Yay! It's Wednesday - and I don't have to do anything related to work. I went for my first long bike ride today around the Big Mountain headland. Ok not very exciting but it was good to get some exercise, and the weather is a little cooler now.I've seen some of the sights on this road before but I wanted to go back and take some photos. The peninsula that Vung Tau sits on faces into the South China Sea - or East Sea/Bien Dong to give it it's Vietnamese name. The peninsula looks a bit like a fish hook, and Big Mountain is the hook. The shipping ports are on the inside of the hook - this waterway is Ganh Rai Bay, and the Saigon River comes down into it. So if you take the ferry from HCM City when you come to visit me, you'll come down the Saigon River and then spend a very long time crossing the bay then out into the East Ocean and up the coast to the terminal at Front Beach.
On the bay side of Big Mountain there are a lot of dried fish places. The drying is done by the roadside.There are also a lot of seafood restaurants out along this road. In the middle of a weekday there is not much business happening but I guess things change on the weekend, when Vung Tau becomes full of people. When you start to ride around the city as a whole, you realise how many businesses there are - everyone seems to have a living to make through commerce.
The road is an interesting ride. For some stretches there is not much habitation, and the side of the mountain looks like it has been quarried. There are many temples especially back on the north side of the mountain around the hook, and then again on the west around Mulberry Beach. Also some Catholic sites.
I've been to one of the temples in my first week in Vung Tau, but today stopped at a different one. There was only a gate down by the side of the road and nothing else to be seen, so at first I wasn't sure whether to go in. But you know how travelling in a foreign country makes you bold out of ignorance ... so I rode up the hill and around the corner and found this very beautiful small temple.In the front is a pavilion with a statue of the goddess. Then up some stairs to the temple building. In here at the front is the Buddha. Behind is a shrine for a man who I think established the temple. His burial site is also nearby. The hillside is quite steep, but there are many gardens and it seems to be quite a few buildings for people to stay, although I only saw two people while I was there.
From here, just a short ride on to Front Beach.
