With friends Lydia and Stiffler, we rented motorbikes for the day. Our first stop was 26km away - the Cham temples of My Son -6th Century ruined temples. It was a great ride, with the wind in our hair (as there are no helmets available). Through local villages and fields where they were farming the rice and laying it all out on the street. At the temples, we had to take a Jeep up inside the complex, but unfortunately, the temples were not as impressive as we had hoped. I guess they got damaged in the American War as well. It was kind of cool as they were deep in the jungle at times, still untouched. So, we cruised back to town to meet up with the rest of the gang to head North after lunch. There were many 'fittings' to be done at the local tailors before we left, so a bit late starting out.
North about 12km to Marble Mountain where we were greeted with tons of shops all selling tacky marble statues, some of them absolutely huge! I guess they no longer use the marble from this mountain, but it is shipped in from China. All the shops want you to 'park for free' at their shop, but you are supposed to buy something I think. We don't need any marble statues believe it or not, and especially don't want to carry any so were not the best clients! On top of Marble Mountain was a cool path between temples, pagodas, caves with huge Buddha statues and some great views over the coast and our next destination - China Beach. I guess this beach is where all the American GI's were given their leave during the war and were allowed to relax and surf or picnic on China Beach. A pretty nice beach for sure which ran for miles. Again, greeted by locals who wanted us to buy stuff, but succumbed to the fact we weren't buying and just played around with us on the beach (in pic). A good ride home along the dirt road alongside the beach to greetings of 'Hello' from all the locals kids. And, as we were still in Vietnam, what day would be complete without Bia Hoi!!! *Stub
No comments:
Post a Comment