327. | Attractions in Tuy Hòa

I gave this city two nights. It ended up being three.

Because sometimes the city says: stay longer.

I ended up looking at three places.

Rest day

Tuesday was a long walk near “Quy Nhơn”. Wednesday was a long night in the city of “Tuy Hòa”.

So after going to bed around 5:30 on Thursday, I woke up relatively late. At 10:30. 5 hours is close to my average sleep time. I wasn’t tired when I woke up.

I didn’t take a rest day because I couldn’t do anything interesting. I just need days where I sit in my office – like a good digital nomad.

So this day only included a few kilometers of walking and lots of coffee shop hours. It was such a relaxed day that I didn’t even take a photo.

Nhan Tower (Tháp Nhạn)

Yesterday (Friday) morning I started the day at the coffee shop again.

But after that I walked. I wanted to see two sights. They were in the opposite direction from the coffee shop. But I wanted to walk anyway. By the end of the day, I had covered a total of 17 kilometers. And I didn’t just see the two selected things.

This 24-meter-high tower is one of the symbols of Tuy Hòa.

I looked up exactly what this tower was. I learned a lot from this little research. Since I gained completely new knowledge, I will mention the most important ones.

I am actually roaming the territory of the former Champa kingdoms. They existed from the 2nd century to the 19th century. I had never heard of them before. However, they were an independent civilization until the centuries-long Vietnamese push south forced them into a minority.

They still live as a minority in the country and in Cambodia. Culturally, the Indian influence in this civilization was very strong. Hinduism – especially the cult of Shiva – was dominant for centuries, while Buddhism was also present. That is why we can see Hindu deities, lingas, Sanskrit inscriptions and the influence of Indian temple architecture on Cham buildings.

So my day yesterday has a different color. Tháp Nhạn is not simply an old Vietnamese temple. It is a memory of an era when another people, with a different language, religious tradition and political system, lived and built in this region.

Incidentally, it stands on a hilltop from which the entire area was beautifully visible. I gave myself time to look around, walked around the place thoroughly and sat on the panoramic benches.

Here, the wind of the past did not touch me.

A few hundred meters away, however, it was quite strong.

Martyrs Memorial, Phu Yen Province

On the other side of the hill stands a memorial.

A modern building. It has only existed for a few decades.

A very beautiful building from the outside. It stands on Swallow Hill, and the building itself depicts flying swallows.

There is nothing else inside, only 42 marble columns.

With 14,085 names.

Those who fell in the war around Phú Yên.

When I was there, I did not know the exact number yet, but I estimated the names to be at least 10,000.

I felt like I was incapable of anything else but to walk around among the columns with my head bowed. All the while, I thought about how pointless all wars are. It must be cliché, but these names could be written somewhere else. On the spines of books. On wedding invitations. On the list of founders of foundations. Or simply into people’s hearts. Anywhere but marble columns…

Ironically, fighter jets flew over the hill several times while I was there.

I walked slowly, the shadows of the marble columns accompanying me for a while.

Nghinh Phong Tower

The long walk from here to the next station was nice.

Especially since Google Maps twice took me into such labyrinthine little streets, from which – after discovering several dead ends – the road only took me back.

I’ve been to places where I’ve only been greeted by astonished looks. What are you doing here?

In the past few weeks, I’ve learned a very important little thing. Vietnamese people hold the thing they want to hand over to someone with both hands. It’s a sign of respect. It was something I’d seen, but never thought about. It was only in retrospect that the sight made sense.

Since then, I’ve also held the money I hand over to someone with both hands, for example. And since then I’ve seen how much joy this little thing brings.

I surprised a woman grilling corn on the side of the road with my presence. She was surprised that I was there. She was surprised that I was thanking her. He was happy to buy me a corn. And everyone smiled when I gave him the money with both hands.

After a long walk, I arrived at the Nghinh Phong Tower.

This is a coastal monument and city symbol completed in 2021. The origin myth of the Vietnamese people was built with this tower.

There were a lot of people here. Everyone was taking pictures and apparently having a good time. Around the tower, a few large figures dressed in plush clothes caused a sense of cheerfulness. There were also figures in the shape of a panda, a rabbit, and a human.

I also got to know one of them better before I moved on. This place – perhaps due to the weight of previous experiences – again did not bring me any special feelings. This was perhaps a typical “checked” place.

And that’s perfectly acceptable to me.

After a long walk, the evening found me back at the café.

But yesterday I didn’t stay until closing.

I rented a motorbike from the service station next to my hostel. I went to fill it up.

I bought two chips and a yogurt. I haven’t eaten yogurt in over a year. And it was durian. LOL.

With these little things, I crawled into bed to have a movie night.

I fell asleep around midnight.

The reason I was so early is because I had a special program planned for the early hours of this morning.

Mũi Điện

I woke up at 3:45 today. By 4:00 I was on my motorbike and riding towards my destination.

I was about 35-40 km south of the center of Tuy Hòa. Vietnamese tourist sources traditionally refer to this place as the point in the country where the sun rises first.

Well, if you look it up, you will find out that this is not the actual easternmost point of Vietnam. In Mũi Đoi, which is further south, the sun rises about 4 seconds earlier than at Mũi Điện.

I didn’t care about the 4 seconds. This is where the sun first hits Vietnamese soil, and that’s it! I went to catch the first rays of the sun today.

The road was pitch dark. It was winding. After a while, it led between coastal rocks. It was an interesting experience to smell the sea but not see the water.

I had to walk the last kilometer, up the stairs. I was at the edge of Vietnam before 5 am. The sunrise started around 5:30 am.

A lot of people came here at dawn. For some reason I thought I would be alone so early. It was a pleasant mistake.

I took a seat at the railing of one of the observation buildings. I put my phone there and recorded the entire sunrise.

I had previously written in one of my videos “The Miracle is Already Here” that there is no difference between sunrise and sunset.

Today I felt that I was wrong.

This sunrise was beautiful.

I almost thought of the word Divine.

The rays that preceded the sun from the horizon reminded me of two outstretched arms. It was as if the sun wanted to embrace everyone. The sea shone wonderfully in front of us. Swallows were flying around us. A few ships were floating in the vast space.

And you could really see the Sun creeping higher and higher. As it poked its head out of the clouds that sat delicately on the horizon like a pillow.

My heart was overflowing with gratitude. I really, really loved this sunrise.

And not just because of the Sun.

When I got there, the young guy standing next to me spoke to me. Several things became clear about him. On the one hand, he was a very smart guy, we talked a lot. On the other hand, he was a photographer. He had been to Europe before. So I drank coffee from a reindeer wooden mug that I bought in Sweden. Because it wasn’t just the photographer’s equipment that was professional. He brought everything so that he could drink fresh coffee with his friends. And his third question was whether I would like to drink coffee.

And so we became friends.

We shared the almost hour we spent standing next to each other with joy and happiness. We agreed to have another coffee in Saigon. He lives there, I’m going there.

We hugged each other several times before parting ways.

My Belarusian friend asked me to feed the dog at the lighthouse if I went there today. So I bought two pieces of cold cuts yesterday. This was a surprisingly lucky move, because there were two dogs. They both enjoyed the sausage.

On the way home, I stopped at a few places along the way to take photos.