After a lot of adventure and beach play, the day to leave Vietnam finally arrived. We wanted to make full use of it and hence started the day early in the morning at 4:30 AM.
The Sun rises every single day
We went to a place called the white desert to see the sunrise. We reached a little close to the sunrise time. The guys were charging a bomb to take a jeep or ATV to a spot up the sand-dunes to see the sunrise. But we knew that the sun is impartial. The sun does not care how much I paid to get to where. The sun gives the same opening act and slow dance to everyone.
So we walked. 😀 We reached a small dune and sat there to see the Sun’s slow dance. It’s so weird that sunrise and sunset have been happening everyday, for the past god knows how many million years and will probably happen for another million years. There are no surprises/changes/thrillers in the act. It is simple and mundane. The sun just slowly shows up or hides. Thats all. Yet, it’s a pleasure to see it every single time we see it.
Fishing Village
We later went to a fishing village close by to get woken up by all the ammonia in the air coming from dead fish and rotting seaweed. The attraction of the place was the colourful fishing boats in the area. Frankly, they were not as colourful as in the photos. The photographers dialled up the saturation of their photos to max to allure people to visit the place.
Stuck in a time-loop
After some photo sessions, we started walking on a small stream. It’s called the fairy stream. I would call it as a time-loop as it never ends. It’s a small stream with a very slow flow of water. You keep walking walking walking and it feels the same after a while. The stream looks the same, the surroundings look the same. It just does not end. It really feels like a you are in a time loop.
There were small hills around the stream. The interesting part was the hills had a combination of read and white soil. The red and white soil patches were adjacent to each other like a sandwich or a layered cake. I have never seen a terrain like this. There was also some minor geo-thermal activity happening in a few spots, which made the water around it a little warm.
Adieu
We somehow exited the time-loop and reached our hotel. Everyone was tired and we spent the next few hours in packing, vacating our rooms and of-course, some souvenir shopping. Everyone had a small sorrow of leaving in the back of their head or bottom of their heart. It was definitely a good trip to remember and cherish.
We had an amazing lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant and packed some dinner from an Indian restaurant and proceeded to Ho Chi Minh. Bangalore, here we come. Oh, and Kolkatta too. Here we come.
Some questions I asked myself
- Did I enjoy the trip. - Absolutely yes.
- Did I like the country – Absolutely yes.
- Will I visit again – Absolutely yes.
- Will I recommend it to someone – Yes if you are not a staunch vegetarian who cannot even stand the presence of meat.
Endless thoughts 