I was up early for my morning walk which I took along the waterfront, and I only just missed out on photographing the sunrise.
But, I was not alone.
The beachfront was full of locals, all busy doing their morning exercises. No wonder the Vietnamese people are so agile; they spend a great deal of time doing warm-up and stretching exercises, I’m guessing every day.
Mick often complains about my walking style when we are ‘strolling’ together. Apparently I have a (bad) habit of swinging both arms as I walk, with an extra exaggeration with my right arm.
Well, Mick has nothing to complain about after what I observed today. There was copious arm swinging, whether people were stationary or walking, and I am confident that Michaelia Cash’s walking style (i.e. marching) particularly if she did it on the spot, would be greatly admired here by the locals.
The beachfront had lots of common spaces where groups of people (mostly women), or individuals were practising their ‘exercises’. Some groups were led by an instructor playing music, and there was also one group that was singing and performing ‘actions’ to the music.
This gentleman would put his right foot forward and sway both his arms vigorously in unison behind his back; swing them forward together half bending over; and then repeat with his left foot forward. Some of the exercises looked like dance moves, the difference was that a single dance move was repeated around 100 times before moving to a new one.
The city had provided exercise stations along the beachfront, similar to ones we have at home. However, these ones were fully utilised. I wondered if people had even ‘booked’ them.
There were also loads of people taking a dip in the bay. No one was perturbed by the “Closed Beach” sign, and there were certainly no lifeguards on duty here.
Once out of the water, most people had an empty soft drink bottle or a gerry can they filled with water from a tap they would then use to rinse themselves.
After breakfast, it was time to farewell our son and his fiancée. Their tour guide arrived on time; full of optimism and chatter, confidently strapping the luggage to his bike, which I was pleased about. But the bikes were much bigger than our son had expected.
I can’t imagine the courage it took for them to get on those bikes and drive into a busy road of traffic – with no chance to get used to their bikes. Vietnam has millions of bikes on its roads, and road rules seem optional.
They are not really sure what the trip entails, they only know their destination is Da Nang in four days time. Luckily the weather looks perfect.
Mick and I spent the day exploring the local area on foot, which I will report on tomorrow.
We spoke to the ‘riders’ during the late afternoon. They were safe and well and thrilled by their experiences today.
They had lots of stop so they could take in the scenery.
The rode past an elephant on the side of the road as well.
One thrill for them was they drove through the home town of our son’s friend, Rita, who had been our guide for the first week.
They thought they would ride about 100km per day, but yesterday was a massive trip, I think almost 200km.
Jane and Mick's Holiday Adventures 