Copyright 2005 -- Rachel Saunders

Hoi An: Life in a small town



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April 20th, 2005:
Today was a very big day. As usual, we started early, with a 6 am wakeup, early breakfast and an immediate departure for Marble Mountains. The Marble mountains were only about 30 minutes away and were simply stunning. They are a series of solid marble outcroppings that rise straight up from the plains near the coast and china beach. These mountains for years were used as a holy place, and a source of fine marble. (Now they import the marble so that they don't make their mountains disappear).
Journal Continued:
Even though we arrived around 8ish in the morning, it was already HOT. We walked up the steep marble stairs that were cut out of the mountain side and up to the first Buddhist temple. It had a series of Buddhist sayings carved in marble along the walls... reminding us all to be wiser, better, kinder people. Most people walked right past without paying these sayings much heed. Oh well. These temples were built at many different times over the years, the most recent of which in the mid 70s after the war. Those temples were kind of cool, because you could tell that they had used recycled glass from bottles, plates, and teapots and the like to create their beautiful mosaics. It created an interesting but pretty effect.
Above & left:
The beautiful Ancient House in Hoi An. A little bit of paradise in a beautiful town.

Above: A full view of Akbar's tomb. It was originally designed by Akbar himself, but the plans were altered considerably by his devout muslim son Jehangir.

 

 
Left: Contemplating life no doubt, two gentlemen sit outside of the tomb amongst the pleasant grounds. :
Right: Napping school kids in a Hoi An nursery school. They were resting on their matts. They giggled when I came in, and chirped "hello" in unison.

Below: Another group of kids eating a wonderfully healthy rice soup with fresh water spinach and chicken.
Journal Continued:
Then we walked around the mountain to a holy cave that was also used during the war as a hospital for the Vietcong. It was a very cool retreat from the heat of the late morning. It was deep in the marble mountain, and yet light streamed through three holes that were created, fortunately in my opinion, by the American bombs. The cave just wouldn’t have been as stunning without the source of light... even with the marble statues of Buddha and the various temples carved into the rock face. The way the light fell into the room reminded me of those paintings of god communicating with man.
Right & Below: The other group of kids was grabbing their individual towells, cups, and toothbrushes, and making sure that their bright white smiles, stay shiny.
Left: Contemplating life no doubt, two gentlemen sit outside of the tomb amongst the pleasant grounds. :
Right: A closeup of a baby monkey who resides full time on the verdant grounds of Akbar's tomb. Not a bad place to grow up...
ft: Contemplating life no doubt, two gentlemen sit outside of the tomb amongst the ple
Left: Contemplating life no doubt, two gentlemen sit outside of the tomb amongst the pleasant grounds. :
Right: A closeup of a baby monkey who resides full time on the verdant grounds of Akbar's tomb. Not a bad place to grow up...

Right: A young priest, happily explaining a text to some visitors.
Left: Contemplating life no doubt, two gentlemen sit outside of the tomb amongst the pleasant grounds. :

Right: At the top of Marble mountain, lucky Buddha sits, waiting to greet the faithful.
Journal Continued:
There was a cute priest who had clearly spent a lot of time in the cave contemplating the sides of the cave and showed us where you could see natural rock formations that looked like elephants, flamingoes, a man, a drum, etc. I suppose if your main job is to reflect in a cave all day, that is what you will come up with. The cave in general reminded me of the sort of place that would be featured in a movie of adventures like King Solomon’s mines.:
Journal Continued:
Then we walked around to the other side of the mountain through a little pass with Buddhas and caves scattered all about. There were also all of these benches that I suppose were donated by Coca Cola, but someone had carefully plastered over the Coca-Cola endorsement in the center of the bench. On the far side of the mountain, was a series of pagodas and more temples. These were all recently built and again used the recycled glass motif.

Following a long trip up and down the mountain, we then went to China beach and walked for a long time along in the white sand of the beach which stretches over 30 miles along the coast of Vietnam, or so I am told. It seemed like an ideal place to hang out, if you had a lot of time. Actually, this trip in general is a great combination of beach and cultural vacation.
Journal Continued:
So after a tiring day, we went to the beautiful Victoria resort for lunch and drinks and a swim in the beach. We stayed there and read and relaxed until the hot hours passed... Then we came back to Hoi An for our last night. We are going to the famous Brother's Cafe near the river, and are busy running errands to pick up the shoes and the dress that I had made and a few other things.
:
Right: Another cute resident of the township of Hoi An.
Left: Contemplating life no doubt, two gentlemen sit outside of the tomb amongst the pleasant grounds.
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