Hoi An
We didn't make it up for sunrise. In fact we got a later start than we did the day before, but still not so bad--10a. It was due to the massive quantity of "fresh beer" we drank and also our apathy concerning sunrises. It's the sun, and it's slowly coming up over the water--Boring! If you're lucky that is. Most of the time you lose sleep to see it coming up over a nondescript cloudbank.
The beer was better. I'm not joking, I prefer it to the canned beer.
Today we rented a better motorbike, one that had a working headlight and horn--a must in this country where you need to alert just about everyone to your presence by constantly leaning on it. We tried to go to My Son, Cham ruins--they were an ancient people that like you I'd never heard of either. They fought Angkor and the Vietnamese and lost--somewhere around here. Our map didn't show where they were except for a little direction arrow off the corner and 30 km. We found out we took a wrong turn when a woman rode up next to us and said "Hi, where are you from?" We're moving along at maybe 40 kmh (our speedo didn't work this time) and we say America. "Totally Awesome!" And we continued this conversation as we drove with trucks passing us with other motorbikes and bikes congesting the small two lane road. She complimented me on my driving, probably because we weren't dead, and told us we missed our turn but would take us to Marble Mountain instead. Ok. It was near China Beach and we wanted to go there, too. Traci still watches reruns of the TV series. It's her favorite, so this was a really big deal for her.
Marble Mountain was cool--caves filled with incense smoke and buddha statues and chimney cracks to climb through to viewpoints over China Beach. (Traci was thrilled) We rode down the coast, had to make sure the clothes we had made fit us and went back out to the beach where we sat down and drank some beer. Several women tried to foist their wares on us and two succeeded. Fish sandwiches--yum--and Mentos because we liked the woman. She talked to us yesterday and we refused every time she passed. Today she just squatted down and told us that she sold two pineapples today. She was cute, saying "see you later alligator" and don't worry, be happy" trying to win affection and money. She left and a young girl sat down. "My turn!" We didn't buy anything from her, despite the beautiful line: "Try to open your hearts and your wallets."
Tonight only a few beers and early to bed. We booked a flight--the last bus ride sucked so bad that 61$ to cut out a 16 hour journey seemed perfectly reasonable--and have to leave before 7am. On to Hanoi.
The beer was better. I'm not joking, I prefer it to the canned beer.
Today we rented a better motorbike, one that had a working headlight and horn--a must in this country where you need to alert just about everyone to your presence by constantly leaning on it. We tried to go to My Son, Cham ruins--they were an ancient people that like you I'd never heard of either. They fought Angkor and the Vietnamese and lost--somewhere around here. Our map didn't show where they were except for a little direction arrow off the corner and 30 km. We found out we took a wrong turn when a woman rode up next to us and said "Hi, where are you from?" We're moving along at maybe 40 kmh (our speedo didn't work this time) and we say America. "Totally Awesome!" And we continued this conversation as we drove with trucks passing us with other motorbikes and bikes congesting the small two lane road. She complimented me on my driving, probably because we weren't dead, and told us we missed our turn but would take us to Marble Mountain instead. Ok. It was near China Beach and we wanted to go there, too. Traci still watches reruns of the TV series. It's her favorite, so this was a really big deal for her.
Marble Mountain was cool--caves filled with incense smoke and buddha statues and chimney cracks to climb through to viewpoints over China Beach. (Traci was thrilled) We rode down the coast, had to make sure the clothes we had made fit us and went back out to the beach where we sat down and drank some beer. Several women tried to foist their wares on us and two succeeded. Fish sandwiches--yum--and Mentos because we liked the woman. She talked to us yesterday and we refused every time she passed. Today she just squatted down and told us that she sold two pineapples today. She was cute, saying "see you later alligator" and don't worry, be happy" trying to win affection and money. She left and a young girl sat down. "My turn!" We didn't buy anything from her, despite the beautiful line: "Try to open your hearts and your wallets."
Tonight only a few beers and early to bed. We booked a flight--the last bus ride sucked so bad that 61$ to cut out a 16 hour journey seemed perfectly reasonable--and have to leave before 7am. On to Hanoi.
posted by The Principal at 11:08 PM
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