Blogs from Da Nang , South Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 19

Churches of Danang, Part One. I am always drawn to and take photos of the Catholic Churches in Vietnam. Most of my friends there happen to be Catholics. Almost all of the families I know had migrated from the North in 1954. Most of the Churches date from that time except for the ones that were already here that was built more for the French than Vietnamese. Danang Cathedral is one of those grand old Churches. It was built for the French residents in 1923 and remains in great condition today. Like all Catholic Church compounds you are not just offered a Church but a compound for meditation, instruction and houses for the staff. The Danang Cathedral is known by the locals as the rooster Church because of the rooster on its weather vane. Another Catholic ... read more

Ba Na Hill Station and Hai Van Pass Two of my goals while in Danang were to visit the Ba Na Hill Station and Hai Van Pass. Ba Na was founded in 1919 by the French Colonial Government. It was suppose to be the “Dalat of Danang.” The reason: It is cool. When it is 36 degrees C on the coast it might be between 15 and 26 degrees C at Mt. Ba Na. To accomplish their goal of a pleasant retreat they had to construct a road to the top. They did and today it is a very good, well maintained road. Until WWII the French were carried the last 20 km by sedan chair. The developed around 200 odd villas at the station before WWII and then the Viet Minh put a stop to ... read more

Meet Rotary District 5690 meet East Meets West SUSTAINABILITY: “The ability to meet current needs without compromising future generations” East Meets West Foundation At the District Conference in Hutchinson Kansas in 2006 our Rotary District was asked to participate in a village water project in Vietnam. Our fund rising was not completed until the next District Conference in Ulysses one year later. This was a partnership of several Rotary Districts with East Meets West Foundation. EMW is a foundation that has worked in Vietnam since 1988 and certainly one of the largest Non-profit organizations working in Vietnam. In 2006 EMW programs totaled 13.1 Million dollars and served over 1, 1 million people. Their main interest is safe water and literacy. That is exactly the two main priorities of Rotary International. East Meets West has two divisions: ... read more

Okey dokey Karaoke, We are loving all of the comments on the blogs so please keep them coming, not the one's about the English though, who needs good sentence structure. After our trip on the train to Da Nang we chose to stop off at what is Vietnam's surf hotspot, a place called China Beach. Is the beach in Apocalypse Now where they fly over the guy surfing the wave, just before they say "don't you love the smell of Napalm in the morning." Why has everybody ducked after I spoke that aloud, anyway. A taxi took us from the station and we arrived at the sea moments later, this was our first introduction to the South China Sea and it was a beautiful site, well if you don't look the on the side of the ... read more

We actually spent day 9 in 3 cities/towns. And 3 very lazy but photogenic towns at that. Woke up in Hoi An, spent the first half of the day in Danang and ended the day in Hue. It was still raining when we woke up so there goes our plans on exploring Hoi An before our shuttle picked us up for our 10:00 bus. But what a waste it was. Since the Japanese bridge was pretty nearby, we decided to pay it a visit (What? That's it? Luckily they didn't charge money!) Well, actually we're not sure if they did, because it was still so early in the morning, and everything looked abandoned, hehehe. So we went back to Minh Quang, grabbed a coffee and our shuttle sent us to a travel office as the bus ... read more