“Quy Nhon is not so busy with crowds of tourists like Nha Trang or Danang. It is really wonderful for those who want to look for a getaway holiday on wild and tranquil beaches as if it is yours own”. It’s exciting for me to begin my trip when my friend said so about her hometown.
After one-hour flight from Ho Chi Minh City and 45 minutes on bus, I arrived in Quy Nhon City (the capital of Binh Dinh Provicne), a beautiful and peaceful beach city in Central Vietnam, about 650 km form Ho Chi Minh City. I enjoyed a late breakfast with Bun Cha Ca (fried and steamed chopped fish noodles), a famous local specialty in a small café before picking up a taxi to reach to the resort I stayed at Bai Dai Beach, about 12km from the centre of Quy Nhon City. On the road, it’s fascinating to see the poetic view of the city stretching along the curving bay. After running down slowly to a steep long slope, the taxi stopped and I was surprised to see myself standing in a valley filled with flowers, huge green carpet of forest and was welcomed by birds singing. But, just some steps through the lobby of the resort, sea spread out immensely in the eyes.
Actually, I was enchanted by natural landscape of this place, one side was the mountain and the other side was Bai Dai Beach known as one of the most beautiful beaches in Quy Nhơn, with very clean long beach, large rocks in strange shapes on the seashore, some islets in a distance and boats bobing on the waves. I spent my great time all the afternoon on the beach, swimming, lying in relaxation and see the sunset.
It’s interesting for me to stay next to Bai Xep fishing village, just about 500 metres from my room. Of course, I didn’t miss a chance to discover it. Bai Xep fishing village is famous for catching baby lobsters for more past 20 years. The area of sea surrounding the fish village filled with floating cages to catch baby lobsters. In the evening floating cages were lightened sparklingly by hundreds of electric lamps to attract baby lobsters swimming into the net under the cages. And in the following morning, fishers will sail their basket boats to the cages to harvest baby lobsters in the net and bring back to sell for fishers who specialise in breeding lobsters.
I heard this story from Mr Muoi, a fisherman who has worked to catch baby lobster more 10 years here. Born and growing up in this village, he worked as a fisher when he was a child. And now, his son, 15 years old, also began working like him. He showed me a traditional tool of fishers to catch baby lobster. That was a bunch of brushwood covered by a piece of net in oval shape. According to Mr Muoi, the high season of catching baby lobsters is from January to April annually. His villagers were lucky because Nature Mother has presented precious resources to this coastal region, also including squid and grouper.
In recent years, the wild beauty of Bai Xep Village has attracted many foreign tourists visiting. Some mini resorts with thatched roof bungalows along the beach were opened by foreigners as a need from the market. I met a young man in the village who told me that there was a foreign man visited as a tourist, then he felt in love with a girl in this village and married with her. As a result, the couple decided to open their resort for business here. On the beach, some foreigners were exciting to practice sailing a basket boat while others enjoyed their breakfast in the restaurant nearby, where featured with a long line of inviting words on the wall “Eat – Chill – Smile – Dance – Sip cocktail – Sing – Relax – Drink – Laugh”.
For two days in Quy Nhon, I also took my time to visit some interesting places around the city. It is said that if you arrive Quy Nhon City or Binh Dinh Province, without visiting Champa Towers, it means that you miss one of the most interesting things here. Perhaps, Champa Towers are heritages featuring a part of the oldest history of this land from ancient Champa kingdom over one thousand ago. Nowadays, this place has preserved many relics of Champa Towers featuring unique architectures in different periods of Champa civilization such as Canh Tien Tower in An Nhon District (or called Tour de Cuvre by French), Phu Loc Tower in Phu Cat District (called Tour d’Or), Binh Lam Tower and Banh It in Tuy Phuoc District, Thu Thien Tower and Duong Long Towers in Tay Son District, and Thap Doi Towers in the centre of Quy Nhon.
I visited Thap Doi Towers (or called Tour Kh’mer by French), including a pair of towers: North Tower and South Tower located in a nice park on Tran Hung Dao Street. The towers were said to be built in the end of the 12th century and the early of 13rd century when Champa kindom ruled by Khmer kingdom. So, its architecture was influenced strongly by Khmer culture under the civilization of Angkor-Bayon. In the sunlight of the late afternoon, the towers showed its mysterious beauty. Inside the larger tower, I saw a big pair of linga and yoni for worship and its top was open to the sky. I walked around to see it, then zoomed in my camera to see more clearly stone works sculptured skilfully decorated near the roof of the towers which was said to be symbols of torsos of garuda (half-human, half-bird), charming female dancers in different postures and monks sitting in zen style.
After a visit of a thousand-year works, I sat for relaxation on the beach in Ghenh Rang, a picturesque landscape of Quy Nhon with famous Hoang Hau Beach (Queen Beach) where Queen Nam Phuong, the last queen of Nguyen Dysnaty in Vietnam had visited and had a bath here. In this area, there is a Bai Trung (Egg Beach) featuring masterpieces of nature with thousand of round big stones in the shape of egg, looking very strange. Just in the distance of a five-minute walk, I could visit the tomb of Han Mac Tu (1912-1940), a very famous Vietnamese poet in romantic trend, located on the top of the hill. Then I stopped Dzu Kha Sourvenir Shop nearby to buy a lovely gift which was poem by Han Mac Tu written by fire pen on a piece of wood.
It’s my memorable moment when I sat by windy Egg Beach in the sunset, watching Quy Nhon city on the other side of the bay lighting up in the sound of waves.
