Marble Mountains

On the flat coast between Da Nang and Hoi An, there is an outcropping of 5 craggy mini-mountains that jut up out of nowhere: the Marble Mountains.  Each mountain is named for an element: water, wood, fire, metal/gold, and earth.  While surrounded by some pretty aggressive sales people peddling marble statues, these mountains were really cool (both in the sense of fun/interesting/neat and temperature).  We had to climb some pretty steep steps to get to the top of Thuy Son (the water mountain), but it was worth it to see the sanctuaries that had been carved in its many caves, some dating back to the seventeenth century:

When we reached this level, already huffing, puffing and sweating through our shirts, we thought "Oh, this is nice... I guess."  Turns out we were only like halfway up.  Maybe less.

Xa Loi Pagoda on the right.

View of China Beach and the Cham Islands from Thuy Son's lookout point, Vong Hai Da.

This is when it started to get interesting- natural caves converted into Hindu (and later, Buddhist) sanctuaries.

I think this is Tang Chon cave below... the map is pretty hard to read and we were so hot and discombobulated that I think we walked in circles occasionally.

At the end of a small cave, up a pile of rocks and through a small hole, we were lead  (despite our adamant assurances that we were fine) to this viewpoint (which I mistakenly thought was the top) by a very old woman (pictured with Tim, below) who then insisted on taking our photo.  She would not take no for an answer.  Then she demanded $5.  Sigh.  We gave her $2.50, which I'm still pretty sure was highway robbery.  Well, nice photos anyway.  You can see 3 of the other Marble Mountains, as well as the villages that surround them:

This is the view south towards Hoi An:

Tim and his BFF, enjoying the view and then heading back down ("Watch out... marble slippery!"):

This next cave, Huyen Khong, was the largest and prettiest- very cathedral-like and lit from a hole in the ceiling: 

As an aside, apparently part of this cave was used as a Viet Cong field hospital during the war.

Pretty butterfly we saw on our way to the top:

After another steep climb, we finally reached the actual top of the mountain and had 360 degree views... pretty amazing.  

West, towards the mountains:

Southwestish:

South, towards Hoi An:

Southeastish (with Cham Islands in the distance):

East:

Northeastish:

Tim:

Northwestish:

North (Da Nang):

Nights in Da Nang

Tim and I hit the town a bit in Da Nang, grabbing dinner at the lovely Waterfront Restaurant, where we got a prime table overlooking the street and the Han River, which divides the city from the beach area.  

It was a warm, but not hot night, so people were out on the town.  Kids were riding bikes on the promenade by the river, fishing boats cruised by (illuminated by the bright neon lights that Vietnam seems to favor), and folks whizzed by on motorbikes, sometimes with their entire family perched precariously on the motorbike (more on that later).

 

Our meal was pretty tasty- a bit of Vietnamese fusion.  We started with one of Vietnam's favorite salads, the green mango salad.  So crunchy and good.  Then we followed that up with the twice cooked pork belly with a star anise and orange sauce.  Awesome:

We rocked a bottle of wine as well as some local (to central Vietnam) beer: Huda. 

After dinner we walked along the river until we spotted this cute bar and went in for a couple beers.  This time we went with Biere Larue, which they served with some kick ass super salty peanuts.

Good times.

Da Nang Days

Our Vietnam adventure begins in Da Nang, Vietnam's third biggest city (behind Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi), located on the central part of the coast. While it is pretty big, it's pretty calm and quiet right now, although it appears they are trying to rapidly change that by turning it into a resort destination to take advantage of the beautiful beach it abuts.

Back during the Vietnam War (or the American War, as they call it in Vietnam), Da Nang served as the main U.S. and South Vietnamese air base and also the R&R locale for thousands of American soldiers because of the beautiful beach that they called China Beach (the Vietnamese have different names for each section of the 30 km long stretch of white sand beach, including My Khe, My An, Non Nuoc, etc.).  The area was many soldier's first point of entry into Vietnam, and because of the evacuation hospital there (which you might remember from the late '80s show "China Beach") meant that many wounded soldiers were airlifted there, Tim's boss being one of them.

Now the beach is pretty quiet (at least until high tourist season), with tourists relaxing on the beach by day, locals hitting it up to swim in the early evening, and fishermen cruising by at all times of the day.   This crew of fisherdudes puttered down the coastline each morning with the Cham Islands in the distance and Son Tra peninsula and giant Buddha statue behind them.

Tim actually had meetings the first few days we were in Da Nang, so he didn't get to enjoy the beach quite as much as me.  Wa waaaa.