I made my escape from the 17 relatives early in the morning on the second day of Tet, jumping on a Honda, headed toward My Son Sanctuary. The site was visually impressive and certainly worth seeing, but it was crawling with people so I didn’t hang around more than a couple hours.
Arrgh! How do I put a linespace here?
I headed toward the Thu Bon river on whatever road I could find going upstream, hugging the river as closely as possible. The pavement quickly turned to dirt as the banks of the river turned to cliffs. The path ended at a small hut where I asked if the road continued. The girl pointed down the cliff. Curious, I left the Honda and scurried down to find an old man in a tiny boat, smoking a cigar and screeching on a three-stringed instrument. He asked if I would like to go out on his boat. Can I bring my Honda? Not if you want the boat to float, he explained. He took me (along with all the kids) upriver, waiting for watering buffalo to climb up the trail before landing. We climbed up under a vine-intertwined brick arch to find Madame Thu Bon’s tomb. More pictures on Facebook.
