We chucked our stuff into our Le Domaine bungalow and set out on bikes to explore the island. The girls were pumped when Caroline told them that they had just gotten two kids bikes, and that the girls would be the very first to ride them! Bonus: they had baskets in front for storing travel essentials :)
Out & About
With some tips from Caroline to guide our route and lunch destination, we headed out on our bicycles. It’s worth mentioning at this point that Tam Hai has only one accommodation on the island, so 99.9% of the people on the island are locals. We were in for a treat! Getting to see truly authentic places, where locals are living their normal day-to-day lives - not for the sake of tourists - is what we value most in our travels.
Straight away visual cues were all around that the island’s livelihood is fishing and shrimp farming. Caroline had given us a heads-up that the locals are quite friendly, which we found to be the case. Lots of yelling “hello!” from them, and “xin chào” from us. Many people got a kick out of the girls riding their bikes. The island only has two main roads, so it was easy to stay the course and not get lost. The island’s 7,000 inhabitants are spread across 7 villages, each with their own municipality.
Seafood Lunch
Our first destination was lunch at a seafood restaurant near the Northern tip of the island. We’d know we found the correct one when we see the painted palm trees and concrete structure. Found it!
We walked up and there was not a soul in sight. A minute or two later a woman came out from the back and we gestured that we’d like to eat some lunch. Caroline had called ahead to make sure they were open, so I suspect on some level she wasn’t surprised to see us. We struggled to communicate with the woman about our order. Caroline had warned us that we shouldn’t put too much stock in menus at restaurants; they’re often just for show & not accurate, ha! So with that in mind, we pulled out our handy Google Translate app and asked (through the audio feature) what seafood was available. A few clunky exchanges later we had ordered squid, seafood fired rice, morning glory (our go-to tasty vegetable) and shrimp.
When we asked about ordering shrimp, she said “we can get”. Sure enough, after we ordered, she pulled away on her scooter and came back a few minutes later with a bag with ½ kilo of still-alive tiger shrimp. She let the girls have a chance holding them/attempting to, which entertained us all.
Local Fisherman
While she was preparing our lunch, we walked out to the vast beach in front of us, warm beers in hand (so much for enjoying a cold, refreshing beer!). There were easily two dozen+ fishing devices out in the water. Some were proper fishing boats, but the majority were coracles, big woven baskets. As we approached the beach a group of locals gathering around each other. We wanted to see what the commotion was all about. Turns out a few fisherman had just come in from the water and were showing their catch of the day. Fellow fisherman and friends gathered in excitement. Our guess is they scored a pretty good daily loot!
Lunch
Lunch arrived and we got to work. The shrimp & morning glory were great. The seafood fried rice was average, and the squid was just plain gross! It was way overcooked and tough/rubbery. Too bad. The experience of it all was great, but definitely not a highlight meal of the trip :)
Mural Village
After lunch we set out to the adjacent “mural village”. It’s known as that because the villagers have painted colorful murals on the sides of most buildings, as a nod to their fishing & sea heritage. The murals added a unique charm & vibrancy to the place. The best was seeing locals outside their homes preparing their massive fishing nets for the next run out in the water.
Sadie: life imitating art :)
Just before lunch Doug had actually ventured onto a side street of the village. He ran across a group of men drinking and karaoking to their hearts’ content. They welcomed Doug over, gave him an orange and invited him to join them! Doug relayed that he had to go, but that he’d come back after lunch. He made good on his promise, and he even bought 12 beers from the restaurant to bring them. Sadly, by the time we made it back to the spot post-lunch, the men had dispersed. Bummer! It would have been awesome to see Doug karaoke with the local fisherman!! We ended up giving the bag of cold beers to some men working at nearby construction site. They were pleased as punch. One guy, in pretty good English, told us that they’re building a homestay, and that he hopes we’ll come back to the island another time & stay there :)
Ban Than Cliffs
Beers delivered, we then headed over to nearby Ban Than Cliffs. We climbed on the rock formations and followed them along the coast for a while.
Whale Cemetery
Our next destination was an old well and a whale cemetery we'd read about. The well was anti-climatic and full of mosquitoes, but fortunately wasn't too much of a detour. We only had a vague idea of where the whale cemetery was, and as we got closer to the area we passed loads of shrimp farms. It was neat to get a glimpse of them up close (we had passed hundreds on our drive from Hoi An to Tam Hai). They use these little water wheel machines that aerate the water to keep the shrimps alive.
We reached a dead end on our path, and a few local construction women pointed us in the direction of what we assumed was the whale cemetery. We found a few cemeteries but with no English signage we weren't sure any were actually for whales. We came to learn later that we had been in the right place. A new temple of sorts was built earlier this year to pay homage to whales & other sea life. The villagers hold whales in extremely high esteem, as they're thought to keep the fisherman safe when they're out to sea fishing for weeks on end. When a whale dies it is typically "adopted" by a local fisherman, who then takes on the responsibility of burying the whale and caring for its plot. That fisherman and all of his family members are even buried next to the whale. Pretty interesting. One other bit on cemeteries . . . they're literally everywhere on the island, incorporated within neighborhoods between homes. Custom is that you're buried with your family on your property, which explains why they dot the landscape everywhere.
Rainbow!
On our way out of the shrimp farming & whale cemetery area, I looked up and noticed a huge, beautiful rainbow!! What a treat! We've seen only seen one other rainbow during our travels (it was while driving in Croatia back in October), and prior to this year, I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a rainbow. Had to have been years & years ago. The rainbow stopped me in my tracks. There is something truly magical about rainbows in my opinion. I yelled to the girls & Doug that there was a rainbow, and they came bounding back. Paige especially was beaming with excitement. I won't soon forget that moment.
Funny enough, we were doing a video chat with my sister & family later that night. We told them we saw a rainbow, at which Erinn piped in that SHE sent that rainbow to us :) The girls giggled. A few hours later, Erinn texted me a picture . . . they also ended up having a big rainbow out their window that same day! What on earth are the odds of that?!! The universe works in mysterious ways. I like to think it was reminding us we're not so far from each other and that we remain connected, in spite of the miles between us at the moment.
Final montage of videos of us cruising around the island all day:
Back "Home" for the Night
We rolled back into Le Domaine a bit after 4:00pm. Just enough time to shower, freshen up and still enjoy the dusk light. The girls did some water coloring painting while Doug & I sat in a coracle beside the water chatting. A lovely end to a fantastic day exploring this special fishing island. We agreed that Tam Hai Island is 100% the most authentic location we've traveled to this year. To be one of only a dozen non-Vietnamese on a small island full of locals going about their daily lives - and to get a close-up look at that - is a memorable gem!
p.s. Luggage MIA
I left two of my packing cubes - one of undies & socks, other of all my shorts & t-shirts - at our Hoi An hotel. I'm in charge of all our packing and unpacking, so I am squarely to blame. What's funny is that as I packed us up in Hoi An, I actually said to Doug that I felt like we oddly had quite a bit of extra space. We attributed it to having set aside the girls' two inflatable car seats; we needed them for the drive so we didn't pack them up. Little did I know, that the extra space was because virtually all of my clothing items were missing!! I realized it only after I had showered at Le Domaine after our biking fun and was looking for clean clothes. Doh! Caroline saved the day and arranged with her staff to have the stuff returned to me at the resort. By 3:00pm the next day the two packing cubes (which I had left inside a drawer) were back in my possession. Total brain fart and I'm so grateful for the help of Caroline & all her connections!! I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't been able to get those packing cubes back. Would have made for a lot of emergency replacement shopping, which I have no interest in!
p.p.s. I'm officially obsessed/fascinated by the "sand art" that crabs make when they burrow into their holes. I first saw it on Koh Lanta island, Thailand. And now again here on Tam Hai island. The beach is literally COVERED in them. How those itty bitty crabs chuck sand and form the most perfect, pellet-like balls of sand is beyond me. I just googled for more information and this is what I found (must-watch material if you ask me!): https://youtu.be/6XJtq2d_lFs
My mind is officially blown!!! Turns out the little sand balls are made by sand bubbler crabs. They scour the sand for food and form little pellets. I'm now even more fascinated & delighted!!!
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