We arrived back in Da Nang after a fabulous long weekend with the girls in Nha Trang with an extra person. Our brother Quan had joined us on the return flight. He would stay in Da Nang with us for a week before heading home to An Lao to visit the family. This gave us an excuse to do a little sightseeing, as there were a number of sights he had not yet seen in Da Nang. When the siblings grew and became adults, they chose different cities to go off to school and work. So Diem and her older brother Kevin came to Da Nang, the closest of the major cities to An Lao, and Quan, Hai, and Luan chose Saigon.

It allowed us to show Quan some things I hadn’t seen in a while myself, and some places we frequent regularly. The rainy season was long in retreat, and it was now warm sunny days with the occasional evening shower. Da Nang is so incredibly beautiful in the spring. Not unlike Georgia. The first stop on the list was of course the Lady Buddha. The beautiful statue that looks down upon the beach and sea and brings luck to the local fisherman.

Helmet Shopping

Crime is, for all intents and purposes, very low here. In the three years I’ve been in and out of Vietnam, I think I’ve heard of two murders, and only one by gun. The peculiar nature of the crime caused the stories to make national news. The former was not even Vietnamese, but two Chinese tourists that chopped another Chinese tourist up and tossed her in the river in a suitcase. Her hands and feet in a separate plastic bag. All over a lost fortune at a nearby casino. A local fisherman and his wife were heading down the river in the morning to do their daily work in the sea. The fisherman told the local Da Nang news, that as soon as he pulled the suitcase from the water, he regretted it. An entire day of fishing ruined by investigations and police interviews.

The latter was in a town in the mountains where a neighbor shot another around a dispute involving a pig or something. The most significant part of that story was not the murder but where the gun came from. Not even police carry guns in Vietnam. Other than that, crime is mostly petty things like minor theft, or scamming foreigners on change. So it was unfortunate when we arrived back from Nha Trang that someone had stolen Diem’s helmet from our little shelf/rack that sits outside our apartment door. Of course, you don’t wear shoes inside living spaces, and even some businesses. So it was a little disheartening to find it missing when we returned.

Stuff.

A Return to the Lady of the Sea – A spiritual journey

Tượng Phật Bà Quan Âm Chùa Linh Ứng

A tongue twister of a place, the site is known commonly as the Linh Ung Pagoda. The largest holy site in Da Nang and one of the first places I visited in Da Nang. I recalled the beauty and impression the site left on me then. And how beautiful its architecture and views were. I was excited to visit again. To do a little peaceful meditation and walk the grounds of the impressive site. Of course, now I am also more knowledgeable of the religion and its beliefs, so I can give a better explanation than my first post almost three years ago.

As was typical, we made our way north up the coastal highway that hugs the sea. Towards the northern end of the long expanse of beaches that extend many miles south of Da Nang, the city turns into a small fishing neighborhood at the mountain’s edge. I always have to stop to take in the view of the beautiful colored fishing vessels that float in the little harbor-like section of the northern beach. Here is where the city ends and SonTra Mountain Begins.

Son Tra Mountain

Son Tra Mountain is this rather strange anomaly of a mountain range that sits isolated on a peninsula almost in the exact center of Da Nang. I’ve talked about it extensively in previous posts. Da Nang being the largest military center south of the demilitarized zone during the war, the US military flattened it’s highest peak to build a vast communications installation that can still be seen on top of the mountain today. The marines that first inhabited the island nicknamed it Monkey Mountain, due to the abundance and varieties of monkeys found there. The locals still refer to it as such in brochures for tours and activities on and around the peninsula.

Today the mountains mostly acts as a nature reserve and eco-tourism location for Da Nang. It is home to an abundance of flora and fauna. Most notably the Red-shanked douc langur. Son Tra peninsula serves as one of the Red-shanked duoc’s last protected habitats. It is estimated that as much as 60% of the entire population of the species exists on Son Tra. One of the most colorful primates in the world, it is estimated that approximately 1300 individuals live in the rainforests of the mountain. Shy, and roaming in a few troops all over the peninsula, they are elusive and hard to photograph. I’ve spent many hours on the peninsula and have never seen one.

Images of the mountain

Linh Ung Pagoda and Monastery

As far as historical significance goes, this Monastery and holy site offers little more than a few legends of its founding, but is symbolic for a much more important reason. The youngest temple site in Da Nang, Linh Ung represents progress for all religions in Vietnam. Communists regimes aren’t known to co-exist very well with Religion. And indeed, in the early years of the unified nation, this was also true. For years many entities from the US to the Vatican criticized the government for what it saw as religious persecution.

But, as time went on, and a younger more progressive generation began to lead the nation, the government stabilized, and established things like term limits for its leaders, a more free access to information, and the opening up of religious freedoms. The only communist nation I know that has peaceful and democratically styled transfers of power. A very different style of Communism from its former benefactor the USSR, or its mighty neighbor to the north, China. Opening on July 30, 2010, or by the Vietnamese calendar the 19th day of the sixth month in the Buddhist year of 2553, the year of the Tiger, the site represents a huge leap forward for religion in Vietnam moving into the 21st century.

The Legend

As history goes the monastery is new, but the stories, legends, and myths surrounding the site and the statue abound. It is believed that during the reign of Minh Mang an image of the Buddha washed ashore directly below the modern day site. I wrote a very extensive article about Minh Mang during a visit to his burial city entitled “MINH MẠNG – THE LAST GREAT EMPEROR OF VIỆT NAM in July 2020 that you can find by clicking here. I have asked and done a great deal of research but can’t seem to find the image spoken of in the legend. A wooden statue adrift perhaps, or any number of possibilities.

What I do know, is that the fisherman in the area saw this as a good omen. The same lineage of fisherman that still inhabit the waters where the beach meets the mountain today. The area was renamed Bai But, or the “Buddha Realm in the middle of the world”. A small temple was erected at the site. And then, some 200 years later, the Linh Ung Monastery would open to the public above the old temple.

The Main Gate

When one first arrives at the monastery the first thing you come to is a rather large series of steps that lead to the main gate. Buddhist gates always have three entrances which represent the three doors of liberation. The main gate here at Linh Ung is no exception. Beautifully constructed. The Confucian Vietnamese hybrid design of classical Vietnamese architecture exhibits the lacquered clay tiles on the roof, Dragons adorn the top roof section as well as the corners, the noble phoenix on the second, tier and a mighty Dvarapala, or door guard, sits in it’s center.

Additionally the stairwell is lined by the typical Dragon’s that line most stairways in holy sites in Vietnam. Flanking the gates are the Vietnamese unicorn atop the stairway posts, golden demon dogs to protect the entrance from the unworthy, and white marbled guardian lions. It’s an incredibly impressive thing to walk through. And no matter what you believe, when you step into the grounds through the gates, you can feel the presence of the Divine.

The Three Doors of Liberation

Interbeing – The first door of liberation

Also known in the Buddhist world as emptiness. The understanding that you are simultaneously nothing, and yet, everything all at once. I will quote Thich Nhat Hanh quite a bit. So bear with me. But he is my favorite Buddhist Monk. I also enjoy the books by His Holiness the 14th, Dalai Lama. But their Journeys are so similar it is uncanny. How do the two most gentle, happy, honest, peaceful Buddhist Monks of our time, both find themselves in exile far from home. It’s such a strange circumstance they share as the greatest spiritual minds of their faith.

“Emptiness means to be full of everything, but empty of a separate existence.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh – “The Art of Living”, Chapter one.

This underlying concept of Interbreing and Emptiness is captivating to me. It gives us purpose to be compassionate towards one another, because we share everything over time. In a sense, I am you and you are me. One of my favorite Authors Bill Bryson puts the interconnectedness of everything from a viewpoint of science so eloquently in one of my favorite books. A Short History of Nearly Everything.

“Atoms, in short, are very abundant. They are also fantastically durable. Because they are so long lived, atoms really get around. Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms– up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested– probably once belonged to Shakespeare.”

― Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

Our precious existence

I also can’t help but feel that emptiness also has a layer of fortune to it. The precious nature with which each of us spends our time here on earth. Again, I revert to the brilliant Bill Bryson for Inspiration on just how lucky each one of us is to be living and reading the words on this page.

“Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life’s quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result — eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly — in you.”

― Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

Signlessness – the second door of liberation

After spending many hours delving into the meditation on signlessness, I’m convinced Einstein was a Buddhist. It speaks to the very heart of the Buddhist ideals of signlessness and spiritual energy proved to be possible in Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis papers. Signlessness helps us to cope with the true nature of birth and death, and overcome fear, sorrow, grief, and anger.

One moment things seem to exist, and then they’re gone. We look at things this way because we have a tendency to be caught up in signs, appearances, and familiar forms. And this distracts us from seeing the true nature of reality. When we see something recognizable in the phenomenal world like a cloud, we say it is there, it exists. And when we can no longer see it, we say it is not there, it no longer exists. But the underlying truth is it still exists. Even if its appearance has changed, the challenge is to recognize that thing in its new form. This is the meditation on signlessness.

― Thich Nhat Hanh

Aimlessness – The third door of liberation

“You already are what you want to become. You are a marvel, you are a wonder”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

I must be honest here. This has been the hardest for me to wrap my mind around. It just defies everything that makes up the western world I grew up in. Life without purpose, or goals. But, as is usually the case, I found familiarity in this teaching. We are endlessly running—after love, wealth, admiration, happiness, inner peace, enlightenment and so on. Aimlessness means you have no goal, no object of pursuit.

Seems counterintuitive. But it deals with two topics very familiar in the Bible. To realize you have everything you need at all times, and Aimlessness also delves into the Buddhist sense to rest in God. The teachings combine signlessness, and inter being to proclaim that the universe exists in each of us in all if it’s glory. One only needs to look deeply to find it.

Biblical parallels

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

― The Book of Psalm, Chapter 46, Verse 10. 

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

― The Book of Luke, Chapter 12, Verse 34.

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva

As I made my way through the gateway of enlightenment one comes to a crossroad. To the left sits majestic and overshadowing everything around her, the locally named Lady Buddha. Though her proper name is Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva. The most compassionate of the Buddhist avatars, and one of the few depictions of this interpretation of the Buddha in female form, a popular form all across Da Nang. She is the tallest Buddha statue in Vietnam, and certainly the tallest female variant in all of Southeast Asia and possibly beyond.

She gazes over the fishermen’s beach holding one hand in the form of meditative prayer, and a jar of holy water believed to be sprinkled over the fishing boats at night to bring good fortunes for their fishing excursions. The modern day lore of the lady Buddha has been fueled by good luck. Anyone that reads my articles on a regular basis knows we had one hell of a Typhoon season last year. But never a direct hit to the city. Just north, and just south over a dozen times in three months, and close enough to make you move a little further from the beach after the season. But the city hasn’t seen a direct impact from a Typhoon since the first brick was laid on the holy site in 2004.

The Lady Herself

The Monastery

The Pagoda and Main Hall

After doing some meditating and a little prayer in the base of the Lady Buddha, I made my way towards the Pagoda and main hall. An absolutely magnificent piece of both building and art. A massive interior housing some beautiful Buddhist relics faced by a grand garden. I walked as I had those years ago, only today I was a little more enlightened.

Dr. Howard C. Cutler, a leading American  psychiatrist who practices his science, in Phoenix, Arizona. After much pleading, convinced His Holiness the Dalai Lama to come to Arizona University to do a multiple day lecture. And give Dr. Cutler time to interview His Holiness over a period of days. It culminated in the book “The Art of Happiness”. A combined venture of the two unique characters. A western trained psychiatrist who specializes in happiness, And the leader of, in most instances, the most peaceful religious group on Earth.

“The ability to shift perspective, the capacity to view one’s problems from different angles, is nurtured by a certain supple quality of mind. The ultimate benefit of a supple and flexible mind, is that it allows us to embrace all of life. To be fully alive and human.”

Howard C. Cutler M.D., The Art of Happiness

Dr. Cutler tells a story of how the Dalai Lama could go from viewing the Arizona horizon filled with clouds, to caressing the tiniest flower just off a path he was walking which he had never seen. To find the presence of the Divine in all things from the tiniest to the greatest.

More quotes

“Following a long day of public talks in Tucson one afternoon. The Dalai Lama slowly walked back to his hotel suite. As he walked, as he walked, a bank of magenta rain clouds spanned the sky, absorbing the late afternoon light, and sending the Catalina Mountains is a deep relief. The entire landscape a vast pallet of purple hues. The effect was spectacular, The warm air was laden with the fragrance of desert plants, of sage. A moist restless breeze holding the promise of an unbridled storm.

The Dalai Lama stopped. For several moments he quietly surveyed the horizon, taking in the entire panorama. Finally commenting on the beauty of the setting. He walked on, but after a few steps he paused again. Bending down to examine a tiny lavender bud on a small plant. He touched it gently, noting its delicate form and wondered aloud about the name of the plant. I was struck by the facility of his mind. His awareness seemed to move so easy from taking in the complete landscape, to focusing on a single bud. A simultaneous appreciation of the totality of the environment, as well as the smallest detail, a capacity to encompass all facets in the full spectrum of life.”

― Howard C. Cutler M.D., The Art of Happiness

The Eighteen Arhats

A mysterious bunch. The eighteen Arhats have seen many evolutions over the millennia, but they are said to be the original disciples of Gautama Buddha. Though legend seems to point to potentially ten or even twelve in Southeast and East Asian antiquity however, the earliest Indian Sutras point to just four. In Vietnamese Buddhist customs there are 18. Generally the term Arhart refers to any human that has reached Nirvana and gained true insight into existence. The 18 Arhats are the original disciples whose spirits have been charged with guarding the Buddhist faith on Earth until the arrival of the Maitreya.

Maitreya

A future incarnation of the Buddha, prophesied to return to earth millennia after the death of Gautama Buddha, and his ultimate transcendence into Parinirvana, or Nirvana in death. The true transcendence beyond our own reality. The ultimate achievement, the end of the cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth. Maitreya is believed to return when the faith is all but gone, and the Dharma is faded into the forgetfulness of man.

Buddhist terms

Nirvana

I guess the last section would make more sense if I expounded on some of the Buddhist beliefs, traditions, and terms. Nirvana, particularly as it pertains to Buddhism, is “a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism.” In practical secular terms it simply means a state of happiness, and idyllic state of being. The Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, a renowned Christian leader and dear friend to his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, touches on this universal goal that can be found throughout the great religions of the world.

A state His Grace the Archbishop describes as Joy. The Kingdom of heaven on earth within you. His Grace Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote a book together about this very topic. What will probably be the greatest friendship between two leaders of very different faiths, led to a two week retreat by the two Nobel Peace prize winners. An event that took place in the mountain city of Dharamsala, India, in April of 2015. The Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Authorities CTA’s headquarters, since he and his government were exiled from their home in Tibet during the 1959 Tibet Uprising. Nirvana, a state of being that truly transcends faith.

Dharma

I can’t help but think of the old 90’s television show Dharma and Gregg when I hear the word Dharma. The titular character Dharma Freedom Montgomery, of an overly compassionate, forgiving, and free spirited nature, the yin and yang of her relationship between her and her uptight, and serious lawyer husband. I can’t help but believe there was a Buddhist in the writers room. But Dharma in the Buddhist sense means, well, many things. No direct singular word translation exists to the concept.

But the Dharma is collectively understood to be the teachings of the Buddha, a righteously walked path, and order and arrangement of existence both in the physical and spiritual world. The closest Greek word to Dharma, the original language of the New Testament, is the word “Eusebeia“. A compound word in its original Greek of eu meaning “well”, and sebas meaning “reverence”. A word used throughout the history of both Greek philosophy, and the New Testament. “To perform actions appropriate to the gods, God”. Though, in most English translations the word has been replaced with Godliness, a more vague concept.

An example

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness(Eusebeia); ⁷ and to godliness(Eusebeia), mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 

– The New Testament, 2Peter 1:5-7

Righteousness

Righteousness is another term that shows itself throughout the major texts and religions around the world. I’ve never particularly felt the word to be honest in nature. For one to exhibit righteousness, there then must be the unrighteous. I don’t know, the concepts of right and wrong have battled deep in my soul for most of my life in seeking the true nature of what it means to be righteous. The word is often linked heavily to the word Dharma. Though righteousness always seems to exhibit similar attributes no matter what text or script it comes from, I find the Buddhist characteristics of righteousness to be the most pure. To be noble and pure for the sheer sake of itself.

“Therefore the Buddha appeals to man to be noble, pure, and charitable not in order to please any Supreme Deity, but in order to be true to the highest in himself.”

–  A passage from Bhikkhu U Thittila’s article “The Meaning of Buddhism”, published in The Atlantic February 1958

“When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward.

– The Book of Matthew 6:5

“having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles and ideals.”

– Definition of Noble, Modern Oxford dictionary.

Parinirvana

Simply put, nirvana in death. To be truly released from the cycle of suffering. What us Christians would refer to as the kingdom of heaven achieved in death. Or what I have heard it called in my Church through the years, going home. To a final place, free of death, suffering and birth. A universal thought in every major religion that I have studied. This universal belief that if we do the best we can to exhibit a good nature on earth, then we will be rewarded with a mansion in paradise.

It appears to me that there are two words, two attributes that humans must exhibit among all of the great religions to achieve their reward, treasure, enlightenment, whatever you want to call it. Though, through time and human tinkering, we seem to have lost the underlying truth that each tells us. In the historic meeting between His Grace the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and his Holiness the Dalai Lama, they outlined eight pillars of Joy. A path to reach whatever reward lays ahead for all believers of any faith.

The Eight Pillars of Joy

The eight pillars of joy are separated into two groups. The pillars of the mind, and the pillars of the heart. But they agreed that the last two pillars of the heart were the most important to living a life of true Joy and reaching a state of higher being.

The Four Pillars of the Mind

The four pillars of the mind are perspective, humility, humor and acceptance. I find it very interesting that two of the great leaders of two of the major religions of the world agreed that both humor and acceptance were fundamental to the pursuit of Joy, heaven, and enlightenment. Things we could all use an extra dose of these days. Perspective, is to take oneself out of the small view of any situation they might find themselves in, to look at the bigger picture. The Dalai Lama talked of this pillar of perspective in his book the Art of Happiness.

“When we help others, the focus of our mind assumes a broader horizon within which we are able to see our own petty problems in a more realistic proportion.  What previously appeared to be daunting and unbearable, which is what often makes our problems so overwhelming, tends to lose its intensity.”

– Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

The Four Pillars of the Heart

The four pillars of the heart are forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and generosity. Both His Grace, and his Holiness agreed that the two latter Pillars of the Heart, compassion, and generosity were not only the culmination of the other pillars in action, but the most important qualities a human being can exhibit. You can not have compassion and generosity without the rest. But their importance is unmistakable. They are the keys to a joyful life, a peaceful world, and an entrance into Heaven. Whatever that may look like to you.

Universal Truths On Love and Compassion

“The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.”

– Psalm 145:9

 “Indeed, Allah is with those who are righteous and those who do good.”

– Quran 16:129

“The only way you can conquer me is through love and there I am gladly conquered.”

– Lord Krishna, ‘Bhagavad Gita’.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you” 

The Book of John 15:12

“Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.”

— Psalm 112:3-5

“Whoever kills a person [unjustly]…it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.”

– Quran 5:32

“According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It’s not passive — it’s not empathy alone — but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and loving kindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others (this is wisdom), and one must experience deep intimacy and empathy with other sentient beings (this is loving kindness).”

– Excerpt from The Essence of the Heart Sutra, His holiness the Dalai Lama

A Spiritual Walk

I always get a very strong feeling of inner peace when walking to any holy site. It just happens. A reverence washes over me. I find myself existing in this state of tranquility and safety. I began the walk through the gardens towards the main Pagoda. Taking in the sounds of the birds, the breeze through the leaves, the sea below us. I stopped for some time and admired the Bodhi tree being delicately pruned over countless years. Probably as long as the Monastery has existed.

The Bodhi Tree in Religion

The courtyard is filled with many versions of the tree in varying degrees of growth. Known scientifically as the Ficus religiosa, no doubt a nod to its religious significance, a tree of the fig family native to the Indian Subcontinent and mainland Southeast Asia. It is believed that it was under the shade of a Bodhi Tree that Gautama Buddha achieved enlightenment sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries BC. The tree itself is a marvel of both tenacity and longevity.

 In the city of Bodh Gaya, in the northeastern state Of Bihar, India, sits one of the oldest trees of its kind. Though not the original tree Siddhartha Gautama reached enlightenment under, it is said to have been grown from a sapling of the original tree and sits in the very spot of the original holy site. In history, archeological, and for the most part, confirmed texts, you know how delicate these expressions of humanity’s past can be, but there is clear evidence to point to a very close actuality of what occurred.

Ashoka The Great

Ashoka the Great reigned over an empire that today would stretch from Afghanistan in the west, to Bangladesh in the east. The Last Prophet Muhammad, Constantine the Great, Mehmed the the Conqueror, and Charlemagne of his time. He would spread Buddhism through conquest, and over most of southern and Western Asia in the vacuum left by the retreat of Alexander the Great’s empire after the mad Macedonians’ untimely death in Babylon in 323 BC. The third ruler of the Maurya Empire. His reign would last from 268-232 BC. Though not in its name, he only discovered Buddhism long after his conquest and expansions of the empire, he would convert much of the Empire in the later years of his reign.

In the Twelfth year of Ashoka’s reign, by then a converted and  proselytizing Buddhist, helped to plant the third oldest tree in existence today. His daughter Sanghamitta had become a Bhikkhunis, or female monk. The original Bodhi tree by now had withered and died of old age. Meaning it could have been thousands of years old by the time of Buddha. By this time saplings of the original tree were being nurtured in Monasteries in the area. Legend and script tell the last words of the Buddha, as he lay dying and preparing to reach Parinirvana under a Bodhi tree, where to procure saplings from the original tree in Mahabodhi, and plant them in the four corners of the Buddhist world.

The Planting of the Mahabodhi

The oldest daughter of Ashoka the Great would bring an offspring sapling to the island of Ceylon, modern day Sri Lanka. The southern extent of Buddhism’s reach at the time. Though never officially a part of the Maurya Empire, the Southern tip of the Indian Subcontinent and the island of Ceylon were close allies to the Empire. She would present the sapling to Devanampiya Tissa, the first Buddhist King of Ceylon.

Tissa would plant the tree in his palace garden in 288 BC. Making it the oldest human-planted tree in the world with an actual planting date. The tree still stands today in what by many is considered the greatest Buddhist pilgrimage site outside the city of Bodh Gaya. At over 2,600 years old, it is not the oldest Bodhi tree known to science. Just the oldest known with a planting date by the hand of humans.

A Curious Tree

The Bodhi tree is fascinating in many regards. An epiphyte by nature, the plant can grow like a lichen or moss. It’s roots are often exposed and draw nutrients and moisture from the air until the plant has the ability to take purchase in soil or will simply continue to grow off of it’s host. Though not parasitic, the tree only uses its host for support. The tree has an uncanny ability to establish itself in everything or on nothing at all. In almost every temple, and even outdoor coffeehouses, and restaurants, you might see the Bodhi tree defying gravity and logic. An unusual “hanging” root system. As the plant grows it drops its roots from above to absorb nutrients in the air, eventually hardening into wood, and adding to the density of its structure.

It’s ability to grow on anything and essentially anywhere within its inhabitable zone, has given rise to its perception as being an invasive species outside its indigenous regions. The Global Compendium of Weeds added the Ficus religiosa to its listed “environmental weed” or “naturalized weed” in 2012. And has recently been given the numerical ranking of seven by PIER (Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk), considered a high score. Due to it’s fast growing nature, hardiness in variable soil, or lack of soil conditions, it’s reported long lifespan of upwards of 3,000 years, and it’s eventual suffocating growth style as its life cycle begins as an epiphyte.

Imaginative incarnations

It’s the very definition of Jungle in Asia. The thing Jungle books are made of. Imagine that, unhindered by man’s hands, these trees were hundreds of feet high, with massive hardened roots hanging from its canopy high above. Hiding underneath it, ruins of ancient civilizations. Angkor Wat, Mỹ Sơn, and countless undiscovered civilizations. Whose remains like most in the jungle belt of the earth’s belly, get swallowed by time. Lost to history until some intrepid Englishman, Spaniard, Frenchman, or Belgian begins to discover their hidden secrets lost to time, space, and distance. Whether be for God, country or glory, time always gets turned over.

That’s what I see when I see one of these trees in a broader glory. Left to grow unchecked. Their ability to consume their environment in either years, centuries. It’s a hardy survivalist. One of the best on the planet. It’s ability to transcend time, to slow down the clock, or speed it up if it needs to. The Bodhi tree will be one of the last to go. And a fitting symbol for a religion that’s sole purpose is to transcend space and time. To escape the never ending cycle of birth, suffering, and death. To break free from Karma and just be.

The Main Pagoda

After some time soaking in the architecture of the beautifully crafted Pagoda, I eventually made my way inside. As I rose up the beautiful staircase decorated with articulately carved columns with their fiery dragons, I turned at the main entrance to look back toward the gate and beyond. You could see the curve of the beach arch toward the center frame in the distance to the right. The open sea to the left. It was an incredible moment to behold.

The Budai

I stepped into the main entrance and largest of the five gates into the main hall. Sitting in the main entrance is Budai. A Buddhist monk yes, but not the Buddha. The Budai is a caricature of a real monk believed to have lived in the 10th century. The monk is known for his jolly disposition, and is always depicted fat, bald, and happy. Budai, meaning sack cloth, is always depicted with a cloth sack to hold the few possessions he had mostly for survival. The Jolly monk is said to have lived a very happy life wandering rather aimlessly and joyfully through life.

His lesson was that of contentment, no matter how poor or how few possessions one may have. A duality of abundance in poverty. Said to be the favorite of children in the towns through which he wandered. He slept wherever he lay, and it is claimed his powers of joy kept him warm on bitter nights. There is a note believed to have been written in his own hand dating to around 917, claiming he is the embodiment of a future Buddha. And, it is even said his body was embalmed and rests in the Great Hall’s eastern wing of the Yuelin Temple in Zhejiang China, just south of Shanghai. Though that is of course, speculative.

The main shrine

I passed through the entrance and beyond the Budai. The magnificence with which the hall of crafted is breathtaking. It was one of the first Buddhist Monasteries I ever visited. After countless since, it’s craftsmanship, and beauty are still awe inspiring. The fine detail with which the wood pieces are carved, and the stone sculpted, it’s something that still draws me in. As the world moves to automate everything, here in Vietnam, it’s still done the old fashioned way. With two hands and simple tools.

As you stand in the center of the hall you are faced with three archways, each containing different embodiments of the Buddha. All cast in bronze and covered in gold foil, at the center sits Buddha Shakyamuni, or Gautama Buddha. He is sitting lotus style under a Bodhi tree at the moment he attained Nirvana. To his right, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, a smaller version of the main lady Buddha statue in the lower courtyard, and to his left the Kṣitigarbha. Commonly known as the Earth Matrix. A sworn protector of all beings in the six realms until the return of the future Buddha as Maitreya.

Other Features

I walked to the back of the main hall and into a back covered walkway. At the end of the walkway sat a statue of, again, a beautifully crafted Avalokitesvara , Bodhisattva, or A Compassionate Bodhisattva. Flanking the gracious being are rows of Arahant on marble pedestals on the left and right. Intricately carved statues of followers of the teachings of Buddha. Arahants are disciples old and new who have not yet reached full Nirvana, but are well on towards the final goal of enlightenment.

I walked the path towards the gold inlaid statue, and felt a warmth, and peace in the open walkway. The smell of the sea drifting through the air. The holiness of this place is tangible, visceral. Again, the statue stood atop a beautifully carved table with depictions of nature. The noble phoenix of rebirth, plants, trees, and intricate Buddhist symbolism. The craftsmanship one finds in the most venerable of Buddhist sites, and even in the ruins I come across in my travels. Civilization is an amazing thing. And its strength is in its diversity, not in its ever consuming exclusivity.

Continuing on

Passing beyond the main hall through the covered walkways and past the Avalokitesvara , Bodhisattva, I came to several open buildings, and outdoor spaces. Some were for dining, some for learning, and even a series of nurseries, cultivating the Monastery’s future landscape, as well as food for the Monks. Artistic craftsmanship is everywhere. From the gold laden doorways, woodwork, and the paintings that covered many of the walls around the Monastery.

The Nursery

The nurseries were quite impressive. A combination of landscaping and sustenance. An impressive collection of trees, vegetables, and fruits in various stages of development. From just germinated to maybe years in careful pruning for a future potter on the grounds. As I looked closely all around the nurseries, looking in was all I could do. It was the only area on the entire facility locked away. I can understand the logic. This is a pilgrimage site, people come here in droves during certain festivals and holy days. This is a very valuable asset that can be damaged even destroyed easily. I can imagine a thousand people here on Autumn festival, and a pack of rambunctious children got in the nursery.

The Lecture Hall

I continued past the Nursery towards a large building to the east of the main Pagoda. A lecture hall. One of several lecture halls used around the Pagoda. I walked in and admired the marble floor, no doubt harvested from the local marble deposits around Da Nang. A protected series of mountains in the southern part of Da Nang known as the Marble Mountains, speak to the abundance of marble in the region. Slightly less elegant furniture, as it is essentially a classroom, save for the Siamese rosewood carved replica of the lady Buddha that stood watch over the house of knowledge.

No doubt a place one may find the Most Venerable Thich Thien Nguyen, the current Abbot of the Pagoda, teaching the words of his beliefs. I walked the room, taking in the profoundness of the place, and what it meant. The knowledge offered, the knowledge received. I looked into the Lady Buddha wooden statue, and thought an odd thought. What was she looking at? I turned to take in her view, and peered down a long courtyard lined with baby roses in fresh bloom, and a rock sculpture at the far end. No doubt the future home of a nature defying bonsai.

A compassion and commitment to all God’s creatures

The back of the Monastery

As I made my way past the hell hound, I came to a quiet, rather secluded long house at the very back of the property. Beautifully landscaped, tiles lined the patio like area in front, grass as it’s grout. Of course there was a stone table with the classic Vietnamese bonsai defying logic, and floating in the air. The structure had many doorways, all open. But unlike most of the structures in the monastery, this building was closed off save for the row of doors in the front. Most of the buildings were wide open, often without side walls.

Just the nature of the building led me to the conclusion it wasn’t necessarily an open part of the Monastery for common worshippers. Though it offered nothing to deter a further inspection. As I crossed the patio and made my way up the stairs, I noticed a very different feel. The building itself was beautifully crafted as was to be expected. Stunning gold foil, and rosewood carved doorways, wood paneled walls, and wonderfully crafted alters.

Home is where you lay your head

As I removed my sandals and stepped into the building, something was noticeably different. The crafted wooden chairs and tables were replaced with simple bamboo chairs and tables. I then noticed the wood paneled walls weren’t walls at all, they were beautifully crafted doors. I first noticed one to the right slightly cracked open and then moving to the other side found a door wide open, previously hidden by a column when I first entered. Inside I saw a simple wardrobe, a bag of lunch hanging from it’s handle and a pair of feet at the end of what looked like a simple bamboo cot.

This was the monks home, and it was just after lunch. It was siesta time, and I had no intention of disturbing the Monk’s restful hours. It explained why I had seen only a few inhabitants doing some dish work, obviously cleaning after lunch. Everyone else was resting. I quietly backed out of the house, slid my sandals back on, and hoped to have caused little disturbance and made my way.

Gautama Buddha

After making my quiet exit from the sleepy dorm, I made my way to the deer garden. A replica of the moment Siddhārtha Gautama sat under the Bodhi tree and became the Buddha or Enlightened One, sometime in the 4th century BCE. Here the depiction of Buddha sitting in the lotus position, again carved from local marble. He sits under the traditional Bodhi tree in a raised bed in meditative prayer overlooking Da Nang. I stood for a while and just soaked in the view amidst the refreshing shade.

Da Nang is such a beautiful city. Beautiful in it’s very own unique way. It’s just over 18 and a half miles of beaches, and coastline. The Marble mountains, Son Tra Mountain peninsula. It’s such a beautiful, and unique city, and most people know nothing about it. Modern, an incredible food scene, an entire protected mountain peninsula at its heart, and only a 20 minute motorbike ride from an always top 5 city in the world, Hoi An. Number one in 2019, in Travel and Leisure’s pre pandemic rankings. Also the home of the sandwich Anthony Bourdain described as the best in the world. A sandwich I have had on many occasions. Hey, it’s only a twenty minute ride away. But, I digress.

The Reclining Buddha

Beyond the deer garden lies the entrance to what is the second most noticeable feature of the Holy site. The massive Stupa that towers overhead known as Xa Loi Tower. In front of the great entrance to the tower lies the marbled statue of the Buddha in his final earthly form. Often referred to as the reclining Buddha. He is always shown smiling, but lies on his deathbed. Depicting the final hours of the man who would come to shape the beliefs and cultures of an entire continent.

The most mysterious and captivating aspect of the sculptures and art of both modern, and ancient Buddhist statues and carvings, is the heavily influenced Greco art. It’s no secret that Alexander the great made his way deep into the Indus valley, and the Indian subcontinent. This coincided with the rise of Buddhism, and Alexander was known to have a taste for the allure of the eastern religions as they were so often described in his time.

Reaching Parinirvana

There are many depictions of the reclining Buddha. Most portraits, or wood carvings depict him surrounded by his Arhats, or disciples. But his sculptures, at least where I’ve seen them across Southeast Asia, always depict him with a slight smile on his face, peaceful, and alone. Maybe it’s just a taking up space thing. I can see it being a problem to sculpt a reclining Buddha with other to scale sculptures surrounding him. It’s a sound conclusion.

The Buddha lies in front of another beautifully adorned gateway with it’s three doors of liberation. The gateway to the impressive and imposing Xa Loi tower. I walked towards the sculpture, carved from the massive marble deposits nearby, and took in its beauty. The reclining Buddha rests on a marble bed, itself resting on a Maroon marble altar. I stood and admired the Greco influenced statue at the base of a long saffron and maroon marbled staircase leading to its altar. It was a beautiful scene as the misty mountains lay in the distance beyond the gate.

An Unknown Greek Influence

Across Southern and Southeast Asia the art style, particularly in sculpting work, have an uncanny similarity to the Ancient Greek style and later Hellenistic style left in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the great. Which itself lead up to the Greco-Roman art style. When Alexander the Great crossed the Indus river around 326 BC and into the Indian subcontinent. After Alexander crossed the Indus and fought and won a series of battles in the modern day Punjab. He set up a series of Satraps in the western region of modern day India, thus introducing Greco, and Hellenistic art into Southern Asia.

At this time Buddhism was mostly relegated to northern East India and The Tibetan plateau. However, within a century of the collapse of Alexander’s vast empire, the Maurya Empire had filled the void left in the vacuum of the collapse. Ashoka the Great, the third Emperor Mauryan Empire, ruled an area that stretched across most of the Indian subcontinent. He was also a converted Buddhist. He converted the Greek settlements left in his Empire from the fall of Alexander’s Empire a century earlier, and sealed a cultural confluence in what would come to be known as Greco-Buddhist art, and would shape art and sculpture across Asia for the centuries to come. It even is quite obvious in the modern Buddhist art of Southeast Asia today.

Xa Loi Tower

The tower was incredibly impressive. I roamed around its base in a rather random way. Directly above and as far as one could see were light blue skies, and deep blue sea. Save for the misty clouds that condensate in the mountain behind the Monastery as the moist tropical air slammed into the cool high pressure area at the heights of the mountain. Six sides with beautiful architecture, and a prayer altar in its ground floor. Each floor contained altars for worship, much as the lady Buddha did in her interior as well. But due to the lack of visitors as tourism ground to a halt, the higher levels were closed off.

The main entrance to the tower’s stairs were again lined with beautifully crafted versions of the modern dragon depiction. Large human nose, fangs, beard, long serpentine body, and raptor like hands. The main altar inside the tower offered a very similar scene to the one inside the Lady Buddha. Only the three statues were carved in Marble rather than gold laden. Behind the altar was the staircase that led to the top. But, again it was closed to visitors in the absence of tourists and pilgrims in the current situation.

The Budai Garden and An Incredible View

Beyond the tower at the furthest eastern reaches of the monastery lay a small garden on a terrace overlooking both the rest of the holy site and the expanse of Da Nang as it stretched in the distance. The Garden contained a rather articulated marble statue of the Budai. His smile was infectious, and he crawled with small children joyously playing on him as one would a blessed and very happy grandfather. I’ve learned in these situations to always follow the eyes. As I stood and admired the artistry of the happy and playful sculpture, I turned and saw what everyone in the sculpture was so happily admiring.

Directly in the line of sight of the Budai was a magnificent and humbling sight. A terraced garden that housed the tower, with it’s verdant foliage draping down the mountainside, the Lady Buddha towering over it all, the beaches and city of Da Nang nestled against the south China sea disappearing into the distant tropical haze. I stood for some time staring out at the inspiring sight. Caught in a spiritual revelry that is the life of one in perpetual searching for what it all means. After sometime I made my way towards a section of the Monastery I had not yet found, but was all but meant to.

The House of Knowledge

I came shortly to an open fronted building empty in the center, lined with tables, chairs, and cases filled with books. A wealth of knowledge reaching thousands of years into the past. One thing I’ve noticed in my time wandering Buddhist temples in Vietnam over the past years, is that they are, if nothing else, well educated. The thing that has always surprised me about Buddhism, is that it is so close to the purpose of science. Seeking truth in reality, consciousness, and purpose.

“Buddhism and science are not conflicting perspectives on the world, but rather differing approaches to the same end: seeking the truth. In Buddhist training, it is essential to investigate reality, and science offers its own ways to go about this investigation. While the purposes of science may differ from those of Buddhism, both ways of searching for truth expand our knowledge and understanding.”

– His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama

“The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both,” 

– Carl Sagan

I love all religions. … If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there.” She upheld that there are many ways to God’: “All is God – Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, etc., all have access to the same God.”

– Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Known in her lifetime as Mother Teresa.

Time To Eat

After we finished exploring the Monastery, we headed to a nearby beach side seafood restaurant. Something I will miss greatly when we do head to the US. I have never had seafood that wasn’t alive when I ordered it in Da Nang. From snails, crabs, clams, oysters to grouper. You browse the selection, order, select your seafood, choose the preparation method, and sit down and wait for what is always an amazing meal. We stopped at a very popular seafood restaurant on the northside of Da Nang near the mountain known as Nhà hàng Phước Thái.

Phước Thái.

We perused the offerings and chose clams to be steamed with lemongrass, mantis shrimp sauteed in sweet chili, oysters two ways, and a chicken hotpot. Diem and I sat at the table with our brothers Quan, and Kevin. We talked about the weeks coming, and the days ahead as we drank a few ice cold beverages in the open restaurant. In traditional Vietnamese restaurants food is always served family style, and as it’s ready. So food tends to arrive and tends to not stop until someone taps out. Yet Diem is so good at ordering for us that the food always seems to be too much, but ends up being just right.

One by one the dishes hit the table. First, the fastest to prepare, the clams. Oysters broiled with sweet cheese, not my favorite but I enjoy it enough to eat it. I’ll eat anything at least once. And a classic Vietnamese preparation broiled with peanuts, green onions, shallots, and scallions. Then sweet chili mantis shrimp, and followed up with the chicken hotpot. We ate, and laughed, and nothing seemed to be left behind.

Ốc Hà – Chợ Cồn.

The heat was mounting, winter was long gone in Da Nang, and after lunch we made our way home for an afternoon nap before taking Quan to our favorite street restaurant for dinner. We headed out just after night fell. It was staying pretty warm in the evenings, but the chili was going to make me sweat regardless. Though, always best over cold beer and a cool coastal breeze. As always, Ốc Hà was packed. We found a table and I always wander the carts and outdoor kitchen checking out the day’s offerings. Always fresh, always spicy, and always freaking delicious.

Some Che

After dinner Quan, the youngest of the siblings, wanted to go out with friends on the town. Not something Diem or I were interested in. So we wound our way around downtown looking for a quiet Che shop to satisfy a sweet craving. Che, as I’ve spoken about before, would be easier to explain what it isn’t than what it is. Because it can be damn near anything. Usually containing fruit, or jello like cut bite sized pieces, sweetened beans, or all, or more. Usually served with a fruit nectar, coconut cream, or a sweetened milk mixture, crushed ice, or chunks of ice, what it is is anything, and it varies tremendously from region to region.

Diem and I found a quiet spot, it was getting into the evening, and Da Nang is not a city that never sleeps. It is a city that goes to bed early. We found a Che shop and posted at the lonely table that sat at it’s entrance. The breeze was refreshing, and it was a wonderful night. We started with fried bananas with sweetened almost yogurt like cream and toasted peanuts. Followed up with mung beans in sweet syrup with coconut cream and shaved ice. I barely finished the bananas. It had been a long day of eating and walking. It was time for me to tap out. Tomorrow was another day.

Some time with Quan in Da Nang

We spent the few days Quan had left in Da Nang lazily, and with not much enthusiasm. We went swimming a few times, but the water wasn’t at it’s best conditions for swimming. Though it offered us no direct threat, the largest Typhoon/Hurricane ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere in April was churning out there in the distance. However, the most we received was partly cloudy skies, and wind gusts that sent a watery haze deep into the streets, and the surf surprisingly stout for this time of year.

One must still eat

Though the beaches were often restricted for swimming, Quan and I took a stroll down the beach most afternoons, and the fisherman never stopped. I always enjoyed hanging out while the shore fisherman pulled in their mile long nets. In a rhythmic pull, the two sides of the net would be pulled in by a line of fishermen. As the back fisherman made their way far enough up the beach, they would detach their waist strap from the net and make their way to the front, reattach, and continue to pull. And so the conveyor continues until the miles long net is pulled in.

Inevitably as the end of the net draws near, a crowd will begin to gather. Preparing to bid for whatever is pulled in from the sea. Depending on the season, it could be beltfish, mackerel, small roundfish, and even jellyfish. A medium sized scale is set on the beach next to a few large tubs or kiddie pulls filled with the nets contents and a circle of people gather around from the street. In the wild confusion an unintelligible auction and waiving of money in the air begins, as the tiniest morsel is sold to the highest bidder, which usually isn’t much. But it is as fresh as it gets.

A day trip to Hoi An

On Quan’s last day in Da Nang, he was getting ready to go home to An Lao for a while, so we took him to Hoi An. The UNESCO world heritage site, and one of Vietnam’s most beautiful towns. In fact the town almost always lands in the top three towns in the world in many publications and was number one in 2019. But I will spare you that information, as it is a place we’ve been to so many times that I have many articles about it.

Simply, it is an ancient trading town. WIth bridges and structures over a half a millenia old, and home to what Anthony Bourdain said is the greatest sandwich in the world. The combo Banh Mi at Banh Mi Phuong. A sandwich I’ve had many times, and a sandwich I can concur to be one of the best in the world. You can click here for an article about the sandwich. Or click here for more about the UNESCO world heritage site.

Diem cooking a farewell dinner

The Day after our visit to Hoi An would be Quan’s last day in Da Nang. The following morning we would see Quan off on Treu Vi’s transport to An Lao to visit the family. Diem wanted to cook a nice farewell dinner, and she never disappoints. She hit the seafood market early as the boats were coming in and procured some beautiful deep blue langoustines, shrimp, oyster, and fresh squid. Salt and chili roasted shrimp, poached langoustines, traditional roasted oysters with chili, peanuts and water spinach, sweet chili squid, and an assortment of dipping salts, fresh vegetables, and of course seasoned fish sauce or Nuoc Cham. Kevin joined us, and the four of us had quite a farewell feast.

Farewell to Quan and Coffee

We got Quan off to An Lao and met friends for some morning drinks and some cards. Always the lone male of the group, I enjoyed my espresso while the girls played a game that I can’t even attempt to understand as we sat at the outdoor table of the newly opened shop. It was owned by one of our friends’ family, so we came out to show our support. They drank their avocado smoothies and sweet coffees, slamming cards on the table and pointing fingers and laughing wildly, but something beyond the table was holding my attention.

A snapshot of life

Across the street was a home, open wide, with several generations of women toiling endlessly in front of the main doorway. I was just deeply captivated by the scene. I’d made my way through countless markets across Vietnam. With their stalls piled with cleaned garlic, and shallots, scrubbed carrots, and washed vegetables waiting for purchase. Here was a family no doubt preparing for their afternoon stall. Readying their vegetables to pile on their stall in one of the countless wet markets across the city as people end their workday and swing in for ingredients for dinner.

Massive bags of whole garlic, and shallots were being washed then peeled by hand. Lettuce being cut from their roots and rinsed. Mustard greens scrutinized for wilted leaves. Pineapples being prepared to the interesting spiral cut which removes the little bitter notches, and the skin, while leaving the maximum amount of flesh. I sat for almost the entirety of the girls card game in wonderment. Caught in the simple yet incredibly important activity occurring across the street. A scene playing over who knows how many times, right now, across the city. It isn’t the beautiful beaches, or tourist attractions that always touch me the most. It’s the simple moments of observing people living their lives.

On the road back to An Lao

A few days after Quan left for An Lao, we too would head in that direction. I was quite excited. It was the harvest, and I had not yet seen the countryside during the harvest. I know that may be hard to believe, but I haven’t. Tet happens just before the harvest, so by the time the harvest starts, everyone is back in the city working. But we had a friend getting married in the mountain city of Buan Ma Thuot, the place this article is about getting to.

As typically was the case we made our way to the rendezvous point where our longtime driver Treu Vi would arrive to collect us and our belongings just before lunch, he departs An Lao everyday at 5 AM as many of my regular readers are aware, and arrives in Da Nang around 11 AM. Where he and his partner load passengers and packages and we pull out of Da Nang as always, and work the slow and often laborious drive to the remote mountain district of An Lao.

A different view

As we made our way out of the city south down highway 1, the view was very different, and not what I was expecting. I had only seen the rice fields either flooded awaiting the next planting, or flowing in the breeze in emerald green a month away from harvest. I expected to see the fields drained and being harvested, but what caught my eye was more about how the rice was harvested than that it was being harvested. After thrashing the grains, still covered in their brown bran, the rice needs to be dried before being milled and harvested.

It never occured to me, that outside the city beyond the cramped streets of Da Nang, in a world where every space was either growing rice, or had a building on it, that the rice must be sun dried somewhere. The answer was that it was sundried everywhere. Including the highway. Enough space was left on the highway for vehicles to travel in one lane in both directions. But every spare inch of pavement, areas in front of buildings and homes, unused track of land, even parking areas in front of gas stations, were filled with rice drying in the sun.

Rice, rice everywhere, but not a grain to eat

A short stop in An Lao

We would only be in An Lao for two days before taking another transport, one of Treu Vi’s piers, to the mountain city of Buon Ma Thuot. It was our nephew’s birthday, so we made sure to make it the best we could. And I could say it was perfect, save for the fact that I wasn’t asked to hang the letters. We sat on the front porch with friends and family on the cool night eating fruit and snacks while the kids ran around in chaotic fun.

There is something always so wonderful about being home. Because yes, I consider Diem’s family home my home. There is a simple peacefulness to it that is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. My father in law, as usual, was crafting away in the day, handcrafting a bed for a recent customer. Almost completely done by hand. His craftsmanship is some of the best I’ve ever seen. Akin to the slow methodical handwork one may find in the Amish regions of the US.

The Butterfly effect

About the time we arrived in An Lao, a butterfly arrived with us. Not that I would have bothered him, but was ordered at first sight by Diem to give it a wide berth. Butterflies you see, live short and transient lives, and this little fellow stayed in the home until he finally died of old age as far as butterflies are concerned. And no one, not even the children gave it any cause or problems. I would find it here, or there, but it never showed any desire to leave the open house, and no one gave it mind, save for free reign of the home.

This fleeting, transient nature of the butterfly has led to a belief, at least in the ancestral worship style of Bhudhism of the An Lao valley, that the butterfly is a symbol of the transition from this realm to the next. If a butterfly decides to come into your house, and chooses to stay there and ultimately die, it is believed to be a deceased family member still caught in the cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth, and is therefore to be treated as such. And so it was. The butterfly wandered the home for the days we were there until as we prepared to leave, I found it in a folded, obviously liveless state on the kitchen counter. But still, it was left in peace.

Basking in the harvest

We took full advantage of our short time in the valley. We visited family, wandered the village and just enjoyed the harvest and everything that came with it. As the rice fields were being burned out and prepped for the next planting, the bananas were coming into flower, and the red pineapples were nearing harvest. It was a beautiful and abundant time in the valley.

Catching up with friends

We always have to visit friends in An Lao, no matter how short the visit. One of Diem’s oldest friends, and one of her friends I’ve known the longest joined us for dinner on the night before we headed out. We went to a symbolic restaurant. It was the first restaurant I ever ate at in An Lao many years ago now. The first place I ever tried Balut. This homely remote restaurant holds many firsts for me. A place that holds a special place in my heart.

Who wants Che?

I can’t explain it enough times and I will stop here. Just search my homepage for Che and I’m sure every article I’ve ever written that discusses it will appear. But it’s quite frankly irrelevant. Because it’s the joy of sitting on the street, even here in the remote district valley of An Lao that Che is just as wonderfully magical and unique. Diem ordered me a fruity version with chunks of Durian and jellies, cream and lychee nectar. We sat in the cool breeze of the valley and enjoyed the evening. But we had to get home and go to bed. Just like the transport out to Da Nang, the transport to Buon Ma Thuot headed out at 5 AM. And it was a lot further than Da Nang.

Finally, the road to Buon Ma Thuot

The sun rises incredibly early in Vietnam, I mean incredibly early. We met the transport at just before 5 AM, and the sun was already up enough to not need headlights. As we wound our way out of the valley picking up packages and people until the transport was fully loaded, I noticed that all the rice that had been drying had been wrapped in tarps, or covered in plastic sacks to prevent the morning dew from undoing what the sun had done the day before. We finally made our way onto the country roads that would lead us towards Cambodia and the mountain city. All the while people were emerging and opening up their rice bags to again allow the sun to do its job.

A late morning lunch

Some hours after we left An lao we stopped at a home/pavilion in the middle of nowhere high in the mountains. It was time for something to eat. Under the sign that spelled out the offerings, Bun, and Pho, was a rudimentary sink and soap dispenser to wash up before a steaming bowl. It was a truck stop of sorts, a gas station across the street. Transports, tourist buses, and trucks came and went as people shuffled in getting a quick meal. We may have been there 15 minutes. Vietnamese food, especially the broth variety, is fast and a quick way to fill the stomach.

I had the Bun Rhieu. Vermicelli rice noodles with pork meatballs, a delicious broth and piles of fresh veggies, herbs, and pickled baby shallots. I visited a very basic trough bathroom off the backside of the building after the delicious and filling bowl, made my way to the roadside washing station, ordered a cup of coffee on the way out, and we again made our way onto the rural country highway.

Back on the road

As we climbed further into the mountains, the rice fields were replaced with standard row cropping farms. The rice drying on tarps and on the roadside was slowly replaced by red beans, black beans and chili’s drying in the high sun. After an early lunch we continued on deep into the Vietnamese countryside. It was probably as far out as I have found myself in Southeast Asia. And that is saying something.

We eventually made our way through another mountain city Pleiku. A charming city of about 500,000 that sits in the heart of a pine forest highlands in the central mountains. The strange thing about Southeast Asia, something I’ve pointed out in other articles. Is that once you reach a certain elevation, the deciduous tropical forests are replaced with the familiar pine forest of the southeastern United States. It’s a strange sight to see in one moment a rice field, banana and coconut tree landscape, and within an hour your riding through a forest that reminds you of childhood camping trips in Georgia. It just doesn’t make sense in the brain.

Arriving in Buon Ma Thuot

After many more hours on the road we stopped at what appeared to be a random, unimportant intersection a dozen miles from our hotel. I know, I checked. People began to unload and I thought it was a typical stop so I got out to stretch while everyone got sorted. The driver of our transport had been, how should I say this, a jerk for most of the trip. And by this time he was yelling at me to get on the brightly colored bus he had parked in front of, which I couldn’t understand, I wasn’t in the greatest of moods.

After a moment of confusion I figured out I was getting on the other bus as my property was being transferred without caution, thrown around. The driver of the new bus was asleep in a hammock he had hung between the handle poles in the bus, and I loaded my stuff in. He had a female ticket checker who told me to move my stuff from where I had piled it. We had a bit of luggage. She acted as if I was being rude, and as I moved my luggage as requested the driver climbed out of his hammock and began putting it away. I sat in a seat, and the ticket lady asked me to move to a different seat.

Mind you the bus was a standard city sized bus and we were two of 6 people on the entire bus. By this time frustrated, I made through body language, my disappointment in so many unnecessary orders in an empty bus. As the driver finished packing up his hammock he made a very strong and rude statement to me causing Diem to sit distantly from me and seem embarrassed. I believe the gist was, I wouldn’t come to America just to act like an asshole. It had been a long day. I needed a shower.

The long bus ride to the hotel

In the beginning the scenery was still rural and somewhat wilderness. Eventually the trees made way to rubber plantations, and eventually signs of the city. I have never seen a rubber plantation, and was intrigued by the tall trees, with black collection traps a couple of feet above the ground. I would hope to come back and maybe walk one before we left, but it would not come to be. It was nearing evening when we finally arrived at the Hotel.

The lobby was beautiful. Filled with beautiful chandeliers, tea nooks with incredibly crafted furniture. The room too was clean and nice, and with a working air conditioner. By now the bowl of noodles we had high in the wilderness had long been digested, and we were both hungry. We freshened up and decided to head to an intimate dinner. Family would be in in the morning for the wedding, and tonight was our only opportunity to have a quiet night for a few days, and the embarrassment from the bus incident had long passed.

Thung Lũng Cồng Chiêng

Diem had already chosen the restaurant, the name of the heading above. A restaurant that was said to be the best restaurant showcasing the cuisine of this mountain corner of Vietnam. After freshening up, an ability Diem has acquired far better than myself in the vietnamese heat, my blood just isn’t conditioned for the climate. We grabbed a cab and headed to a much needed and quietly romantic meal. The restaurant was a bit difficult to find. It was as if it was in a gorge in the center of the city, with only a long and steep alley leading down to its entrance.

As with most places around Vietnam with tourists not allowed in the country, we were one of only a few tables being serviced. But it didn’t matter. The restaurant was so expansive, it felt like its only purpose was to please us. A case of beer was bought out, a standard Vietnamese practice, you pay for the beers you drink, they just don’t want to keep running drinks. And beer is served over ice so a bucket of ice was also produced. Diem negotiated the menu, and unlike the cuisine of our home seaside city of Da Nang, it was incredibly different. A very positive idea in my mind.

A Vietnamese mountain dinner

We settled into the restaurant renowned for its mountain delights. We enjoyed râu rừng, or water spinach, stir fried with garlic. A dish banned in the US. Cơm lam, sticky rice stuffed in bamboo to form a cylinder, all but a strip of the bamboo is removed and then deep fried. Giving a crispy dish with its own handle. Gỏi bỏ xoài xanh, a cold salad with beef, young mango, raw yellow onion, red cabbage, peanuts and cilantro, in a slightly sweet and tart dressing. And the star of the dinner, Heo rừng nướng ống tre, sliced wild mountain boar, stuffed in a section bamboo with lime leaves, lemongrass, a little palm sugar, fried shallots and garlic, sealed, and thrown on the grill. Served with fresh basil, and mixed raw vegetables. A great way to start our time in the mountain city.

It had been a long road to Buon Ma Thuot. One filled with spiritual tones, lots of food, and mini journeys on many levels. But tomorrow an incredible event will begin that I have yet to experience. A traditional Vietnamese mountain wedding. A multi day event that will involve family, firends lots of food, and some interesting, and potentially crazy events. So stay tuned for some excitement in the mountain city of Buon Ma Thuot, high in the central highlands less than an hour’s drive from Cambodia.