Guide Dog to the Rescue - Hoi An

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Day 14/15/16/17 - Hoi An

On Thursday (Jan.22), the three of us (S, G and Jane) hopped on the bus from Hue to Hoi An. The bus ride was suppose to be 4 1/2 hours, however we left about 2 1/2 late but somehow miraculously only got in 1/2 an hour late. (Don't worry, we're confused as well - still trying to figure out the math equation - maybe in Vietnam you don't carry the one????)

We luckily didn't have to go thru the same drama as we did Hue when we got dropped off outside some random hotel. Well, we still got dropped off at some random hotel, but this time there was guy waiting for us from our hotel. Luckily it was just around the corner. We checked in, rested for a bit and then got a quick bite. (Well, maybe not quick since S had to ask for her tea 3 times before it was brought over.) We had decided to man up and ride the motorbikes ourselves to My Son, since we figured we conquered the skill of riding on the back of them. After about 45 seconds and 16 brushes with death later, Steph was getting unsure about this DIY decision. G too wasn't feeling 100% about doing the 45 kilometer on her own, so the three of us each paid the guys $3 extra and they drove the motorbikes off for the My Son ruins.

Again, just the motorbike ride itself was worth the money. The guys took a shortcut, which lead us through rural villages and farmland. Steph's guy was quite fearless weaving in and out of traffic and overtaking everything in its way. However, G's guy was a bit slow, pulling into the My Son entrance a few minutes after S & J's. We payed the fee and the guys drove us to the starting off point inside the ruins, where we are greeted by a very angry three pawed dog.

Avoiding any rabid bites, we set off towards the first site (they are marked A-K). We noticed that the 3 pawed dog's wife (or mistress - no judgment) had started to follow us. Thinking nothing of it at first, we started to go to each ruin site - but she was always just behind us. The map they provide us with is perhaps the most useless thing - you need a microscope to even determine that it was in fact a map of My Son. It kinda looks like some child threw their spaghetti on the ground and they took a photo of it. At one point we were unsure which way to go next - a path or a bridge. That is when the dog took the lead. walking right in front of us and showing us the right way (it was the bridge). It may sound unbelievable but this dog was actually acting as our guide. Each time we went to a new area, the dog would wander off into the overgrowth perhaps looking to catch some birds as we saw her leaping thru the grass occasionally. After a few minutes the dog would appear back with us, expecting us to be finished with our picture taking and ready to move on. If we weren't , she would impatiently begin staring at us while on the path to the next area.

At one point, we were ready to move on, but she was wrestling with something in the woods. We decided she prob got bored of us so we made our own way. We had come along a stone path and decided this must be the way out. However, after a few minutes of walking, S wanted to stop and check the thumbnail map to see if this was indeed the right way as the park was closing in a few minutes. As we were huddled together, squinting our eyes, low and behold the damn dog came swaggering its way along the path. Convinced now we were headed the right way, we followed the dog all the way to the exit, where our motorbike guys were waiting for us.

It was typical G & S fashion to be more fixated on a dog then ruins dating back to the 8th century. But we did manage to take in some of the beautiful sites of My Son. It is composed of 70 Cham buildings that are made up of bricks held together with a vegetable cement. It was the site of religious ceremony of kings of the Champa dynasty. The first group is the most intact and the most stunning and here you can see the Indian Hindu influence in the architecture, sculpture and decoration. We had heard that tour groups are all scheduled for the AM, so since it was 4PM when we arrived, we practically had the place to ourselves, which we took full advantage of (plus we don't have pics full of tourist).

Many of the ruins were just that as the VC had used the area as a hideout during the war. In 1969 a US B52 aircraft carpet-bombed the site. The two largest temples were ruined and 16 other temples were seriously damaged.

Around 5PM, we headed back for Hoi An but not before we got into a bit of a 5PM rush hour traffic jam with a herd of cattle. Again, it was quite a journey to get back - passing a motorbike with a dead cow on the back, a motorbike pulling a cart that had a huge live sea turtle and a quite nasty motorbike/truck accident that left one intersection in absolute chaos.

The city of Hoi An itself is a World Heritage Site, with strong Japanese and French influences. The town is hub of art and shopping, so as you can image the two of us were in heaven. Well, we might not have made it to heaven, just at least to the white light, since we soon realized we had no money and whatever we bought would go on our backs for the next 4 or so months. However, there was some really great art to see in a plethora of galleries. In one gallery G played it smooth and snapped a pic with her camera (hey, they have loads of pirated dvds here - its only fair). Luckily S had G to explain all the different mediums that were used by each artist.

After a full day of traveling, sightseeing and wandering around (fighting the urge to buy, buy, buy), we had a nice bite to eat and a quick walk down the river and turned in to bed.

On Friday (Jan. 23rd), the two of us (Jane stayed in the city to have a wonder) headed via motorbike to a group of marble and limestone mountains aptly named 'Marble Mountains'. There are five peaks named for the 5 elements (Kim-metal, Thuy-water, Moc-wood, Hoa-fire and Tho-earth), but we chose to go to Thuy Son mountain which has views of the town on one side and views of the ocean on the other. We hopped off the bikes, told the drivers we'd meet them back in an hour an half and paid our entry fee. They tried to get us to buy a map for 30,000 dong, but being the clever girls we are, we took a picture of the huge map at the entrance and went on our way.

Or so we thought...We were greeted immediately by a huge vertical staircase. After about 4 steps, S was ready to turn in the towel, while it took about 8 steps for G to start thinking the same as S. Cursing the day we were born and all the chocolate chip cookies we've ever consumed, we made it to the main pagoda. The mountain is filled with Buddhist statues - Buddha Sakyamuni and Bodhisattva Quan Am - and we even got to witness a monk doing his daily prayers. The mountain also has 4 caves the biggest is the Huyen Khong Cave which has a high ceiling that is pierced by five holes, that allows the sun to illuminate the huge Buddha statue in mid-day (which is when we were there). The other caves are were a bit dark, but luckily S brought her flashlight (thanks Kathy!) so we were able to do some cave exploring.

We eventually made our way down to the exit (G - with the help of a monk - was even able to save a life of an earthworm that otherwise would have met a flatten life on the steps). The exit is full of stores and stands trying to sell huge marble statues. Which is fair enough, but we had read that marble excavating had stopped years ago, so basically if you buy something its marble from China (exotic in itself since we hardly own China made products).

Giving our polite "no thanks" we got back on the bikes and to Hoi An for a quick rest at the hotel. After a bite to eat, we did some sight seeing around the city. Many of the places cost money to get into, so we admired most from the gate. However, the city itself was quaint enough to just walk around and still enjoy the sunny day. We visited the famous Japanese Covered Bridge, stopped for a $0.23 mug of beer along the river and got pushed around in the hectic, loud market along the river.

We kept it a low key night again, with the three of us getting a quick bite to eat at a local cafe. The name drew us in - "Same Same but Different". A phrase we have heard quite a lot in Vietnam and will probably hear throughout Asia.

The next morning we had an early morning goodbye to Jane, who was heading to Saigon that day. We are hoping to meet up with her in Saigon in a few days, but we'll def. see her in Cambodia as she will be in Phnom Penh for 3 weeks working at an orphanage - which we will be doing a day or so helping in as well. We stumbled out of bed at 7:00 (S didn't actually stumble - more like 'fell' out of bed trying to reach for her chapstick that had rolled under the bed) and headed downstairs for breakfast. We were joined by a Swedish guy - Jonas - and a German girl - Katrina - that we had met the day before for bike ride along Cam Nam Island. The sky was a bit ominous but we decided to go for it anyways and paid the $1.12 for a bike for the whole day. It actually wasn't too bad biking through the busy streets of Hoi An, but once we crossed the bridge to Cam Nam island it was alot more calm and once we turned off the main road it was almost completely silent and traffic free. We had a route planned out that we got out of a travel guide, but after the first turn we got lost. The directions consisted of "turn right at the small path, follow till the green house selling drinks" It was impossible! So we let Jonas (the Swede) lead the way. We bicycled past ramshackle houses till it really started to pour and we took shelter under a tin roof. There were 4 neighborhood kids that came over and seemed facinated enough with us to just stare for a good 10 mins(of course after asking us for pens and dollars). G gave them a piece of a ginger cookie that 2 of the boys ate, but the one girl quickly spit out while the other girl was quite unsure what to do with it.

The rain subsided after a few minutes, so we peddled onwards and eventually came to a corn field. After a few minutes peddling through the farm along a skinny dirt track we caught up to a small tour group who was trekking. We shouted "beep beep" for them to get out of our way. Unfortunately, one didn't get enough out of the way for Steph and she fell straight into a row of corn. G and other two quickly turned around, laughed, pointed and tried to reached for their cameras. Luckily, S bounced back quickly enough to G's disappointment. One of the guys in the tour group said out loud "oh, that's embarrassing" but he didn't realize who he was talking to as S has had worse tumbles then that - this incident doesn't even show up on her "Embarrass-o-meter". However, S was okay and she continued to bike around along the shore and thru dirt roads, watching people getting ready for the Tet New Year. There must not be alot of tourist on the island as we were constantly greeted with "hello" from the islanders.

S had started to feel kind of bad in the AM, but now she was starting to feel even worse, so the four of us got some food back in Hoi An. S started to feel more and more ill as the minutes went by so we headed back to the hotel. We had checked out of the hotel since we were catching the sleeper overnight bus to Nha Trang that night. So, S had to suck it up, hunched over a table for the next 5 hours waiting for her antibiotics to kick in.

The bus was actually a lot nice then the previous one we had taken from Hanoi to Hue. The beds reclined a lot further, there was no awful smell coming from the toilet and no Vietnamese music blaring for 4 hours. Since S was out of commission, G got to make friends with two Aussie girls that were sitting in the same top level row as her. However, it was quite possibly the bumpiest ride ever. The 12 hour journey was driven mainly through rocky dirt roads which don't help to promote a good night's sleep.

We arrived in Nha Trang at 6AM on Sunday (Jan.25), both tired as hell and S still not feeling 100%. We trudged along the four grueling blocks towards our hotel. Luckily, they let us crash in a room that wasn't occupied so we could get some sleep. And sleep we did.......


Till then - muah

xx
S&G

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Photos

Farming in Vietnam
Workers tending to their rice paddies.

Who is it?
Is it S or G? ha ha This is S blending in with the locals wearing a face mask.

My Son
Pronounced 'Me Sun' No tourists, just our Guide Dog to show the way.

Our Guide Dog
Showing us around, and smirking at us when we don't listen and walk the wrong way.

Sunset at My Son
Sunset is the only way to see thie ruins.

Hoi An at night
Laterns light the streets of Hoi An by the river. If only we had a spare suitcase.

Pagodas on Marble Mountain
There are 6 pagodas in total on this little cliff, each a different style.

Huyen Khong Cave
This temple is inside one of the biggest caves on Thuy Son (Water) Mountain.

Incense Holder
These old vases hold pounds of Incense Ash.

Deities
These are some of the deities in Marble Mountain.

4,000 Dong Beer
Need we say anymore!

Hoi An Local
Chillin' in my wheel barrow listening to some pop music on my wind up radio.

Bike Ride
Cam Nam Island. Why is bycycling so much harder now then when we were 10?

Comments

[JJ]

Interesting
Hi girls. Once again you have amazing stories to tell and do it so well. I love the guide dog part and glad you posted a pic of her. Hope Stephanie is feeling better. Genny you take care so as not to get sick also. The temples in the mountain sides must have been amazing. the ruins from the 8th century mesmerizing. I am glad you both opted not to try and tackle the motorbikes. Sit with the bicycles! Have fun, be safe!!!!! Be well. regards, JJ

[Tara-G's Cousin]

About the guide dog- (of course, lol)
IS that dog a husky? It looks like one or at least a husky mix. That is so amazing that it acted as your guide. Was it well fed? Did you give it some food and water in case? IT appears to have four paws in the pic, what's the deal with that? was it a different dog-the 3-paw one? IT also appears to be a puppy and yet it has clearly had babies! Was it young? love you Genny. Bring me home a souvenir! Tara