It ends up telling you a good deal about the Vietnamese people. Our cyclos roll past empty soccer fields and darkened seafood restaurants. We're off to the place where most of the seafood that will be plucked from tanks tonight originates, Nha Trang's fish market. First we cross the Ha Ra bridge. Light is beginning to color the landscape, and I can see rows of stilt houses alongside the river and hundreds of moored blue, red and white fishing boats, their day's work already done.
Dark islands lie on the horizon and thickly-forested hills rise to the west.
Next to the road is a collection of rust-red brick sentinels atop a short, steep hill. These are the Po Nagar Cham towers, built between the seventh and 12th centuries by the Champa kings. The Chams reigned in central Vietnam for about 1300 years, and through trading relations with India adopted Hinduism and Sanskrit. Their monuments reflect this Indianisation. At this early hour, the towers have not opened for the day, so we turn off the main road on to a muddy lane choked with people, bicycles and overflowing baskets of produce.