy…

KHUE VIET TRUONG

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/nha-trang-ky-uc-va-khat-vong/202410/nha-trang-ky-la-lam-b5e6463/