If you do plan on getting there if you're ever in Vietnam you might want to get a wriggle on as the government is slowly but surely buying up all the land along the beach in order to build yet more resorts. Hoa explained this to us one day whereby he said the government man came to see him and said 'we want to buy your land'. Hoa evidently said 'Man, you're crazy, get off of my land!'. The government man replied 'I may be crazy but with one stroke of my pen I can take all your land'. This is the reality in Vietnam. If the government wants something they'll come and ask once nicely. After that they'll take it anyway and give you a pittance for it in return as compensation. Hoa was obviously pretty upset about all this but he knows that it's only a matter of time before they'll come and take away everything he has spent the last 15 years building up. Such is life here.
As for the beach itself it was pretty damn good. White sand, warm water and surf! I was out there pretty much every morning and had a great time once again getting back into the water and then coming in hungry as to a massive double cheese and bacon burger. I was pretty content here to say the least. The others divided their time between sun-bathing, reading books and I don't know what else as I was pretty much always in the surf.
The highlight for me though came when Jake and I made a short trip up the beach to Montogomerie Links golf course. Golf is definitely a rich man's game in Asia and neither Jake or I were going to part with nearly a million Dong (about $50 AUD) for nine holes of golf, plus club hire, plus caddy and so on. They even expected you to wear a collared shirt! I don't even have one of those with me so to hell with that. What they did have at this golf course however was easily the best driving range I've ever seen. For 50 000 Dong (about $2.50 AUD) you could swing until your arms fell off thanks to their unlimited ball promotional offer. We were rapt. The driving range had bunkers, greens and flags so you could alternate between chipping and driving - this place was awesome! They had full table service which means you could have food and, most importantly, beers brought to you where you were teeing off from. Needless to say Jake and I were in heaven. I have to mention that I broke Jake's heart and won a few beers in the process when we had a bet on who could chip the ball into a hole about 10 yards in front of us. I managed to get three balls in there together and I must have used up all the golfing good luck I'm likely to get for the next few years. Jake couldn't believe it, neither could I and we were both falling about the place pissing ourselves. It was a fantastic afternoon.
We arrived back to Hoa's place after golf to find Hoa fall down drunk on God knows what. It was only about 4pm but he was completely off chops. As we had had a few at the course we were in pretty good spirits ourselves but Hoa was in a league of his own. He started by greeting me with "hey Tiiiiimmmm, F**k you man! Ha ha haaaaaaa...' I was cracking up and after he nearly mangled my wrist trying to give me a big bro hand shake and hugging me he carried on by swearing at, and generally good-naturedly abusing all his other guests, one by one. He certainly didn't mean any harm and we were all losing it as his wife tut-tutted on the sidelines, giving him disapproving looks and apologising to us.
After we had a few beers with him, his wife spat the dummy and demanded he take her home. I said "I hope you're driving!" to his wife and Hoa just laughed and said something along the lines of "that'll be the day!". Within minutes they were both on his scooter zig-zagging up the driveway at a decent clip with his wife hanging on for dear life on the back. Hilarious! The Vietnamese don't care how much they've had to drink when it comes to getting home and Hoa isn't the first completely wasted person we have seen trying to control their scooter on the road. Hoa must've done okay as he turned up bright eyed and bushy tailed the next day and I honestly don't think he even remembered what had happened. What a champ!
On our final morning the others went to visit nearby Marble Mountain which is a short walk from Hoa's. I missed this one as I was in the surf but Marble Mountain is basically a limestone (I think!) hill sticking out of the ground and full of Buddhist shrines and pagodas. It's pretty impressive and makes for a great backdrop as you look from the surf towards land. It's pretty tall but as I wasn't there I don't know anything else about it but I know it made for some great photographs. Thanks Kate. That's about it for Hoa's place, it was now time to jump on a plane at nearby Da Nang and jet up to the capital Hanoi.
Now I heard that if you thought the traffic was crazy in Saigon just wait until you get to Hanoi! That thought didn't exactly please me very much but Hanoi promised something that we haven't had for a long time - friends to stay with! Our accomodation was sorted thanks to Kate having good friends in Hanoi so we would actually get the luxury of sitting in a house, a fridge to put things in and all sorts of other stuff that we would normally take for granted. We were also planning to visit that freak of mother nature known as Ha Long Bay and it's other worldly type islands that are in the process of being credited as one of the 'wonders of the world'. But more about that next time. 'Til then.
View of China beach from Marble Mountain. You can clearly see where the land has been cleared for resorts. Hoas is to the right of the cleared area.
Another view of China beach.
View of buildings (and I think the remains of a fishing village) from Marble Mountain.
A large pagoda in Marble Mountain.
All of the Buddhas are hidden inside numerous caves all over the mountain and the mountain is made of marble, hence the name Marble Mountain. Here is a picture of one of the many Buddhas - this is the female buddha.
Some cheerful nuns on Marble Mountain.
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