Sun rises on Thuan An beach

      Thuan An Beach, a famous beach located only 15km from Hue city’s centre, has attracted tourists for many years with its natural beauty.
This June, an additional attraction for tourists will be the 4th festival of the beach in Thua Thien Hue province.
Even though I would like to enjoy the festival, I felt lucky just being able to experience the natural beauty of the beach when it was almost deserted. I keep memorable souvenirs of the time I greeted the rising sun at the beach.
I rose long before the sun, dressed rapidly and ran outside the hotel to find a xe om (taxi motorbike) to take me to the beach. Luckily, I was quickly able to find someone, who was willing to take me for a reasonable price of VND50,000 (US$3).
On the way, we passed vast fields of rice, small houses and sections of the meandering Huong River on which boats floated and not a soul stirred. The breeze felt wonderfully cool on my face.
We passed a long line of pines, and then I heard the first whisper of the waves. Suddenly, the beach was right in front of me, with thousands of whitecaps appearing to be dancing to beautiful melodies. The sun was just starting to rise, and the rays were hitting the sand and making the beach shimmer and sparkle. The beach was so immense it seemed to continue indefinitely. It was tranquil, and I felt grateful to be one of the lucky few to witness the sun rising here. Some metres from me, a couple was kissing passionately, oblivious to the presence of others.
I wandered on the long stretch of sand; the sand was soft on my bare feet, and the waves occasionally washed over them. The cool wind surrounded me with the scent of the salty sea air.
Some boats were gliding on the water, carrying fishermen trolling for fish. It appeared that a few fishermen had already reeled in their daily catch and had left their boats lying on the beach. Other fishermen were now attempting to bring their catch to shore, and their wives raced out to meet them and carry the fish to their houses in order to prepare them to be brought to the nearby market later.
"Did you catch many fish today?" I ask a man close by. The fisherman nodded with a broad smile, and told me that he had a good catch. He said everyday he rises at 3am to start his work.
I looked around me and saw with pleasure many sunshades and restaurants made from bamboo and covered with fan-palms.
I continued my journey along the beach, and met some men who were building a restaurant made from bamboo. The men greeted me and invited me to a coffee, and we quickly started an interesting conversation. They told me about the legend of the Goddess Thai Duong, who is worshipped at the Thai Duong Temple nearby.
Legendary stone
The men tell me that legend has it that a hundred years ago, a man from Thai Duong Village was walking along the beach when he discovered a beautiful stone. He laid down to take a nap and used the stone as a pillow. To his surprise, in his dreams a woman appeared to rise out of the stone. She spoke to him and introduced herself as Thai Duong; then she complained that he was sleeping on her stomach.
He decided to bring the stone with him. Other times when he slept on the stone, the same woman appeared and always asked him: "Why are you sleeping on my stomach?" After a while he decided to go to the king and tell him about what was happening. The king initially didn’t want to believe him, and then was finally persuaded; the king decided it must be a sacred stone with a pearl at its centre.
The king decreed that the stone be brought to the temple in Thai Duong Village for worship. When the French troops attacked the village and heard about the sacred stone, they shot at the stone with their guns to try and get at the pearl inside. Their plan backfired as the bullets bounced back off the stone and killed them. Others decided then to cast the bullets in gold before shooting at the stone.
Finally, they succeeded in removing the pearl on the inside and brought it to their ship to transport it to France. But somehow the pearl got dropped and sank into the sea. Ever since, in the mornings, locals have witnessed a large glittering area in the sky, which is a reflection of the sea directly above the area under which the pearl is lying.
Visitors can now see the broken stone at the Thai Duong Temple.
Back on the beach
I said good-bye to the friendly locals, who had told me about the legend and continued my walk along the sand. The sun was now high in the sky, and more tourists were appearing on the beach. Couples were strolling along holding hands, and children were playing in the waves. The water was too cold for me, so I did not join in the water play.
A woman passed me selling bot loc cake, a speciality of Hue. She called to me to buy her food in such a friendly way, that I couldn’t refuse. I was surprised by how superior the quality was to the ones I had tried before in Ha Noi. And the price was right; it was only VND6,000 for ten. The cake is made with white bot loc (special kind of flour); there is shrimp, simmered meat and moc nhi (wood-ear mushroom) inside. Everything is wrapped in a banana leaf, and then dipped into a fish sauce mixed with fresh chilli.
My xe om driver tells me the beach is overcrowded in summer with tourists and Hue residents. On the 5th day of the fifth lunar month, the day of the Doan Ngo Festival, the beach is especially crowded since most families in Hue journey to the beach as part of their tradition. The festival marks the end of first half of the year; the wish is that the waters of the sea would wash away the worries of the past months, and they pray for happiness in the future.
Nguyen Huu Quoc, manager of the beach, says the 8ha beach has about 300 people visiting it daily on average; it gets quite crowded in the late afternoon until a couple hours after the sun sets.
This 4th beach festival, like the previous festivals, is expected to please visitors with a wide range of traditional games (kite flying) and sports, and a 100-stall market set up for people to buy the traditional products of the coastal area’s residents.
Sadly, I had to return to my hotel to begin my journey home. The waves kept whispering to me to stay, but I couldn’t. I promised myself that I would come back soon.