from the beach to the mountains

Beachtown, sand dunes and a holy mountain... not bad for our first long weekend away!

The six hour bus ride to Phan Thiet was worth every agonizing minute we spent stuck in downtown Ho Chi Minh city traffic! Can you believe it can take up to two hours to get out of this city??? It is simply a huge and overly chaotic city. But once we left the concrete jungle we now call home, all I could think about was how excited I was to finally see the beach I had been reading about in travel guides for months... Mui Ne beach and those beautiful sand dunes! As we drove in, I was surprised to see the abundance of five star resorts that lined the coast. Beautiful resorts one after the other, after the other, after... well you get it, I assume ;) Anyhow, it was not exactly what I had expected but beautiful none the less. Finally, we drove up to our quaint little hotel and were shown to our rooms... Wawaweewa! A small little pool side bungalow right beside the beach and lush trees everywhere you looked. I was in heaven, clearly!

I quickly remembered that Mui Ne was much more than just a beautiful beachtown, it had sand dunes!!! Red and white ones :)  So the next day, we arranged to have our bus driver take us to see these amazing sand dunes, described by many travel books as a beachside Sahara.  First we would start with the red ones in order to catch the sunset at the even more beautiful white ones (following the advice of a few wise friends, of course) They did not disappoint!  What a sight, simply amazing.  After walking around and marveling at these amazing red sand dunes and trying to avoid the VERY pushy children trying to sell you a crazy carpet ride down these sand lovers delights, we got back on our bus (covered in red sand mind you, a fact I do not think our driver appreciated very much). 

We then proceeded to drive a few kilometers down the coastline and arrived at Lotus Lake, a simple beauty surrounded by the most magnificent white sand dunes.  No pushy children selling crazy carpet rides, rather here you could rent a 4 wheeler and explore the sand dunes to your hearts content.  So ride we did! And then it happened...

Sunset.  See for yourself :)

Bet you thought I was done!!! Well not quite... The next day was just as spectacular.  Got up and got on a motorbike for a 50 km drive. Followed the coastline and headed for the mountains, destination Ta Cu Mountain.  My driver, who did not speak a word of English (a fact that I very much appreciated at 7:00 in the morning, and if you know me you know exactly why) seemed a little pressed for time.  But I did not mind the crazy ride at all, it was far better than the average 40km/h rides I  had experienced in the city. The ride was much faster, thank goodness because I don't think my butt could have handled another minute! Seriously!!! 

Enter the holy mountain... perfect timing! You see, Ta Cu Mountain is home to a white Reclining Buddha, a 160 ft (49m) Buddha!!!  Rumoured to be the largest in Vietnam. Spectacular... really there are no other words to describe it. All you need to know is that I got there early and beat the crowds (I believe a few million tourist were arriving as I left the mountain) the view was... well, incredible and the energy, undeniable!

Here is but a fragment of what I experienced. Wish you would have been there with me, miss you xoxo  Talk soon :)

  

Let me leave you with this (signs my friends, signs are everywhere)... This is what I saw when I turned my back on the Reclining Buddha. I found it in naturally etched in a tree that faces the serene face of  Buddha. Funny how you must turn your back on one in order to see the other.  One watches as the other one rests...

 Which would you choose? 

Good morning Vietnam

Sorry I've been away so long, again. Things move quickly here, so let me fill you in on the past few weeks. My first blog will be about my visit to the War Remnants Museum, this will be brief because no words can accurately describe what I saw or how I felt when I was there. 

The war I saw as I entered the museum that day was not the war I was accustomed to hearing about, it is not the war I had seen portrayed in so many movies back home. I am aware that it is quite possibly one-sided and that some details and events may not be depicted accurately but the fact remains that war is never the answer. I was stunned and saddened to see and to read about Agent Orange and the devastating effects it had and consequently still has on the people of Vietnam. For those of you who are not familiar with Agent Orange, it is the code name for one of the chemical herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military from 1962 to 1971. It is estimated that of 75 million litres were sprayed over parts of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 people being killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange) Needless to say it was shocking and upsetting to me to be faced with the reality that chemical warfare took place in the place I now call home and this fact cannot be denied. The horrors people can inflict on one another is really mind-boggling sometimes. But as I left the museum, I made a conscious effort to leave with a positive outlook... this museum is not about living in the past, it is (as it says in its brochure) "a call to the public to say no to war - yes to peace..." to learn from our mistakes. And what really astounds me about the Vietnamese people is their ability to forgive and to move forward, to re-build and to love. They could very easily be resentful (and with reason) towards foreigners but instead they are kind, helpful and caring. Everyday I am greeted by their smiles and their warmth even if I do not speak their language or look like they do. They are survivors and an inspiration in the truest sense of the word.