Vietnam Day 26 (7/3/09)

After a complimentary breakfast that was neither entirely Vietnamese nor entirely Western (it was a buffet with odd choices ranging from eggrolls to spaghetti), we left the hotel for the My Son Mountain. A hike up this mountain brings you to the ruins of the Cham people, a complex of brick structures made completely without mortar (archeologists still don’t know how). The structures are incredible, though I can’t say I had the most mature reaction when I saw the large phallic statue that was once placed atop the temple to improve the emperor’s virility. The mountains were crawling with tourists, snapping pictures in front of everything (not that we were doing any different), some even wearing heels and traveling in packs hidden under umbrellas.

Back in town, we sat down to lunch near the river at a restaurant serving food similar to what we ate last night. At this restaurant however, the service was painfully slow. In the epically long stretches between courses, we all complained about how much time we were wasting waiting for food. I must admit, I chimed in during these conversations too, but when I sat back and thought about it, I decided it was a good thing. We’re always so crunched for time that we rush through our days, never stopping long enough to really appreciate the character of whatever town we’re in. I felt really bad for having whined, but at least we weren’t as bad as the shameful Westerners one table over eating pizza, burgers, and fries (that’s all the other Westerners eat here).

I devoted the rest of the afternoon to shopping. A group of us started in an open-air market, where the vendors had two very different styles of attracting customers. Some were nicer than those in Saigon, not bothering passersby, but sitting patiently and only looking up if someone stopped at their stall (part of why it’s so rude in this region to browse unless you’re committed to buying from that stand). The alternative strategy was demonstrated by three saleswomen who actually left their booths to follow us down the entire length of the market, calling to us the whole way. Despite this annoyance, we had a rather successful shopping trip, though I know for a fact we got ripped off in a couple of cases. One of my purchases didn’t work out so well unfortunately. Since I lost my rings at rollerskating, I got a new amber-colored glass ring. Within an hour of buying it, it dropped and, being glass, broke into three pieces – some higher power doesn’t want me to wear rings in this country.

After a simple but delicious dinner of chicken and rice, some of the group rented bicycles to tour the town. Kendra, Molly, and I were uneasy about the bikes though because it was nighttime in a new city and half the roads had been turned into lakes by the rain. Riding around in that just didn’t sound like fun. What we weren’t told was that the bike people were actually going to the beach which we were sad to miss. However, we made our own fun exploring different side-streets in town. We even found a nice jewelry store that was shockingly different from the dozens of others on the main drag. I got a lovely black pearl necklace, which I think is ample compensation for missing a difficult highway ride to a beach that turned out to be dumpy anyway.