Silence in the world
On Don Det Island on the Mekong in Champasak, Laos, last summer, I noticed an Englishman. Everyone called him Sebastian.
His hair had not been cut, combed or washed for many years, and he was always barefoot and shirtless. He happily jumped and hugged his fellow white people who had just landed on the island, helping them carry their backpacks and belongings. Sometimes he was seen sitting alone and quietly at the ferry dock, watching the water slowly flow in the sunlight.
When asked, he learned that he had been on this island for several years, just like that. His mind was still normal, except that he had no belongings, no assets, and ate whatever was given to him. He never heard of his family, and it seemed that his family had “forgotten” about him. I wonder how the man named after a saint on that deserted island is doing now, has he returned to the civilized world yet?
I also often notice and love the “happy solitude” of tourists coming to my country. Cycling alone through deserted roads. Sitting quietly on mountain peaks, streams, beaches, with a book in hand. Drinking tea on the top of mountains…
Among countless trips, big and small, the happiest moment for me is probably the moment I sat alone in silence under the Stone Pagoda on a deserted hill at the foot of San Mountain (Nha Trang). It is called a “pagoda”, but it is just a stone slab about 6m2 wide, suspended halfway between trees and grass. To enter, you have to bend down.
That's all, but the building was ranked as one of the 7 most beautiful religious designs at the World Architecture Festival in 2015. Despite its fame, the owner of this place needs quiet so it limits visitors.
Sitting under a rock, as quiet as the word "no" above your head, a place of "self-enlightenment without a teacher", how can those big and bell-filled temples out there compare?
There is nothing more exciting than walking barefoot on an island that has just emerged from the sea just a few days ago. It doesn’t even have a name yet – like the sand island that suddenly emerged outside Cua Dai, Hoi An.
Later, this place was called “dinosaur island” because from above it looked like a prehistoric dinosaur. The island was deserted, with only bottles, pieces of buoys, nets, pieces of pottery, old shoes covered with barnacles, and tree roots drifting ashore. Then, in the middle of that sunny afternoon, like Robinson, I took out a pen and paper and painstakingly wrote a poem, stuffed it into a bottle, and then threw it back into the sea. Where has that bottle drifted to now?
Someone said “happiness is the way, not the destination”. I think the same goes for travel. Tourists want to experience and find happiness throughout the journey, not (just) luxury resorts, crowded, noisy and jostling entertainment and dining spots.
Adventure travel - conquer happiness
Remembering the summer of more than twenty years ago (July 2001), sitting on a wooden boat named Hoi An Culture, I was absorbed in watching each solo stroke of more than 20 kilometers of the Japanese male and female athletes Honbu and Masuda from Cu Lao Cham Island to Cua Dai.
Both are volunteers from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) who train Vietnamese athletes in swimming.
Sitting on the boat, Masami Nakamura - a famous expert in designing adventure tourism programs for JICA, who is also the organizer of OPEN WATER 2001, calmly acted as navigator and directed his students.
The first time someone swam from the island to the shore, everyone was amazed. But for the three Japanese teachers and students, this was just a small matter. They had swum all over the world in high-level competitions.
Unfortunately, this amazing swimming event only took place once more with some Vietnamese swimmers participating, then stopped. If it was organized properly, Hoi An would surely have another world-class sports tourism product, where tourists can discover and conquer themselves?
In the past two years, many runners have known about the Tay Giang Primitive Forest Marathon (Quang Nam). With a distance of 18km, hundreds of athletes from all over the world have joined the Co Tu runners to experience the thousand-year-old mossy rhododendron forest, climb mountains, cross streams, and pass through the primitive villages of the ethnic people...
In 2009, a Hong Kong event organization company coordinated with Vitours and the Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Nam and Da Nang to plan a marathon over 100km of Tay Giang mountains and forests, on the occasion of the opening of the direct flight from Da Nang to Hong Kong.
The running journey lasted 3 days, running about 30km each day.
Running on the hillside along the Vietnam - Laos border, having lunch on the run, sleeping in a tent at night. Interspersed with campfire nights, gong dancing in the traditional Co Tu longhouse, interacting with the simple people in the mountains and forests...
But in the end, that adventure tourism stimulus did not come true, and has now been replaced by the Tay Giang marathon, which has been maintained for the past two years.
Dreaming of... pilgrimage
I often go to Trung Phuoc mountain area at the foot of Ca Tang mountain (Nong Son). When there was no Phuong Ranh pass, everyone went through Le pass, through the field with Tay Vien hot spring...
For a while, there was a plan to open a route from Nong Son to cross Chua Mountain (also known as Hon Den) to My Son Sanctuary on Duy Xuyen from west to east like the ancients. If we could open a special pilgrimage route for those who like solitude and nostalgia, it would be interesting.
Mentioning the land at the foot of Ca Tang mountain, the most memorable thing is the opening ceremony of the forest at the beginning of the year at Khe Hop pass. The altar of the Forest God is a large stone slab next to a clear stream. After the ceremony, a tray of food is spread out on banana leaves on the ground, and everyone sits on their sandals. A special village feast in the middle of a sacred forest.
Next to glasses of milky white rice wine, the aroma is endless. How can tourists experience this atmosphere? How can tourists also here walk around the place where poet Bui Giang used to herd goats. The villagers are ready to show you "this is Lu hill, the old goat grazing ground of Bui Giang. And over there is the Bui family tomb area...", like an oral history of the village.
How can we, when stopping to burn incense at martyr memorial sites such as Hoc Thuong, Trai Tiep, Khe Chin Khuc..., lie down on the hammocks hanging, smoke a pipe of tobacco prepared by the Hoang Cam stove...
American billionaire Bill Gates and his girlfriend recently enjoyed tea on the top of Ban Co Mountain in Da Nang. Like many other famous billionaires and world leaders have visited and quietly strolled here. Quietness and privacy have become the demands of high-end tourism.
Hoi An is getting more and more crowded, fun but also worrying. Branded as a “Global Village”, it is now global but is it still a peaceful, quiet “village”?
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