Dude ! Where's my tram ?

 Sunday November 5 2023

Breakfast was the normal feeding of the Locusts. Everyone in a hurry to get something before someone else might get it (I’ve never seen anything run out). I found an isolated two person table and dropped my book on it, claiming it as mine and went off in search of coffee and Orange juice. I returned with my bounty and an Asian man was sitting at my table and had moved my book aside so he could have that particular seat. I’m surprised there aren’t more mass shootings in the hotel dining rooms in Asia.

After breakfast I went back to the center square, passed the motorcycle ride offers and being followed by the short local women trying to sell me something. They each had a little of everything, scarf, purse, coin purse, hand made jewelry if a tourist has ever bought one they had one on hand to sell. They weren’t pushy, just persistent. Kind of nipping at your heels as you walked until finally realizing the my first ‘no’ was an actual no.

I wanted to take the tram to the top of the mountain and the guidebook said on weekends the lines are awful, so I thought getting up and going early would make this endurable. Maybe a map would have helped. I got to the church and saw this big yellow sign over the street and started heading towards it. The sign lead me to another and this one was straight up the side of a mountain. I started up passing the (generally) women selling trinkets and nuts. Boy ! The people who want to ride this cable car really have to be in shape. At last I reached the ticket office, by now I had sweated through my t-shirt and was dripping. I gave the guy my $3 and got through the turnstile. To find …. more steps. Ok, onward, ever onward. Finally I can see the flat area where the station must be. NOT ! It was a little shop. More up and finally I decide to take a look at what exactly was on the guide/map the man at the ticket office gave me.

Seems I found a nice mountain side garden and not a damn cable car or tram. Good golly. I was so bummed out. I wandered a bit but my heart wasn’t in it. So back down the steps and back to town. How dare they write their signs in Vietnamese.

I guess plan ‘B’ is in order. Cat Cat village in a valley that is south of town. I explored town for a while before stopping to talk to a taxi driver to get me a ride to the village . A deal was struck and off we went. Down the hill by my hotel, down and around my hotel to the lower entrance and maybe 100 yards further there was a road block of vehicles and road construction. That is where the taxi ride came to an end, the driver would not even attempt to go over the dirt even though many other vehicles were. The driver pointed at the road ahead and said “Cat Cat”. I had negotiated a several mile trip and this was basically a ride back to my hotel. Of course the price was set and I honored it.

At least the walk was downhill, but SUVs, 9 passenger vans, motorcycles all vied for a chance to run me over as I walked down the hill to the valley floor. I didn’t figure how I’d get back up, but that was for later to figure out. Down, down into the the valley of Cat.

Another ticket kiosk, with the words Cat Cat and I could swear ‘Tram’. I traded a couple bills for a ticket and went through another set of turnstiles. Down, down and more down. The down was lined with tourist shops and cafes.

At one cafe they had a platform overlooking the valley and I was staring into the distance looking at the scenery and heard a bird squawk. I looked 1/2 a step in front of me and there sat perched was an Eagle Hawk. I didn’t see that it was tethered to anything, just sitting on a flat area on the railing looking off into the distance. Except for the warning that I was about to invade his personal space, the bird had as much concern for me as it would if I was a mile away. This might have been worth the trek in itself.

More down and eventually I can to an end of the down. I had reached the bottom and no tram in sight.

What was here was a flat open area and some water wheels that didn’t seem to be doing any work other that just letting the passing water rotate them. They weren’t feeding water to anywhere, or turning gears to mill grain, they were just there to pose against the background. I walked along the planked walkway and one half of a couple stopped me and asked the usual tourist pleasantries, I don’t know what her husband/mate was doing but he was not in sight. I bid her adieu and after fifty foot further on there he was showing the his moon to the world. Dude ! I know there is a toilet 100 feet back in the village.

The other sight Cat Cat is known for is a waterfall, I started for it and realized it was more down and no tram . I didn’t want to see it that bad. If I want to see water fall, I have a shower in the room.

Near the waterwheels was where the motorbike trap was set, and I bit. Back up the road, past the construction and to my hotel’s door. Lesson learned? Probably not.

I stayed in the hotel for dinner. It was okay, some soup and a pork stir fry with a few too many little red fiery peppers. Off to Netflix and bed.