We spent 3 glorious nights in Hoian eating excuisite food and drinking great coffee while consuming a plethora of devine pattiseries that made the mouth water at the memory. I could spend a month in Hoian andstill feel cheated for time. It is a fabulous place. Pity that so many people feel the same way as the place is infected with a myriad of tourists all seeking something cheap. On our second day we hired motorbikes. Mr Thanh joined us at the river mouth and we set off for what the Amermican invaders referred to as "Monkey Mountain". MM is found on the edge of Danang. We rode along the coast raod to the 3rd largest city in Vietnam. The coast here is littered with huge resorts both fi ished and unfinished. Side by side would be these huge concrete skeletons next to opulent structures with manicured grounds poorly hidden behind concrete walls. At one point we passed a huge structure surrounded by cranes and rickety bamboo scaffolding. Right next door was a finished resort that had gone broke before it opened with crumbling tile rooves and windowless openings like missing teeth. The whole thing was quite bizarre. Across the road were several huge golf courses one of which was designed by Greg Norman. I think the aim was to attract large numbers of Chinese, Korean and Japanese tourists. They seem to restrict themselves to the closer to Danang resorts where they have access to casinos and other diversions that are accessed by bus loads of these characters.
Our aim was to ride the bikes to the top of Monkey Mountain in the hope of spotting some of the resident Monkeys. On a previous trip I had seen heaps of Macacs. We rode the length of the island just above the coast. We stopped at a beachside resteraunt that offered heaps of variety in the menu but in reality did not have any of the dishes we selected. I ended up with a Banana flower salad with pork that was quite tastey. We rode on until we found a concrete strip going almost vertically up the mountain. I roared up for some way only to find I was alone. Returning back down the precipice I found Vicky and Ernie parked up at an intersection I had passed. Apparently thier machine did not have the power to get them up the steep hill. While discussing this Vicky spotted some Monkeys in the trees above us. Mr Thanh became very excited when we realised that these creatures were not Macacs. In fact they were a small band of Red Shanked Doucs (Langurs) ! These animals are extremely rare and are listed as endangered by international agencies. Here we were looking atraight at these incredible creatures totally wild and totally free. They are the most colorful of Monkeys. They are quite large being the size of about a 7 year old child. They have the cutest red/orange coloured face, a long thin white tail. Thier arms from the elbow to wrist re white with dark hands with the appearance of gloves. Thier lower legs are bright red. The effect is very striking. We watched them with wonder for about half an hour. Mr Thanh was beside himself. He was taking heaps of photos and tried valiantly to get closer with no luck. We watched these animals feeding on leaves and throwing themeselves around the canopy with a proffesionalism that boggled the mind. It was so uplifting to see these creatures. We, Vicky and I walkeda bit further up the hill and came across quite a large band of Macacs who were on the ground and looking very suspiciously at us. Making warning sounds to thier comrades they withdrew into the jungle only to peer at us through the vegitation. It was wonderful. Thanh announced that he was going up the mountain to see if he could see some more Langurs and we headed back down the mountain to visit the 50m statue of Quan Ong (the Vietnamese version of the lady Bhudda called Quan Lin in China). There are a number of temples in the complex. One, the biggest contains 3 golden statues that are huge and very impressive. In another there was a jade bhudda that was remarkable. The surrounding gardens were full of huge bonsai trees and a large number of marble statues depicting the various incarnations of the bhudda. The effect was awe inspiring. I wandered about having my photo taken by lots of different Vietnamese and other asian tourists. One lot had me standing beside the Jade Bhudda hands together in front of my chin. I felt a little awkwrd about this as I am not a believer. My feelings of being a fraud were completely ignoredby the people taking the photos. They obviouslythought this was right and proper so I did not disabuse them.
We finished the day with the long ride back to Hoian. That night (our last with Thanh) we ate at the Mango Mango rooms. Another meal that could not be beat. The next morning it was up at 4:30 am for the flight to Saigon. The trip with Vicky and Ernie is drawing inexorably toward the denouement when they get on the plane to Singapore from Siem Reap. I have enjoyed our journey together it has been very nice to share a piece of Asia with them.
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