Vietnam – Day 10 – Hội An and there abouts
Today I feel really centered. In the beginning of the trip “I said” the plan was to “go with the flow” but that meant something a little different then than it does now. I still felt a little regimented in Hanois as I tend to be a planner. My non plans are really plans in themselves. Then the non plans all fell apart due to my difficulty with the motorcycle. Now I am just kind of doing. Don’t misunderstand though. I still have researched, but the impediments I typically need to overcome to make decisions seem less difficult. Saigon is an 18 hour motorcycle ride and I am not sure if I will do that in time to make the flight home but I know I can make it some other way. Yet to be determined.
So today got breakfast and headed to the gym. It was a good gym. Nothing fancy but enough for me. In this heat and humidity I sweat like I was doing hot yoga. It was really therapeutic.
After the gym I fitted a couple of shirts with a tailor. It’s so hard for me to get proper fitting dress shirts. Afterwards I took off for the Dragon Bridge in Da Nang. The bridge has a huge dragon in between both lanes of traffic going over the Han River. It’s not a little bridge. It is really cool. Unfortunately I wasn’t there during the really cool time. At around 9 pm the dragon spits fire and water. I think I was the only tourist at the bridge. Noticing that, some local hanging out on his scooter asked me if I wanted to buy some pot. Not cool scooter boy.
From the bridge I went to the Marble Mountain. This is also a tourist spot but not as many were there. The marble mountain is actually marble. All around this karst obelisk there are stores selling huge religious statues carved from marble. There are so many statues for sale they could possibly come from this “mountain” just outside of Da Nang. It would now be a hill. I think the term mountain means something a little different here. The mountain pass is around 1500 feet above sea level. Marble Mountain is about the same. The rest of the land is low lying plains, practically at sea level. The dead are not buried but rather entombed in masoleums.
Marble Mountain was awesome. It is another group of Buddhist pagodas, with monks praying and walking about, and Buddhist cave sanctuaries. There is even some Hindu worship going on here. I snapped a photo of what I believe is Shiva. As you can see from the numerous pictures I took, I was there for awhile.
When I got back to my hostel it was dinner time. I waited a bit and then headed out.
When I arrived in Hoi An I thought to myself this is really touristy. I don’t think I am going to like it. Perhaps I will leave early. Then last night I thought it was pretty cool all lit up. I can overlook all of the tourists. Well tonight I really fell in love. It wasn’t a long courtship, but you know the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Tonight I discovered the night market with all of the street food. All new and different from Hanoi and Hue. All so enticing. I ate way too much tonight but there is so much more to try. Perhaps tomorrow night.
