Day at the beach
Trip Start
Nov 21, 2007
1
11
37
Trip End
Jan 01, 2008
Hoi An, Vietnam
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Speaking of auspicious, it must have been an auspicious weekend to bury the dead. In two mornings, there were three funeral processions that went by our hotel. What are the chances that 3 people die in two days in a city of 80,000? It was more like a parade than a funeral, with a popcorn machine on wheels, a band on a flatbead, and colorfully decorated buses full of descendants. Ancestor worship is big here, with several family temples (to worship the family, not any deities) in town. One gallery we went in had a special corner for their mother, with offering plates, incense, and formal portraits.
We rented a motorbike to go the 5km to the beach (famous China Beach from the American War). There's not much traffic here, the roads are flat, and it would give us a chance to try it out if we wanted to rent down in the islands. Hand 'em $8, they hand you a key, and you're off. No passport check, no driver license taken hostage- just your cash and your smile. This same place did have our laundry, so maybe it was an even trade. No near crashes, only one near tip-over (Carrie wore a skirt and rode side-saddle on the back), and all in all a fun time. Of course we only went 20 kph, which is slower than I typically ride my bike. We didn't get passed by any bicycles (their machines are not equipped for that kind of speed here), but we got passed by plenty of grandmas with groceries balanced on one arm. Too many horror stories of people ruining their vacation because they crashed were running through my mind to press the accelerator any more.
It was a little chilly, and the surf was ROLLING in, so we didn't get wet, but chilled out on a beach chair and read for the day. The place was deserted, so the business owners were practically begging you to eat at their restaurant, sit in their chairs for drinks, or buy little trinkets. Maybe in the summer it's busier, but it was pretty quiet now. Of course it's "winter", so there aren't even any Vietnamese tourists. The Vietnamese use this time of year to break out their parkas, sweaters and scarves. Literally. We're in shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops, and they've got on heavy coats and knitted hats. Oh- and flip-flops. Those are good all year.
Trash is an interesting topic here- there's tons of it, and the management is not something that's been well thought out. In Hanoi people just throw it in the gutter, and every night little old ladies walk around with bamboo baskets, sweeping the trash from the gutter into the baskets. There are no wastebaskets anywhere, except in Halong Bay, where there were stupid penguin bins every 50 meters. So there are the little ladies with baskets, and there are true trash professionals, with rubber boots, masks, gloves, and conical hats of course. They roll carts along, and bang a makeshift bell to announce their arrival. People come out with their small bags and 5-gallon buckets of trash and dump into the carts. It's somewhat reminiscent of Monty Python where the guy goes through town yelling "Bring out yer dead!". Here in Hoi An they've taken a clue from the Japanese. They bought a fancy trash truck, like we have in the States, and put a music box on it. It give a pleasant asian cartoon song to announce its arrival, and everybody brings out their dead.
