Chasing Tigers: "Carpe Diem... Seize... the carp!"-- Dude, Where's my Car?

You may have noticed by now that almost everything tends to have a bit of a Chinese flair to it… It probably has something to do w/ the fact that China is huge and has dominated Asia for a bagillion years (*please note the sarcasm)… But it is true… especially in Viet Nam. There are Chinese lamps everywhere… I would probably be bringing home some Chinese lamps… had I not dropped so much money on other things while I was in Hoi An… and figured I’d see nice ones again somewhere else… This was wrong… This is my word of advice to all of you traveling out there… if you go to Hoi An… and you see something you like… buy it… immediately… its going to be more expensive in larger cities and crappier quality. And a lot of the stuff in Hoi An is original work… you just don’t know it yet. Oh, and if people won’t haggle you for something… that means that its really really really good quality work… I did this with a wood carving… they gave me a straight price, I searched everywhere else in town, no where else had it… it was an actual original… shocking… but I’m digressing… this blog is moving on from Hoi An… and into Hue… the formal capital… where the Chinese influence is quite apparent… But before we get there, we turn back to the Marble Mountains…

It is a fundamental traveling law… that all things worthwhile will be at the top of a hill/mountain… This doesn’t change even when your in asia… And the most common phrases out of my mouth… and those of you who have traveled w/ me know this are something like, “I’m not climbing anymore f’ing mountains”, “I f’ing hate mountains”, etc, etc, etc… There are also certain details that are always there in addition to these mountain expeditions… the number one being rain… it will always be cloudy and rainy… it will especially be rainy if the path is a narrow dirt path with a large drop off, or really old slippery steps/rocks… Of course there is also the rare occasion when you are walking up a mountain to a castle and there’s snow on the ground, the path has become a sheet of perma-ice… so you are walking up in the gutter b/c that the only place you don’t slip… and you see people coming down sliding on their butts… then you get to the top only to find there’s an actual road on the other side. But obviously this is not a SE asia story… but my point is… there’s always these stupid mountains, and no matter how much you bitch and whine, your going to climb it b/c you’re a traveler and that’s what you do…

So here are the steps up to the Marble mountains…

And the reward for the steps is this here awesome view. At one point this was probably all one mountain… just mined and quarried away b/c its all limestone/marble… now its said it looks like a dragon’s back…

Plus a whole bunch of pagodas in trees… and this awesome fat happy Buddha

Then you fallow this awesome path into the caves…

With the goddess of mercy in front… plus more steps!

Then there’s just this huge open space – with the little demon guard things…. you can see rachel at the bottom of the cave *purple shirt... just to get an idea of how big it is

Inside it had a buddha in the wall and the Ling Ong Pagoda, and a hole in the roof that is said to have been caused by US bombing b/c the Viet Cong would hide in the caves.

Then Down below are the Non Nuoc village quarries with just tons and tons and tons of marble statutes.

We then stopped on a beach in the middle of no where for lunch and pictures… I tried to catch the name of the place but didn’t get it… the hotel was completely disserted… as was the beach… if you ever really just needed a getaway… this would be it. Pick up suit in Hoi An… then stay on this beach.

Its around this point that we started getting into jungle area as we cruised the coast line… it made for some awesome scenery plus you can see paths through the jungle… and the gate where people crossing the mountains to the imperial city (Hue) had to stop before going through.

And then finally Hue… where we took another cyclo trip…

This here is the Flag Tower of the Citadel… marking the outer wall of the Imperial city.

This is where the King/Emperor would sit during celebrations etc.

Of course there’s a moat

And from here you can see the Forbidden Purple City… A lot like the Forbidden city in China. This is where the King his wives and concubines would live along with women servants and Unics.

Now these here are some crazy carp. You clap your hands and they come to you… then you give them a little food and they swarm… like this picture… But carp are incredibly important… they say that if you keep a carp alive long enough… it will turn into a dragon. The dragon is one of four sacred creatures. It represents power or the king (pending on who is telling the story). There is also the phoenix who represents nobility, the Unicorn (not at all as we know it) representing wisdom, and the Turtle representing longevity. Also sacred, is the lotus… as it represents purity and fertility. Some random observations carp are basically a lot like coy and lotus seems to be the same as a water lily.

Here now is what is supposed to be a tiger shaped bush.

Then a group photo by the Thai Binh Reading Pavilion

Then a quick glimpse of the Hien Lam through some doors. And that puts an end to one of the hottest days in the history of this tour… and one of the longest.

The next day we took a boat ride up the Perfume river checking out imperial tombs and monasteries.

Here is the Thien Mu Pagoda

And this is the car that a certain monk drove to Hanoi (I think), doused himself in gasoline, and lit himself on fire in protest against the Communists… The event is an incredibly famous photo.