May 4, 2009
With another sea day in between, we docked at Chan May, Vietnam. Not a well known port, it is close to Da Nang and the ancient town of Hue. We passed up the 11 hour excursion to Hue, because we knew we were going to have an 11 hour one the next day to Hanoi. Instead we took the shuttle to a swanky beach resort near the port and then hired two taxis with three other couples from the ship, including the craft people Judy and Erica, the Rabbi Jerry and his wife, and one of cultural enrichment speakers Roger and his wife. We were going to rent one van, but the taxi dispatcher preferred two cabs for the same price of $20 US per person. We were with Judy and Erica, who have become truly good travelling companions, and this day cemented our relationship even more. We wanted to go to Da Nang, China Beach, the Marble Mountains and the craft village called Hoi An.
The whole journey took over 5 hours, and although our drivers spoke minimal English, they were quite pleasant and accommodating. We first went to the marble mountains. Of course, I taxi driver had a cousin in the marble business and we stopped at her shop on the way. Huge shop, with incredible marble and jade pieces. I thought the prices were a high, but the workmanship was excellent. Yes, a couple of jade pieces somehow found their way into my shopping bag. Unfortunately jade is heavy stuff! So now we have to be concerned not just with size but also weight.
Next stop was the actual marble mountains, which are more like large spires towering over the landscape and villages below. Of course there was an admission fee at a booth before this large set of steps (official title NGŨ HÀNH SON). It was only a dollar or so, so Erica and I went for the climb on behalf of the whole group. After the initial 50 steps or so we reached a plateau where there was a pagoda and some trails leading in different directions. One led to a cave where there was a statue. One of the locals said, “Lady Buddha, Lady Buddha.” I didn’t know there was such as thing, but there was certainly a beautiful statue inside the cave. We climbed more steps, and I do mean a lot more. We were both getting a bit winded, and we knew everyone was waiting for us. Finally I said to Erica (who is, after all, in her 20s), “Enough fooling around, let’s go for it.” So I proceeded up the final set of steps at twice our previous pace and Erica kept up.
We finally reached a huge cave where there was a large elevated male Buddha statue. With the haze from incense hanging in the air, it was indeed a dramatic scene. We were glad we went, but didn’t stay long and high tailed it back down the steps to the others waiting at the bottom. They reminded us they had been waiting and were not impressed when we told them about all the steps and our fast pace going up and down. But we did acquire nicknames from the whole adventure: “Sherpa Dad” and “Sherpa Girl.”
Our little caravan of two taxis proceeded on to the best surprise of the day: Hoi An. What a delightful little village full of arts and crafts shops! It is a UNESCO world heritage site with a unique adorned bridge at the center. We walked around the old streets and looked in a number of shops. Ronnie was interested in a couple of beautiful silk table runners. When they wouldn’t meet here price, she walked out. About a half a block away, a man from the shop ran up to her with the two runners in a bag, quite ready at that point to accept Ronnie’s price. We saw some pretty colorful lanterns for a dollar or two, but couldn’t figure out how we would use them, and although they folded up, we decided against buying one.
Erica and Judy really wanted to have one of the bicycle rickshaw rides, but can you guess we were not interested? We tried to warn them about the rickshaw scam, but Erica went anyway. Sure enough instead of just a ride for a few dollars, they wanted a surcharge of $5 for going into the “old town.” Since we had been walking around the old town already, Erica didn’t bite, and she actually got her ride for the original price without too much hassle. We were glad for her, but no way were we getting any where near those things!
On the way back we drove by China beach and were amazed at the amount of development going on, mostly large beachfront hotels. However, several of them looked like no work had been done on them for some time, so we guessed they were either put on hold or abandoned because of the economic downturn. We truly enjoyed our day in this section of Viet Nam.
With another sea day in between, we docked at Chan May, Vietnam. Not a well known port, it is close to Da Nang and the ancient town of Hue. We passed up the 11 hour excursion to Hue, because we knew we were going to have an 11 hour one the next day to Hanoi. Instead we took the shuttle to a swanky beach resort near the port and then hired two taxis with three other couples from the ship, including the craft people Judy and Erica, the Rabbi Jerry and his wife, and one of cultural enrichment speakers Roger and his wife. We were going to rent one van, but the taxi dispatcher preferred two cabs for the same price of $20 US per person. We were with Judy and Erica, who have become truly good travelling companions, and this day cemented our relationship even more. We wanted to go to Da Nang, China Beach, the Marble Mountains and the craft village called Hoi An.
The whole journey took over 5 hours, and although our drivers spoke minimal English, they were quite pleasant and accommodating. We first went to the marble mountains. Of course, I taxi driver had a cousin in the marble business and we stopped at her shop on the way. Huge shop, with incredible marble and jade pieces. I thought the prices were a high, but the workmanship was excellent. Yes, a couple of jade pieces somehow found their way into my shopping bag. Unfortunately jade is heavy stuff! So now we have to be concerned not just with size but also weight.
Next stop was the actual marble mountains, which are more like large spires towering over the landscape and villages below. Of course there was an admission fee at a booth before this large set of steps (official title NGŨ HÀNH SON). It was only a dollar or so, so Erica and I went for the climb on behalf of the whole group. After the initial 50 steps or so we reached a plateau where there was a pagoda and some trails leading in different directions. One led to a cave where there was a statue. One of the locals said, “Lady Buddha, Lady Buddha.” I didn’t know there was such as thing, but there was certainly a beautiful statue inside the cave. We climbed more steps, and I do mean a lot more. We were both getting a bit winded, and we knew everyone was waiting for us. Finally I said to Erica (who is, after all, in her 20s), “Enough fooling around, let’s go for it.” So I proceeded up the final set of steps at twice our previous pace and Erica kept up.
We finally reached a huge cave where there was a large elevated male Buddha statue. With the haze from incense hanging in the air, it was indeed a dramatic scene. We were glad we went, but didn’t stay long and high tailed it back down the steps to the others waiting at the bottom. They reminded us they had been waiting and were not impressed when we told them about all the steps and our fast pace going up and down. But we did acquire nicknames from the whole adventure: “Sherpa Dad” and “Sherpa Girl.”
Our little caravan of two taxis proceeded on to the best surprise of the day: Hoi An. What a delightful little village full of arts and crafts shops! It is a UNESCO world heritage site with a unique adorned bridge at the center. We walked around the old streets and looked in a number of shops. Ronnie was interested in a couple of beautiful silk table runners. When they wouldn’t meet here price, she walked out. About a half a block away, a man from the shop ran up to her with the two runners in a bag, quite ready at that point to accept Ronnie’s price. We saw some pretty colorful lanterns for a dollar or two, but couldn’t figure out how we would use them, and although they folded up, we decided against buying one.
Erica and Judy really wanted to have one of the bicycle rickshaw rides, but can you guess we were not interested? We tried to warn them about the rickshaw scam, but Erica went anyway. Sure enough instead of just a ride for a few dollars, they wanted a surcharge of $5 for going into the “old town.” Since we had been walking around the old town already, Erica didn’t bite, and she actually got her ride for the original price without too much hassle. We were glad for her, but no way were we getting any where near those things!
On the way back we drove by China beach and were amazed at the amount of development going on, mostly large beachfront hotels. However, several of them looked like no work had been done on them for some time, so we guessed they were either put on hold or abandoned because of the economic downturn. We truly enjoyed our day in this section of Viet Nam.
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