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March 6th - 7th

Our rushed trip was kicked up a notch when we arrived in Hoi An. We wanted to spend two nights in North Vietnam's Halong Bay, but since we had not accounted for the long bus rides, we were running very low on time. We spent the night in Hoi An, and early the next morning found a taxi driver, who would take us to the local sights. What the city of Hoi An looks or feels like cannot be described here, because we did not have any time to check it out. Many fellow Sinh Caf?rs, however, enjoyed it thoroughly.

Our first stop of the day was My Son, one of South East Asia's only Hindu influenced cities, the Champa people built My Son during the 9th century. What was once ornate, meticulously crafted, stone temples has been reduced to mostly rubble and large shell holes in the ground, from war after war and eleven centuries of wear and tear. When America found out that My Son was the hide out of the North Vietnamese they leveled it, and then Tricky Dick, in response to archeologists’ outrage, declared we would no longer destroy national monuments - right! Afterwards, we stopped in a small Pepsi stand to cool off from the sweltering heat and made friends with a group of Vietnamese tourists who were having a picnic at this beautiful ancient sight. We took turns with their guitar, singing different songs from our cultures. We played Johnny B. Goode, Country Roads and Yerushalim Shel Zahav.

After My Son, Fo, our driver, took us to a local Bun Pho Shop for noodle soup, the traditional Vietnamese meal. The food in Vietnam was good but definitely lacked the flavor of Thailand or the kick of India. It came close to the food of Nepal. It was made more for life sustenance, then anything else.

We planned to stay at China Beach that evening and catch the Sinh Caf? tour bus the next morning as it headed for Hue. We drove to the area a few kilometers from China Beach called the Marble Mountains, these are five large peaks of marble filled mountains, each representing one of the five elements of the world: water, air, fire, earth and gold/metal. We walked up into the "water" mountain. We saw beautiful temples, and far-stretching views of the South China Sea. Best of all, were the ancient caves that held huge Buddha Statues.

When Fo dropped us off at the China Beach Resort we were concerned that it would be very expensive, but since this resort holds the monopoly on accommodation on China Beach, it was the only choice. It was a huge resort with over 100 rooms, 3 restaurants, tennis courts and a swimming pool. We booked two fourth class rooms (hot water and fan) and started to look around. What we quickly realized was that the place was empty! It seemed as though someone had the brilliant idea to develop a Club-Med-like resort in Vietnam, and judging by the dilapidated grounds, lack of hot water, beaches full of kids selling cheap wares, and a bored, rude, unhelpful staff, it was clear that this place had failed. One strange experience was when we were standing outside our room with a key but were still locked out, the staff attempted to pry apart the door and finally, one hour later, had to climb over the balcony from the room next door, remove the air-conditioning unit, and climb through the hole into the room.(Our website’s purpose hasn't been to plug or slam facilities and tours, but this place was by far the worst lodging we had in five months of India, Nepal and Thailand!!!). The following morning, only too anxious to leave, we were promised a taxi "no problem" to take us to our bus. When the taxi never arrived and the manager did nothing to help us we had to walk about three kilometers to the marble mountains and find our Sinh Caf? bus to Hue.