Day 10 - Driving to Hoi An - 16th September 2014-

Driving to Hoi An - Day 10 - 16th September 2014- Thursday

Today is a loooong day. We are up early after a night under the fan in our huge room, but the airport is a good two and a half hour away and we have stuff to do! We manage some morning meditation, and then the bags out door at 7.45, I write, and we are at breakfast with our technology plugged in. I eat Asian fruit and pho, and squirrel away two small rolls and some cheese as I know we won't be eating till about 3 pm. Shortly we are in a sampan, just ten minutes from the hotel, being piled along by an austere looking man, but there are only toe to a sampan and Gerald and I are in the lead, so the racket of the group are behind us. Soaring granite cliffs, lotus leaves waving like a crows at a football game , bamboo reeds, stunted trees grow in proliferation on the side of these small mountains, and the peace is palpable. Until our am wearing his pith helmet hawks and coughs over the side, that is. We suppress a guffaw, and marvel at our surroundings, suddenly he points, and there high up in the trees almost at the top of the mountain, is a family of pitch black monkeys, all wearing white nappies. Well, that's what is looks like. Gerald, whose eyes are so much more attuned to things in the bush than mine, spots three mothers with babies, I can only see one, the tiny head of a pale orange shade, it peeks out from time to time, and the mother pushes its inquisitive wee noggin back in again. The group are entranced, and now we are all clustered below, twelve sampans. Cameras click, the women's hearts, missing grandchildren, all sigh out. Our man takes the lead again, and we glide along, although the wind is coming up, through banks of water grass, but there are no birds, such a curious thing. It looks as though we are coming to all sheer rock face, and will have to do a U turn, but as we round a gentle bend, we see there is a narrow opening, another one of those graceful arches, and we are sailing underneath these bridge of rock. Oh, it is magical!!!!! We have to bend low to avoid scraping our heads, and for a few minutes, before the group catch us, we are in the Magic Cave alone. Water slowly seeps from above, Pith Helmet Man rows silently, I am Brooke Shields in the film Blue Grotto with my Beloved. We can see way through to the other side, but the tide must be high, as we cannot get all the way through, and stop and drift. The group arrive in an excited chattering cluster, and we reluctantly share our find.

A slow journey back as the wind is up now, but we are in front with an uninterrupted view of the landscape. We smile at each other and lean in, holding hands and happy. Suddenly, our man's mobile phone goes off, and breaks the moment of this natural environment, and we burst out laughing as he speaks at the top of his voice in Vietnamese. Such is progress. I marvel at these inscrutable me , who can crack a smile in an instant, they would have been a formidable enemy to the Americans. I marvel, too, at the elegant, reed slender women, wearing conical hats, any one of whom could grace a cat walk in Europe, poling Australians in sampans. They smile and joke with each other, competing with each other. Not a skerrick of fat amongst them. They have been tipped already, but it has been suggested if they have 'worked hard' (????) to tip them a dollar. We double that. Han and Quang are both at pains to tell us that there lives are absolute heaven now, compared to what their parents experienced growing up, and the sacrifices they made on their behalf, a long and interesting story, which culminates in him being absolutely privileged to collect the bones of his parents after First Burial in readiness for Second Burial.

Kathrine and I find a tiny roadside stall, and I purchase four small embroidered jewellery bags for $10, small gifts for neighbours and friends. Back on the bus, we have a 3.5 hour journey to the airport, in which I alternately sleep, pretend to be asleep to avoid the determined relentless conversation of sweet Kathrine, or listen to fascinating stories of this land from our guides. Once at the airport, it is a frenzy of activity, as Quang has managed to get us a flight two hours earlier - for 25 people! - and I assist Ashley and Kathrine to repack their suitcase, and remove sharp items and large tubes of cream. I shouldn't but I do, feel for this couple, this trip is for people more mobile, and it cannot help myself assist them at every opportunity although they are only eight years older than me - they have been very inactive for a very long time to get to this space of weight and ill health and lack of mobility, and it makes Gerald and I all the more determined to keep up with our swimming, yoga and walking. We have a very late lunch at 3 pm, a mass of dishes of delicious food, unexpected at an airport, and a cold beer and lemonade. Gerald and I have eaten our cheese snack on the bus for which I am grateful, and we dash to the departure gate. I worry about the 'old folk' but Quang is assisting as the walk is long, and there are several fat people red faced, perspiring and look as if they are about to expire. The flight is uneventful on a smart clean comfortable Vietnam Air plane, and we arrive in Dalang an hour and fifteen minutes later - the centre of much military activity during the war. Now it is looking like Sentosa in Singspore, with a mass of flashing flights, a vast Ferris wheel, and vast wedding reception centres, a huge Crown Casino, all the buildings are new, and the famous China Beach nearby, recently voted one of the ten most beautiful beaches in the world.

45 minutes later we are in Hoi An, at THE most exquisite hotel, only two weeks old.

BAR. SWIM. ROOM. SPA. FOOD.

Best Regards

Gerry Groom Executive Coach

P O Box 256 Berry, NSW, 2535 Australia Mob : 0408162408 Tel : 44487910 Email : groomgerald@gmail.com