"Cau Duyet!" yelled Bach, running into our room. He rolled around on the floor, screaming at us to wake up. I stirred around for a bit, finally sitting up and stretching. Bach had woke up last night in the middle of the night sweating. "Where's dad? Dad!? Dad!?" he cried out. When no answer came, he cried and yelled, waking the whole house up. His father and mother eventually came, taking him to their room to sleep with them. He had not seen his father in a while, my uncle Tien working in Hanoi. My uncle Tien walked into the room, asking us how we slept. "Just fine" I said, getting out of bed and heading towards the bathroom. My uncle Duyet got up as well, cleaning up the room a bit and heading out to play with Bach and his toys. "Ben, here, you are the black action figure" he said handing me the toy. I obliged, play-fighting with his red action figure. After about thirty minutes to tickling and playing with Bach, I decided it was time to phone home to my parents. It had a been a while, them actually making the calls to me, rather than the other way around.
We had a heart warming talk, my parents telling me that they were still following my blog, and criticizing me for my accident with Vung the other day. I was happy to hear that everything back home was going well, my mom's missing me being diminished as she uses my blog to keep track of me. My mom told me that my parents were planning to save up money for an entire family visit to Vietnam three years from now, when I graduate from college and my little brother, Nam, graduates from high school. I can't wait! My grandfather and uncle also called in, checking up on us, and having conversations with me, Bach, and my uncles. Talk about a family reunion over the phone. We talked for a while, switching phones from person to person, Bach tending to his toys and the television more than the telephone. At last it was time to go eat some breakfast, before heading off to visit the famed Pagodas and Caves of Thuy Son Mountain in Da Nang. Thuy Son Mountain is one of the mountains of the famed Marble Mountains that inhabit the city, towering above all the buildings, spotted with uniquely decorated temples and sculptures.
Bach didn't eat very much of anything other than sweets and milk-based products, disliking rice and everything else. He is now around four or so, a little overweight for his size, but energetic as ever.
He had to go to the daycare today while me and both my uncles headed to our travels for today, first stop the mountain mentioned above. Wow, it was enormous, sprouted with greenery all about, at the base surrounded by a sea of beautifully carved marble sculptures (numbering in the thousands!). "This place is probably worth a few hundred billion Vietnamese dong" my uncle said, shaking his head. The sculptures at the base, near the stairway up to the center temple were beautiful, in every shape, animal, thing imaginable. They were of all sizes as well, and of many different colors, captivating the hundreds, perhaps thousands of tourists pouring in and out of the entrance. "Let's get something to drink" my uncle Tien said, looking over at the sugar-cane juice stand. We got some drinks and headed up to the entrance, snapping some photos along the way.
Tourists came in waves, going up and down, buying from the vendors near the entrance and area. Souvenirs, jewelry, paintings, and the like were being sold, though I did not buy a single thing from the area. "Hey Ben, you know its an extremely long walk to visit everything up there?" asked my uncle. "No problem, I've already hiked enough mountains to know my limits so let's go!" I replied, smiling, heading toward the ticket booth. We finally started our march, up the long flight of stone stairs up to the central meeting area of the mountain. There were more than ten locations to visit up there, me and my uncles taking a break upon hiking up to the central temple. The area was definitely tourist friendly, signs in English, and tour guides of many different languages, leading people around. I couldn't help but smile when I understood the Spanish tour guides, as they led around visitors, whom I found out, and met later on, from Barcelona. "Let's pay tribute at this central temple" said my uncles, and I followed, taking off my shoes before entering the sacred grounds, and bowing before the Buddha.
It was a long two hours walking around the mountain, visiting one sight after the other. The pagodas were colorful, towering up into the sky, and the statues and sculptures throughout the sight well kept and eye catching. We walked up to a viewpoint near the central temple, staring out at the enormous city of Da Nang. Buildings were everywhere, farmland to the south, and colors all about. I put a coin given to me by my uncle to use one of the telescope devices to view the city. I met up with the group from Barcelona, exchanging some words, and taking a photo. Having not spoken Spanish for some months, and now processing about everything into Vietnamese in my head, I found it rather difficult at first to think in Spanish. Eventually it all came back as I said goodbye to the Spanish group. Oh, how great it is to know another's language. The caves were the most intriguing of the mountain, decorated "like an Indiana Jones set," as quoted from a tourist from England, upon entering a small cove into the mountain, staring at beautiful altars and sculptures. Even more intriguing was that there was a spot on the wall that was in the shape of the Buddha's face, my uncle and many other tourists pointing it out to one another. We explored the whole site, walking up and down, climbing into this opening and out the other, climbing up and down rocks, stairs, and everything in-between. It was good exercise to say the least. When we at last had enough, we walked back down, deciding it was time to explore the sea of sculptures.
Like I wrote above, the sculptures were amazing. We spent about thirty minutes looking at the huge sea of sculptures, taking pictures, and marveling at the thousands of masterpieces all around. I couldn't imagine the amount of work it took to carve out all of these sculptures, many of them looking near perfect in creation. "Alright, I'm tired, let's go home and eat" said my uncle Tien, him telling me that he was a little weak from not getting enough exercise over the last few years. We rode back to his house, eating our lunch, and me deciding to go right to bed, exhausted from all the hiking. I slept a long two hours, tucked neatly into the hard bed frame by the cool air from the air conditioner. My uncle woke up a little after I did, him also tired from all the walking. At around five, Bach came home from day school, vibrant as ever, eager to play. We watched t.v. for a bit, looking at news and cartoons.
Mrs. Giao came home, my uncle Tien's wife, tending to Bach, changing him, and prepping him for our trip over to the beach to swim. It had been a while since all of us went out to the beach, getting to feel the wind and waves upon our bodies. I couldn't wait.
It was dark when we left, the nightlife of Da Nang taking over, light shows everywhere, and people moving from here and there. Right before we pulled into the parking zone near the beach, we noticed that Honda convention and concert was going on tomorrow, the rehearsal occurring this day. Interesting, I thought, looking at the performers dancing on stage. "Do you want to see that on Sunday?" my uncle asked, staring over in the distance. I told him I did, though we actually never got a chance to (more on that in the next entry).
We all headed off into the beach, noticing that there actually was still quite a number of people swimming and playing along the coast. Bach stayed with his mother, while me and my uncles took to the waves. We warmed up with some exercises before rushing into the waves, some beach goers staring at us and laughing. The lights from the distance lit the beach and the surrounding area up beautifully. Da Nang was quite a city of lights during the night, the most I have seen in Vietnam yet, noticing lit bridges, roads, statues, everything. At long last, my uncle called me into the ocean, trudging and smashing his body through the waves, embracing the feeling of the sea. I felt like I was returning home to my home village, facing the waves, and receiving its soothing, and sometimes aggressive, embrace. We raced each other, body surfed the waves, and enjoyed ourselves. Couples could be seen swimming together, joking and tickling one another along the coast. My uncle told me that around the afternoon, families would normally go to the beach to cool off after a long day of work. This wasn't quite the afternoon, but still an enjoyable time to go to the beach. We finished up, rushing back up to Bach and his mother. Bach somehow lost his sandals running around the beach, us having to carry him back to the motorbikes. We washed off, changed, and rode on back to my uncle's home, hungry for some dinner.
It was quite the spread, my uncle inviting two family members over to eat with us (of whom I forget the name despite them telling me multiple times!). We had hot pot with a large assortment of sea foods. So we ate, drank, and talked, well, at least they did, me finishing a little early and heading to bed a little early, due to being exhausted from all the events during the day. At last, Bach and my uncle came upstairs to the bedrooms. Bach played with me and my uncle for a little bit, saying he was not tired, but his mother eventually took him to their room, leaving me and my uncle Duyet to sleep in peace. I wonder if I will ever climb the entirety of the Marble Mountains? A climbing trip for the future is in store!
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