Marble mountains and discos

carved from the marble mountain
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I really don't know what the day will bring when I wake up here.  My only notion for the day was to talk to Kurt on the phone and go to the beach.  Neither did I succeed at.  Well, the beach in a way.

Still without credit card.  Living on what I have which does go far in this country.  As long as I don't have to pay the hotel bill.  I took up the offer of a motorbike driver to take me to the Marble mountains today.  It is about 35 km from Hoi An.  Cost me about $3.50 to be taken and returned.  And once again he threw in a couple of extra stops just to make it worth my while.  The Marble Mountains are just that.  Mountains of marble.  The local community is full of carving factories.  Lions are really popular as the Vietnamese prefer them as entry way emblems of strength.  But they carve all sorts of stuff including some very oddly expressive Davids and Madonnas.  He stopped off at China beach - yes the one from the tv show for a brief walk in the sand.

A view of the area around Marble Mountains
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At the Marble mountain site you walk up these steep steps and enter a temple site with 3 caves and several building including a couple of pagodas.  Much of the site is actually being constucted or redecorated with new plaster ornamentation.  One of the caves contains a large female diety carved straight from the rock.  Another has a narrow passage up to the opposite side of the mountain giving windswept views of the sea.  It rates as one of my favorite sites so far in Vietnam.

Another view
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I returned exhausted and collapsed for an hour then felt complelled to go outside where I had promised this woman I would rent a bike.  It was about 4:30 the day is fading and I thought 4 km I can bike to the beach and back.  I am heading out and this young guy starts chatting me up as I pedal.  He is on motorbike.  He invites me to his village and I go there with him to this farming village right off the main road.

I end up at his house and meet his mother, father and 2 brothers who serve me dinner and some odd alcohol  like a vodka but really not very strong.  We sat on the floor on a mat and drank and ate a cracker  with spicy greens and they served me rice.  We used his English/Vietnamese dictionary and traded words.  It was very kind.

A thought for the day
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He drove with me as I pedaled back to Hoi An as night fell.  We stopped for a coffee and he said "I take the night off from work and take you around for free."  Which meant I paid and he drove which was totally fine with me.  We drank two beers then we ate (again!) at a cheap local joint and we ended up at a gay disco.  Well,  all the dancers were guys dancing with each other.  I was quite popular as the only westerner in the place.  He brought me back to the hotel and  said."Thank you for the pleasant evening."