Son Tra to Hoi An

With an early start, we arrived back at the VEN offices a little after 7am this morning. Anna took us across the street to the coffee shop to preview our trip to the Son Tra Peninsula this morning. Our main goal was to see the red shanked douc langurs, but there is also the wildlife, bugs, and flora worth enjoying.

When ready, Kim and I were each handed a helmet for our ride on the back of a scooter. I thought of my friend (motorcycle safety Carla), as I put on a helmet about three sizes too big. Basically everything I know about motorcycle safety was out the window: poorly fitting helmet-check; no leg covering-check; inappropriate footwear-check; improper eye protection-check; riding in wet weather conditions-check; no place to hold on-check. I threw caution to the wind and assumed I’d be safe, since I was on the bike with a Vietnamese. Kim hopped on the bike with Anna, from Germany.

The rain stopped before we headed to the peninsula. At a peak elevation of over 2000 feet, the cool wind was welcomed. As we ascended, we hit a bump and the helmet came down over my eyes. I had tied my hair back to prevent the helmet from dropped down the back of my head (felt like my frontal lobe was the priority), but I hadn’t anticipated it coming forward. Anyway, I pushed it back up and continued to look for the langurs. It wasn’t long, and we were pulling over. We got our first peek at several red shanked douc langurs in the trees on the side of the road. They were adorable. Baby langurs hung from the front of the adult primates, while others sat undisturbed while eating leaves. We took a few pictures, before they moved on. We continued to climb, reaching the highest point at a pullout. From the top of the peninsula, we could see all of Da Nang. It sits in the cradle of the mountains, with a powdery sand beach curving like a giant letter “C” along the shoreline of the South China Sea. And way to the south, just out of our sight, sits Hoi An, where we’ll visit later this evening.

We ran into another troop of langurs and some wild Canadians on the way down. Our neighbors to the north pointed out a cooperative monkey, being patient with our camera shots. As we pulled out from our stop, I realized that we had climbed high above the city, which would require a steep descent. A few parts of the road gave me pause, as the decline seemed a little steeper than a vehicle (especially a scooter) should be allowed. I closed my eyes and hoped for the best. When we leveled out, I noticed that the jungle was making successful efforts to reclaim the road. In sections the vegetation grew into and over the road, squeezing it down to one lane with limited clearance. We came back around to the south side and motored just below Lady Buddha. Certainly, she would keep me safe on our return to VEN.

Indeed, our return was uneventful. Before we left, Anna wanted to do a short interview with Nikki. When she wrapped up her questions, she requested that Kim and I sit for additional questions. We were told last night that we were the first family member to visit someone in the VEN program, so they were excited to have us. We proudly answered some questions about how wonderful Nikki is and how much we appreciated her documentary. It was easy to compliment the project, given the quality and the effort to create it.

As promised, we took Nikki to our new, favorite coffee shop. This morning, Anna explained to me that you should drink coconut coffee in the South, egg coffee in the North, and salt coffee in Central Vietnam. Taking her advice, we ordered three salt coffees and sat by the koi pond. Now, you may be thinking, “Salty coffee?” It’s not like it sounds. It is salty coffee but it’s so good. The cream was so thick on the top that it looked like melted marshmallow. Whatever cream is called before it becomes butter is what this is. Sorry, I just don’t have a word for it, other than”YUM.” It was so good. As we finished up our drinks, a naughty macaque monkey came lurking on the roof. Apparently, they don’t usually come to town. They have, unfortunately, become desensitized to humans and can be quite aggressive when they want what you have. Initially, he was cute, but I got up as he came near. He grabbed Nikki’s bag of popcorn, and no amount of shooing was going to scare him away. There wasn’t much left so we happily stayed out of his way, as he walked off with his prize. We also decided this was a good to walk back to the hotel.

We recharged and grabbed a ride to Hoi An. The old town of Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage site. In my brain, I pictured a quiet historical town, with ornate wooden architecture set alongside a lazy waterway. Although what we found was a beautiful old town, it was infiltrated by hoards of tourists, I was surprised by the activity, given its protected status, but still enjoyed strolling the streets and pedestrian walkways.Read more