Our journey up the eastern sea-board of Vietnam continues!  Like any bike trip, we need to devote some time for bike maintenance. Neda inspects the chains. Greasy and gross. Good! We wake up starving because we skipped dinner last night!  Breakfast time! Eating like a local - some street-side bahn mi action. Not greasy, not gross. And good! Q: Why are the stools all over SE Asia so low!? The plan for today is to ride north, hugging the coastline as much as we can! However, once on our motos, we don't get very far. We haven't ridden 10 minutes on the road, when we see this large white Buddha statue peeking out from a set of rocks 100 feet above the highway. "Wanna check that out?" I ask Neda.
 Buddha like a beacon, beckoning pilgrims and travelers to stop in  The Buddha statue is part of Trung Son Con Tu Pagoda Complex This is a huge place! All the buildings totally remind me of Kamar-Taj, the hidden Tibetan monastery where Doctor Strange received his training in the mystic arts in the Marvel movies. Just to drive home the whole cinematic feel, huge white letters proclaiming the name of the site are emblazoned in front of the temples, like title cards from a movie. If we stay here long enough, will there be an end-credits scene?  There's a nice view from the top of the Buddha statue, but the temples are set even higher up the mountain  Kids playing in the temple So many people here! The place is packed with families spending a nice Sunday morning walking around the complex, or eating a meal in the shadow of the trees. It seems like a weekend thing to do for most people in the area.  The temples are set at the top of Da Chong Mountain, about 150 feet above sea level. Rice paddy fields surround the area around the temple We're so out of shape, huffing and puffing up the stairs while kids run circles around us. It's going to be a hot day, temps hovering around 30C and it's not even noon yet!
Not all the people here are tourists. Trung Son Con Tu is a very religious place and a lot of pilgrims make the journey here to pray to Buddha. But also... "Holy Abs!" on that spirit warrior protecting the temple...! Buddha's hand gestures are called "mudra" and they all have different meanings depending on the position of his hands and fingers. Touching the ring finger to the thumb is for good fortune. Similar gestures can be done while riding in traffic, like raising the middle finger, which is called the "mudra pho-ker". That one not Buddha-approved...  Is this the first pic of the two of us together in Vietnam? Proof that we did this trip together.  Da Chong Mountain is basically a large outcropping of rock by the coast These buildings amongst the stones remind me of the temples in Meteora in Greece! Very cool place, and one that we just stumbled upon on our way out of Phan Rang. We haven't even started our day's ride and it's almost noon. We hop on our bikes and head out. Unfortunately, we'll have to miss all the end credits scenes of this Marvel-ous movie, but we have other films to see, no... star in! Hugging the coast line, the smell of sea salt wafts up into our helmets. But also.. the sharp, pungent scent of sea food! On our left, on the inland side, We pass large square tracts dug into the ground, similar to rice paddy fields, but they are shrimp farms. Mmmmm... getting hungry again! On our right, towards the coast, we watch kite surfers out on the waves, enjoying the windy and sunny weather. Quite a dramatic change of scenery from our ride up and down the mountains of the central highlands!  The view from Ninh Chu Bridge A fleet of blue fishing boats are docked at the mouth of Dam Nai harbour. We are now on the set of the newest Jaws movie: the one where two hungry creatures on mechanical monsters roam up and down the coastline, gobbling up all the tasty seafood they can find. We went from "Om" all the way to "Om nom nom"...  On the other side of the bridge: this guy's got the right idea The bridge takes us off the main QL1A highway to the coastal road, DT702, which closely follows the shoreline of the picturesque Binh Lap peninsula - widely regarded as the Maldives of Vietnam. Once off the main highway, traffic disappears entirely. We are almost all alone on the road, save for the odd scooter. People on this stretch of road are traveling for pleasure, not for commuting. It's mentally refreshing not having to continually scan your mirrors and blind spots.  DT702 overlooks some beautiful sandy beaches. The road curves around and continues on the other side of the cove.  More blue boats. Om nom nom! Binh Hung Island in the background across the narrow strait We stop at a scenic overlook with Binh Hung in the background.  We Binh Hung out to bask in the hot and sunny southern coast of Vietnam! Loving it!  I think these boats are following us... As we round the top of Binh Lap peninsula, DT702 rejoins QL1A and enters the city of Cam Ranh. We're feeling pretty hungry, so we look for a place to eat. It's around 2:30PM and unfortunately, we seem to be off-lunch hours, because not a lot of places look open. We quickly discover that many restaurants and food stalls are only open during meal hours, and our riding schedule often doesn't permit us to be near populated areas during these times. After riding around for a while in Cam Ranh, we found a place that looked open!  Roll your own Vietnamese spring rolls! OM NOM NOM!!! The owner had to point at the cornucopia of ingredients in front of us, then made a rolling motion to the stack of rice paper (banh trang) on the side, before we figured out they were spring rolls. The rice paper looked like those translucent sheets you plaster on windows to make them look frosted! There were pork sausages, crispy pork rinds, a whole bunch of greens and some spicy sauce to dip the spring rolls into. It was so delicious! Neda says to me, "Make sure you don't put too much stuff in your spring rolls, you know how messy you are when you eat!" "Yes, dear." And then she proceeds to make herself the Mother Of All Spring Rolls, the size of a F-n burrito. "WHAT!?!?" I exclaim. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't eat all the food", she replies with a Mucho-Burrito-eating grin. I think this movie is called, "Deception".  Bellies all loaded up, we get back on the road and we're treated to more stunning coastal views! North of Cam Ranh, we take another coastal road off the highway, DT657I, which runs all the way to the beach-side resort town of Nha Trang, where we'll be staying for a few nights.  Rickshaws lit up like an amusement park ride in Nha Trang Next up on the movie list: "The Beach", but hopefully less murder-y...
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