I got up this morning at the ripe time of 12:30pm. Still a little off kilter from the jet lag I suppose. Well, it was high time that I got up and showered. Had another motorbike ride to take today. It wasn't too far into my ride when I stumbled on my future home. It was just like I have envisioned it. This is where you can find me a number of years from now, or maybe sooner than that :-) What a cool place to have. This looked to be about 1/4 mile from the shore. Yep, I'll take it. Also, if you don't know, you can click on the pictures and enlarge if you wish. Okay, lets roll......
The mission for today, was to drive North and head up the coast to where the "Monkey Temple" is. A local guy was telling me about it, so ofcourse I had to go check out the monkeys. Seems that where Thailand has elephants, Vietnam has the monkeys. I have seen though, many monkeys in Thailand too, but Vietnam doesn't have the elephants. This turned in to about a 2.5 hr pleasant ride, then a little bit of offroad. A person would just never find this place unless you are a local. This is why, the best thing you can do when you travel abroad is hook up with a friend. They are proud to show you all the cool stuff which are NOT in the "guide books". Plus, you wont be playing w/ the tourist crowd. I like the back 40 stuff myself. So, quickly after we arrived, I knew this was going to be a special place. Very quiet......all you could hear was monkeys up in the trees, and these wonderful metal wind chimes on the temple. The surrounding rocks speak for themselves. Here you see a Bhuddist alter of some sort. This would be a good time to mention what I noticed as somewhat of a surprise. I have actually seen more Christian and Catholic chapels than I have seen any other religion, though Bhuddism is still a quite popular belief for many.
 |
| The trail on search of monkeys |
|
| I know you have peanuts, hand em over. |
Soon, I found my monkey friends. It is a complete different experience throwing peanuts to wild monkeys, vs. ones behind bars at the zoo. You have to really watch these rascals. I was told they have taken peoples cameras, purses, and food. I never felt threatened by any of them probably because the ones I saw were very small. But still, they do have teeth. We didn't come across any monkeys at the temple as is usual, so we began to hike up the hillside on this ancient trail.
Soon, you could hear them thrashing throughout the trees. They seem to know that maybe some treats were coming. You should have seen these creatures FLY through the trees! What amazing acrobats!! I could have watched the for hours on end. They would go high up into the trees, then launch like 30 feet out and down, and land in some bushes or another tree. They can also catch. You can throw a nut to them over 10 ft away, and they will catch it. Funny things, monkeys :-)
 |
| Buddist Monk cleaning floor of temple |
And, I'll add a few more pics of this place w/ captions. Very glad I was able to visit this place. I will remember it forever.
 |
| Inside of the temple. Notice size of door. |
Along the route back, came upon this little fishing district right on the coast of the South China Sea. These were just different families doing this work. On this particular street, there were probably 20 different outfits working sided by side. This is drying fish in the sun. Yeah, didn't smell that great. But this is the real McCoy here. When next you are in an Asian store and you see the vaccuumed packed dried fish, here is where it is made.
Typical Vietnamese lady (old school) working on her fish. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY has seomthing to do here.
 |
| more fish........... |
 |
...and more and more and MORE FISH!!!
|
Okay then, that is all I have time for tonight. Am having fun. Riding the motorbike through heavy traffic and round abouts, feels like being inside an arcade game. It is a total trip. I called it "Organized Chaos". Somehow, it works. It's less driving, and more avoiding impact. Fun as can be! Okay, I will update later as things move along. Tomorrow I think I'm just staying here by pool and get a full day of reading in. R&R day tomorrow. I also had to respond to a few critical emails to my work in Qatar, so it's not "ALL" fun and games. This is more of a "working vacation" :-) |
The mission for today, was to drive North and head up the coast to where the "Monkey Temple" is. A local guy was telling me about it, so ofcourse I had to go check out the monkeys. Seems that where Thailand has elephants, Vietnam has the monkeys. I have seen though, many monkeys in Thailand too, but Vietnam doesn't have the elephants. This turned in to about a 2.5 hr pleasant ride, then a little bit of offroad. A person would just never find this place unless you are a local. This is why, the best thing you can do when you travel abroad is hook up with a friend. They are proud to show you all the cool stuff which are NOT in the "guide books". Plus, you wont be playing w/ the tourist crowd. I like the back 40 stuff myself. So, quickly after we arrived, I knew this was going to be a special place. Very quiet......all you could hear was monkeys up in the trees, and these wonderful metal wind chimes on the temple. The surrounding rocks speak for themselves. Here you see a Bhuddist alter of some sort. This would be a good time to mention what I noticed as somewhat of a surprise. I have actually seen more Christian and Catholic chapels than I have seen any other religion, though Bhuddism is still a quite popular belief for many.
Soon, I found my monkey friends. It is a complete different experience throwing peanuts to wild monkeys, vs. ones behind bars at the zoo. You have to really watch these rascals. I was told they have taken peoples cameras, purses, and food. I never felt threatened by any of them probably because the ones I saw were very small. But still, they do have teeth. We didn't come across any monkeys at the temple as is usual, so we began to hike up the hillside on this ancient trail.
No comments:
Post a Comment