Day seven, almost heaven

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I know someone who would be PERFECT for that role!

One week done, and one more to go. So far, it’s been a good time. I’m writing this post from the lovely river town of Hoi An. I’m honestly shocked to be surrounded by so many tourists in this area, many of them young couples. Lots of old-timer couples, too. It is probably the laid-back atmosphere here that makes it more desirable for some than Da Nang’s big-city vibes. Whatever, it is what it is, and I like both.

On the way here, we made a side-trip to visit My Son (pronounced Me Sohn), the site of ancient Hindu temple ruins. Until I read the history at the link above, I was not aware of why this area was so historically significant. Life is for learning, and I learned something new.

Oh, and best of all, it is not cold here! It is nice to be comfortably out and about in short sleeves again.

Let’s get to those heavenly photos, shall we?

A foggy morning as we said goodbye to Ba Na Hills.
Into the cable car for the ride back down to the lowlands.
I have a slight case of acrophobia, so looking down while our car was swaying made me a tad lightheaded.
Swan had the barf bag ready just in case I needed it. I didn’t.
Gettin’ down!
I have no idea what this water was angry about, but it was ragin’.
On the road to My Son.
And here we be.
A cart ride to the starting area.
I would estimate that half of our fellow tourists were from India.
Let’s go check out these ruins.
Swan ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
We saw a few monkeys along the way.
Ruins, ruins, everywhere there’s ruins…
Hello, there.
I guess they had monkeys back then, too.
A bridge too far. Meaning I didn’t take it.

As I said, the viewing might have been more interesting to see if I had known some of the history beforehand—still, not a bad experience. Our driver was waiting to carry us onward to Hoi An, about an hour away.

Checking in at the Lantana Hotel, right on the riverfront.
My room came equipped with this high-tech device. I’m not sure how it works.

I must say, I have never seen such attentive, caring, and friendly staff before. At the reception, a woman sat with us and explained all the amenities available during our stay. This morning, when Swan and I were plotting our course to the beach, the receptionist came out, asked us where we were going, showed us on our map app, and suggested an alternate street where we would see more historic buildings. Thank you for that!

Hoi An is a tourist town, which means being besieged by vendors. This one was very friendly, even though I couldn’t understand a word she said.
The Hoi An River slices through the middle of town.
These boats offer “lantern tours” when the sun goes down.

It was beer o’clock, and we were thirsty. Where can we get a drink around here?

The riverwalk has numerous bars to choose from, some with live music. No dancing girl bars, not that that matters.
We made the LyLy Irish Pub our first stop.
That’s a Tiger in that Magners glass.
Then I saw they had a “buy one, get one” happy hour deal, so I switched to bottles.
The LyLy street view. No cars are allowed on this section of road, which makes it much more pleasant for everyone. Well, except for drivers.
Our next stop was the Bob Marley bar. They had live music, and the singer did a pretty good job singing some Marley tunes.
Those lantern boats I mentioned.
Us chilling at Marley’s.

We’d seen a rooftop place called Sky Bar and decided to give it a try.

A sexy tree grows in Hoi An.
Like a bridge over troubled waters.
Swan says Sky Bar is right up this alley.

Yikes! Four floors of dicey stairs. And you have to duck at the top before entering the bar. They are even worse coming back down. I figured this must be an expat hangout since it is off the main drag and a pain in the ass to get to.

Despite the obstacles, Sky Bar had a good crowd last night.
A Sky Bar view.
And another.

It was time to get some grub, and Jeff liked the menu at LyLy, so we overcame the stairs and headed back to where we had started.

We are back!
And the live music had begun. This gal had a fantastic voice and sang in perfect English. I don’t think she is Vietnamese, though. She looks Korean.
Our pub fare included chicken nuggets…
…and fried shrimp.

I’d reached my limit, so we bid goodnight to Jeff and Davina and headed back to the room.

Onward to September 2016 in the LTG archives, and in this post, I recount the happenings of the first day in the Philippines with my Korean girlfriend.

Today’s YouTube video is a vlogger walking around An Bang Beach, the one Swan and I hiked to this morning. Nothing all that exciting in the video, but at least you can see what things look like around there.

And you knew these were coming:

What’s up, Doc?
Hard to argue with that logic.
Puns like this should be against the law.

Alright, I’ll stop now—time to get on with the rest of day eight.

4 thoughts on “Day seven, almost heaven”

  1. I guess they had monkeys back then, too.

    Hanuman is the monkey-king deity, for what it’s worth. I don’t know whether that particular image is of Hanuman, though; it seems to be occupying a temple-guardian position on the building. Maybe it is Hanuman.

    That one close-up pic of the temple, with all the darkened stone and lichen, made me want to grab a pressure-washer and hose the entire building clean. But I imagine that decay is part of the charm.

    Hard to argue with that logic.

    Were you ever a golfer?

    I would’ve been all over that Hindu temple. Now, I’m motivated to look up “Hinduism in Vietnam.” Thailand, where the Buddhism is of the Theravada (older) variety, is also heavily influenced by India and Hinduism. You see it everywhere there, in all the names, e.g., Maha Sarakham. (Maha comes from the same ancient root as the Greek mega or the Latin magnus; it means “great,” as in maharaja, “great king.”) Since we’ve already established China’s deep influence on Vietnam, I’m curious to know more about India’s influence. I should look more closely at the food, which strikes me as much more Chinese-inflected than Indian in tenor. But there may nevertheless be Indian influences in the cuisine, maybe in the types of herbs and spices the Vietnamese use. I don’t know. I’ll consult the AI god as a starting point, then move on to legit sources.

  2. Sorry—in the epic Ramayana, the monkey king is Sugriva, and Hanuman is his monkey general.

  3. I saw that Vitaly, the notorious Russian a-hole, was deported from the PI back to Russian.

    I wonder if his new videos will be coming from the Russian front? LOL

    Looks like you are having a good time so far. Enjoy!!

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