FuFu World Tour - Can Tho & An Giang
25th May - 11th June 2007 - Part Two
Ba Chua Xu Temple.
So early morning of the third day in Vietnam, i was brought to a well known temple located near the Cambodian border - Ba Chua Xu Temple. The temple`s unique sandstone Lady Xu monument and its time-worn temple have turned the small riverside town into a pilgrimage site for many centuries. It is said that the goddess is so sacred that anyone who offers incense to her could reliase all his/her wishes.
The Lady Xu.
Numerous pilgrims from everywhere flock to the temple early morning.
The rites followed by offering flowers, fruits, tea, burning incense and praying.
FuFu in front of the scared temple.
The entrance gate of the temple.
Later, we headed to a local morning market for breakfast before continued our journey of the day. It was great to see the local market in a countryside of Vietnam. There, the time was like turned to 20-30 years back or even more.
The stall we had our breakfast.
The ingredient.
The authentic Vietnamese pork steak rice (G Pa Fan).
The well known Vietnamese beef soup pork noodle.
Lucy and her relatives had something to buy while i walked around myself and took some photos at the market. Here they are...
The scene of the market in Vietnam.
How much living could each of them earn a day?
She took a rest before continued the long journey of life.
They are motorcycle-taxi drivers.
Rambutans, mangos, guavas...
Red onions, onions, garlics, peppers...
The bread stall.
The houses beside the market.
Couple of hours journey on the van later, the driver brought us to Doi Na Yang. Lucy and me strolled along the beach after a quick lunch, drank a cup of sea coconut juice, snapped some nice shots, had a rest for a while before leaving to another attraction.
The entrance of Doi Na Yang.
The beach.
The other side of the beach.
The seafood we had.
The sea coconut stall.
Lucy, my Xanga`s buddy.
FuFu with his sea coconut juice.
Lucy & FuFu, 27/05/2007.
Guess what were these two girls looking at?
Answer is these two little boys.
The fishing boats parked nearby the beach.
Back to the busiest street along the beach.
Ladies busy choosing good dried squids.
It`s time to have a good rest.
Later, we moved to Thach Dong where a temple is found inside a cave. This cave has the unique limestone as well. From top of the cave, a beautiful plain view could be seen over the small village. Plains are still important for agriculture in Vietnam.
A small jungle trekking to the cave.
I still couldnt figure out what the fruit is.
This young girl is selling bird whistles that reproduce sound of bird.
The cave temple.
For much of Vietnamese history, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism (from China) have strongly influenced the religious and cultural life of the people. Even though they are poor, offering the God is a must and they dont mind working hard to buy the offerings. The people could skip lunch but never miss the chance to pray their God. This is what i noticed after the temple i went in the morning. You could see Chinese characters everywhere also. Vietnam was also part of China, once upon a time.
Oh, my god, give me more power to travel~
Love Lucy`s pose.
View from the top of the mountain.
After this we moved on to the next destination.
Sam Bi Dao is 冬瓜茶 (Dung Gua Cha) in Vietnamese.
Next, we came to another beach which surrounded by numerous of caves and rocking stones. I personally loved this beach. Not so crowded. The seawater was slightly clearer. Anyway the main purpose going there was not for the beach but Hang Gieng Tien and a Confucian rocking stone. This area is developed as one of the tourist attractions, exploring cave for recreation and the guide related the history of the cave and religious.
Hang Gieng Tien.
We took the boat to Hang Gieng Tien.
We were entering Hang Gieng Tien.
The guide was seriously explaining the history of the cave.
According to the guide, the cave was once inhabited during Paleolithic times. Believe it or not, we saw Guan Im inside the cave. Of course this is not a famous cave, but we saw few great lime stones. We climbed up the top of the cave and drank the so-called purest water. Some even brought their own bottles to fill-in the water and bring back home.
The natural limestone looks like Guan Im, from Her right back.
Shut up! Not vandalism. This marked Lucy & FuFu were there on 27/05/07.
Lucy and her cousins.
We saw lot of little crabs here.
Hang Gieng Tien.
Guess what attracted Lucy to take a photo？
It`s the rocking stone of Confucius. Nature is so amazing.
Lucy and FuFu.
Lucy and her cousins.
For this picture, we purposely bought a waffle from this lady.
She was shy to take picture.
Chua Hang Temple.
Apparently, Guan Im Ma is very popular in Vietnam.
Pirated DVDs successfully spread to the countryside.
The beach girls.
FuFu and Lucy`s auntie.
Vietnamese hotpot was awesome.
Finally the 5am-7pm van tour had finished. See where had we gone in a day? A sacred temple, morning market, beaches, cave temple and rocking stone of Confucius. The van was rented by Lucy`s uncle and all the expenses of the day paid by him as well. To thank his hospitality and show the appreciation, both Lucy and i treated him and his family members a nice hot pot dinner.
The dinner seemed not enough for the two of us. So Lucy and i decided to have supper outside the hotel. We shared sticky rice and my favourite Low Xu Fan.
Low Xu Fan.
Sticky rice with sliced chicken and spicy sauce.
The next morning, we had breakfast together with Lucy`s cousins before going back to Saigon. The 5 hours journey going back was damn fast and furious. The driver qualified enough to act for the next Vietnam Fast Furious movie. Saigon was raining like cats and dogs when we were back. The drain system was not properly done, everywhere was flooded. Anyhow, we separately went back to our hotels by taxi and had a good rest.
The breakfast at Cantho.
Need to cross the Mekong River, continued the journey back to Saigon.
Hundreds of motorcycles on the ferry.
Back to Saigon. But it was raining so heavy.
Day one.
Day two.
Day three.
Day Four.
To be continued. Stay tune for Part Three...
Vietnam Part One
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越南之旅 - 第二集 -
迪士哥回來三小時后我參加露絲他們的一日團
一大清早我們就入廟拜神求合家平安身體健康
這間靠近柬埔寨廟還蠻出名很多人都前來參拜
侍奉了神仙之後終于輪到醫我們的五臟廟了耶
去了個附近的越式傳統市場吃當地人吃的早餐
吃飽飽了就到處跑跑看看拍拍一些真實的寫照
發現和感覺到當地人的生活過得很煎熬很貧窮
可見他們就是過着今天有酒今天醉的生活方式
不希罕富貴只希望每天有飽飯吃可以安枕無憂
然後我們往一個沙灘出發在那兒吃海鮮吹吹風
幸好我們沒帶衣服更換就沒下水因為海水很髒
吃完海鮮我和露絲兩人很寫意的散散步吹吹風
旅遊最大的滿足就是身體和心靈都可徹底放鬆
這一點我們都做到了然後還很輕鬆的聊天拍照
之後的地點就是去山洞裏的仙山祠看看拜拜囖
越南以前是中國的一部分所以部分廟含有中文
觀音也很受越南人的愛戴幾乎每個廟都有觀音
我們也不遜趕快和那山洞的自然洞形來個合照
下一站我們去一個海邊出海去山洞看奇異石像
那個山洞裏面有一個似像觀音背後的神奇岩石
更讓我們驚訝的是海中那個超想孔夫子的石像
吹吹海風看看異石這種感覺真的悠閒自由自在
爲了和當地的姑娘拍照我們特地的向她買東西
原因不是吃而是一張跟戴着三角帽姑娘的合照
我們也夠瘋狂吧誓要開心在越南有個美好回憶
十幾個小時免費旅費的旅程也該來個結束了吧
爲了報答露絲親戚的恩我們兩個請他們吃晚餐
然後我們自己還不飽靜悄悄地偷偷出外吃宵夜
隔天早餐后我們買車票五個小時后到達西貢了
Vietnam Part One
