Well, here we are. It's a huge sprawling town, undergoing an awkward growth spurt as its commercial hormones run wild and skyscrapers erect hither and thither across the stormy skyline. At night it drapes itself in neon and glowers into the dark. Aside from a gaudy array of guesthouses and hotels, it's not set up for tourists - it's a living, breathing, industrious seaport town with its own multitudes of lifestyles and plenty going on that, quite rightly, we won't be privy to on this short visit. Last night we roamed town looking for a bite to eat. A rat as large as a terrier leapt out in front of us and I'm ashamed to say I jumped like a squeaky cartoon character.
From our 5th floor hotel room on My Khe beach, we have a great view over the sea. To the left, the bay curves around, a vast leafy hill rising gently behind. Halfway up this hill stands a magnificent statue - a 67-meter tall Lady Buddha, gazing serenely out over the bay, surely sending goodwill out to the sailors and fishermen below. At night, we see her lit up and glowing like a candle.
Matt has done more exploring than me, I've been taking it easy here, reading and writing and watching films on HBO. He's hired a scooter most days and climbed the surrounding mountains, coming back with stories about the Cham civilisation that once reigned here, the bustle of the busy city centre and today, while I stationed myself to write, the marble mountains. These I am very jealous of not seeing this time around, we will be back soon.
Matt popped in around midday by surprise to take me away from the screen for a quick tour up the nearby hill, which looks out over the bay. We passed hundreds, maybe a thousand lovely wooden fishing boats and coracles on the shore. He wanted to show me something on the hill, but I didn't know what it would be. Up we climbed, closer and closer to the Lady Buddha who rose up in her white marble robes above us. We parked under a tamarind tree and climbed a stone staircase that must have been built for her, not for us mere mortals. Cursing my level of fitness, we huffed in through a teal pagoda covered in gold lions and dragons, and met Lady Buddha in her lovely garden with bonsai in huge ceramic pots and many wonderful stone sculptures, including another rolling-tummied Happy Buddha sitting in a lotus pond, overlooking the bay.
Surrounding Lady Buddha and up some steps from her bonsai garden was a temple with a turquoise tiled roof, curled at the edges in that beautiful traditional Chinese style and crawling with fiercesome dragons. Inside were large statues of Buddha and two kings beside him, adorned with ornaments, flowers and gifts from temple-goers. What was really lovely about the place was that it was free of tourists, other than us, but busy with locals coming to pray and use it as it was intended. I wished I understood more about much of what we saw - the two kings, and ten or so fantastic marble sculptures lining the path outside - each as large as an Asian Elephant and of a fat man on top of a different creature. I took a photo of each as I want to know what they are, I'll add them in here soon.
Here's a short video tour of the place - not ours, just found it on YouTube.
Matt dropped me back to continue writing, but took me off again later to jump in the sea before sunset. The waves were huge but we dove into them under the careful watch of lifeguards on the shore. The water was cool and refreshing and clear enough to see our feet below.
Now, showered and fed, I'm putting the final touches to the blog before I head up to pack for Hanoi. As one journey ends, another begins. Our efforts with the language have brought us many fruits in the form of friendships on our way, and relief on the faces of cafe staff off the beaten track. We're pretty slick with numbers and basic survival stuff now. We've been teaching ourselves using made-up games and rhymes, but will be glad to study more seriously with a teacher and some language software at home. We've dared ourselves to try many exotic foods and found plenty to make the mouth water. Green papaya salad will be a staple of my new, nourishing diet. We've seen sights but know there's plenty more to learn, plenty we don't yet understand about what we're looking at. So while we leave with a hunger to return to many of the places we've seen, we are thirsty for the deeper tid-bits of knowlesge that building our little life out here will bring.
To Hanoi we go!
Love, E.
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