This picture I took doesn't even capture the true beauty of this cave pagoda. There are six stone soldiers guarding the front entrance and stairway down to the cave. If you look up, there are a few openings that light up the entire cave and create such a wondrous aura in the place. It almost feels surreal that a place like this can exist. It's bustling with tourists and you can tell that almost everyone that climbed up those 100 stone steps wanted to see this cave temple first.
I was in such discomfort all day that I wasn't able to go into the other pagodas and caves but I knew I had to see this one. It was a short trip that only lasted about an hour before we had to climb back down the steps to our waiting tour bus. With that, we went to have lunch at a restaurant that served a special kind of rice called "Cơm Niêu," which is rice that is cooked in a clay pot over a wooden fire. To me, it tasted like normal rice but everyone was so excited about it and commented that the burnt rice at the bottom was the best part. We ate it with a bunch of side dishes including the egg and pork stew, fried fish and stir-fried greens. Everyone said it was the most delicious meal we'd had this entire trip!! Now that the tour is over and we are back in Saigon, I'm reflecting back on the last 8 days and I'm so grateful for what I've been able to see and experience. I'm mostly grateful that I was able to do this with my mother. To see her experiencing it with me for the first time. I asked her what her favourite part was and she, like myself, loved trying the different foods of the region. She also said, "I didn't realize that Vietnam is so beautiful...and that there is still so much more I haven't seen!" She was most impressed with Da Nang and the development that is taking place there. I think my mother's been mostly surprised because her vision of how things were in the north were a little skewed back in the early 1970's. It wasn't a friendly place back then for people of the South.
When we were going through Hue, that's when I heard a story about my parents that I'd never heard before. The country road that we were on reminded my mother of a similar road that she traveled on to see her grandmother back in the 70's. She said that while she was on the bus, the bus suddenly came to a halt and soldiers appeared in front of the bus on both sides of the road. They shot at each other (North/South) and when all the gunfire halted, they let the bus pass and when she looked out the window, she could see all the bodies of soldiers who had been alive just minutes before. She said that now, being on a similar road, she can see how different things were back then and how much things have changed and progressed. I listened to her talk for hours on the bus because it was pretty much all we could do to entertain ourselves.
While seeing the country and its beauty, I kept thinking about why my parents would ever leave this place. Learning about the history and hearing stories from my mother made it all the more clear - they left a place that they love with so much hope in their hearts for the future; for the future of their families. I am glad that I'm seeing it now in the state that it is in...because my impression of the Northern parts of Vietnam that we visited is good. It's progressing well and it's filled with beauty and wonderful, resilient people.
We met some great people on the bus from Hanoi to DaNang. On the Hanoi leg of the tour, I met a great lady named Ha who was taking her grandmother on the tour because of a promise she made while her grandmother was sick. We laughed with and consoled each other about traveling with elders! On the Da Nang leg of the tour, we met a group of hilarious people from Thu Duc (my parents' home town). It was a group of 17 people all from the same family and they all traveled together with their children. There was a little guy about 2 years old on the tour and he was insistent on playing with the older kids all the time. His name was "Bin" and they kept calling him "Bin Laden" - he also kept peeing in his pants and throwing up on the bus (almost made me want to tie my tubes!). I also met a wonderful American couple who was travelling with their daughter - the Reyes'. I remember talking to Maricela at the airport for about 2 hours during our delay and thinking, "Man, this is the most English I've spoken for the past two weeks!" It's definitely a small world - I met another couple from Chicago who does business with my uncle/aunt in Peoria. They were so great because they helped my mother when she climbed the stairs at the temple by holding her hand and giving her water along the way.
During the entire tour, my mother and I were so lucky to have been able to travel with such a fun and generous group. We're grateful to be back in Saigon but will definitely not forget the wonderful journey back...
