I got up early, showered and packed and walked to the bus station. The bus was 20k again after a short argument and I got off on the side of the road near to the limestone karsts. I went to a small cafe and had a noodle soup for breakfast and left my suitcase there. Then I walked east and saw a nice looking building which was a bit unfinished. I made my way to the main hill and they had an elevator for people to go up but I went to the cave first which cost 20k. It was quite a big cave and had statues and such inside some of which were carved out of or into the cave wall. They also had a hell section which must be a Vietnamese religious thing as they seem to have demons in quite a few temples. I left and walked up to the top of the hill paying the 40k entrance fee. The temples and pagodas at the top were ok but nothing special. The view was not too bad and some of the caves were tiny with just one worth visiting. I also saw an owl up there at one of the temples where not many go to which was nice, he even posed for a few photos. I headed back down having been around every part and getting a bit lost and entered the same cave twice. At the bottom I went west and went round another karst which had some more temples. I reached the last karst around 11am and there was a big temple being built there. I walked around following the map and around the other side there was a shrine and a medium sized temple. I walked a little further to get a photo of the water and a bridge and the path went around the back to the big temple being built do I could have taken a short cut. I walked back to the cafe and tried to order the same again as she hadn't let me tip her for letting me leave my suitcase but I think she was closed so I bought a bun from the stall in front. I went to wait for the bus and 2 locals were waiting there which was a good sign and sure enough the bus came soon and I had to pay another 20k. I got off close to the hostel and tried to check in at 12.45 but they only give people beds at 2pm so I left my luggage and decided to go to the monkey peninsula called Son Tra. The hostel gave me vouchers for s free drink later and free breakfast and also said there was a free walking tour at 5pm so I said I would be back then. I checked on the map and it was a fair distance and 2.5 hours to walk so I wouldn't make it back. I tried to find somewhere I could rent a bicycle but couldn't find one so I ended up walking across the bridge and then it looked a bit empty so I decided to run some as I would go about twice the pace of walking so every minute I ran would save me a minute of time. I listened to music and ran on and off to the beach and then along it stopping to take photos of the beach, bay and a temple. Eventually after going a bit uphill I got to a temple which had a lady Buddha statue. There were quite a lot of tourists there and I walked all around but then saw a map in Vietnamese that made me think I'd missed some places so I had another look but I had been everywhere. I finished at the pagoda there which was not completed but looked ok from a distance as they had painted the top first. I tried for a short cut along a road that was being built but it went to the same place. Then I continued along the road and was taking a picture when an Asian looking person with an American accent got off his bike with a friend and asked for a photo. I took their photo said I had walked and run here when they asked and carried on. I saw a small lizard on the road which I scared and it darted into the road only to be narrowly missed by a motorbike of the American who shouted to have a nice day or something. I carried on as far as a beach resort place that did activities and turned around. It was about 2.45 and the walk back was 2 hours and 12 according to the map so I didn't have to run. On the way back I realised how much the road winded largely because of a lake as there wasn't much elevation or mountains there. I decided to take a different route and headed north a bit to cross a bridge but now I wasn't going to make it back by 5pm walking so I ran a bit and the views on the 2 bridges were quite good. On the other side I mainly walked back as I had time and bought half a large papaya for 20k, it weighed close to 1kg. I got back to the hostel and wanted water but they charged the same price for refilling as a shop charges for a bottle and their bottles were more so I got water 2 doors down. Then I checked in which took ;longer than I expected as I had already done everything earlier but they seemed a bit confused but eventually I got a bed and left my things and went down for the walking tour. The guide said it was just me so I was thinking maybe its not worth it but one other person from Japan joined us so we headed out. The guide was from Portugal and was working in the hostel but might be moving on soon, he took us around but didn't really point out much or explain any history or meanings. We tried to go to a skybar but it wasn't open yet and later we stopped for food and went back to the hostel close to 7 and I went out to a supermarket to get some vodka so go with the free drink. It took a while to get there and then I spent a while shopping but I did get some vodka and also got confused about the yogurts which were in a pack of 4 but priced individually. I got back to the hostel after 8 and picked up my free beer and had some vodka but we didn't have that much time before the dragon bridge breathed fire. there were a lot of people who wanted to go so we went downstairs together but they were taking too long so I left and even though I ran a bit I didn't quite make it as it started a couple of minutes early. I found a place nearby and watched it breath fire a few times before it started breathing water which with the wind meant it got blown all over people on the other side of the bridge. Some of the kids liked it but other people all moved out of the way.
I met one of the south African guys from the hostel who had boarded there and we chatted a bit before I headed back and he looked for his friend. Back at the hostel we all carried on drinking and I got a beer to go with my vodka. There was quite a big crowd, a few English, the 2 south Africans, 2 Americans, 2 Germans, 2 Australians, the Portuguese and 2 others and someone passed round a couple of spliffs later on. I drunk quite a bit of vodka and went to bed fairly drunk while an Australian called Kes explained his crystal rock collection and what each one did and meant.
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