Advertisement
Published: October 16th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Danang
A boat knocked over by the wind and waves Woke up after a restless night for Michelle (leaks through the ceiling onto her side of the bed and nightmares), thankfully I slept like a baby.
We were back on the bike early and headed up the road to Marble Mountain - five huge limestone outcrops of rock that rose sharply from the surrounding plain and entitled after the five Vietnamese elements, earth, wood, steel, fire and water- dunno what happened to air (only remembered this from seeing Mont's new tat). The climb was steep and hot to say the least but rewards were soon found - beating off the insistent tour guides we escorted ourselves to a huge white marble buddha, followed by some pretty impressive caves where there were more shrines carved out of the mountain's marble and a smaller pagoda with a white marble woman and some sizeable catfish.
Onwards to a very high chinese looking pagoda, where Nunny befriended some local Vietnamese girls who were kind enough to share their 'blood orange with us and also assist to patch up Ricko's knee after he decided to kneel for a photo in some glass shattered by the typhoon. Nice one. Speaking in simple engrish we got
Marble Mountain
The white buddha offers nunny some enwhitenment their names and ages and where they were from before excusing ourselves to rediscover the rest of the mountain. "See you again soon"
We made it up into a kind of pass fringed by holes cut through the marble rock and hosting a cave with yet another marble buddha in it. Ricko was just climbing through a narrow opening into the next section when the girls from lunch rejoined us. They took us under their wing as tour guides and proceeded to escort us through and even narrower section (never would have found it alone) and lo and behold we pop out at the top of the mountain "Heaven" as it's known to the locals. Kind of like a rebirth of sorts. The views were awesome from the beach to the inland lakes and river system plus all five of the other elements. Closest I'll ever get to heaven thought Nunny aloud 😉
We paused for bananas in heaven (yes they do have them) before scrambling down the other side of the mountain to rejoin the track we left to get through the pass. Thanking the girls we moved on to another viewpoint where we got talking to
Marble Mountain
Ricko is touched by the finger of god another former local that had settled in America but grown up in Da Nang and hence knew other secret spots and could tell us about them in English!
Hell was the other place and it was located in the bowels of the mountain - but it's pretty scary he warned us!
As the rain started to fall lightly we decided that we'd descend the mountain before things got too slippery and so after our brief stint in heaven all four of us headed down the slippery slope to hell...
The place was mad. Flanked by fiersome loloking guards and featuring a bridge over a small lake filled with marble hands coming out of the water - a last minute plea for salvation, atop the pillars of the bridge were the various heads of creatures from each of the years of the chinese calendar, Rat, Dog, Monkey, Horse etc.
As we approached the entrance proper - twin marble candles burning beside a gaping black hole we could hear the screams of the damned - or were they Vietnamese youngsters playing pranks on one another in the dark - who was to know...
Naturally we left the
torch at home, so it was with trepidation that we edged our way into the pitch black jaws of hell. Feeling out each step before entering a chamber of sorts with a silhouette of an urn in the middle and a huge marble stone - upon which were no doubt inscribed the names of the damned (presumably American Presidents during the Vietnam War headed the list...). Initially our only source of light came from a chink in the cave at the very top, where a staircase and ladder presumably lead to some form of salvation. Nunny wasted no time in climbing to the light source.
Ricko meanwhile returned to the bottom where another light source had started manifesting - mobile phones. The vietnamese LOVE their mobiles by the way, especially their ringtones which they proceeded to play to me one at a time (Levi/Mont/Jase - yes was this some form of Karma? In hell of all places?) Once introductions were out of the way. I was asked to sing a song from my country - hmm - geez not Land Down Under again, perhaps I can hold Waltzin Matilda a bit better. So with the favouable acoustics of the
Marble Mountain
A roof blown off during the typhoon cavern I belted out a rousing "Once a jolly swagman..." which earned my accompanying claps and another raptuous applause. Now it's your turn - you'd better sing me a Vietnamese love song. So with visions of a short dark haired Michael Bolton I was serenaded by over 30 voices in the dark, surreal, AWESOME!
Waving bye bye, we progressed to the next cave which again had only a sliver of light to the real world, but illuminated another massive mable structure resembling the scales of justice, and to our right was a seated mass of wise men (emperors?) behind an 'all seeing eye'. Fortunately no flames engulfed us but we left exhilarated and jumped back on the bike on the rd to Da Nang for a lunch, beyond bananas and blood orange.
Ricko chose a seafood joint, bang on the beach that looked expensive - given that the clientele were all dressed to the nines. Scouring the prices on the way in $320,000 a kilo for seafood - sheesh! Oh well, we'll just have a salad. We looked in the menu - no salad, no prices either for that matter - tried to choose the most inexpensive item
Marble Mountain
One of the marble carvings x 2 and some local brews were pleased to note that we also received comlpimentary everything - peanuts, pineapple, outstanding service - presumably to be billed surreptitiously.
Our assumptions were wrong we walked away going surely it couldn't have been THAT cheap, but it was. Nice one.
Scoured the seaside damage of China beach near Danang for a while. Apparently there had been 8m waves which had not only washed boats up onto the seaside road but had taken out some of the beach frontage property as well. It seemed that the high winds must have finished off most of the rest. The place was trashed as the photos will no doubt back up. Credit to the owners they were all out in force, repairing their homes with good grace. Unaware of what sort of international aid they had received many were waving as we drove down the strip - no doubt grateful that tourists would still come here given the devastation. It really was a shame we couldn't do more for them, but damage on such a large scale is so overwhelming you just don't know where to start... unless you have millions or a bulldozer which
Marble Mountain
Nunny at the mouth of the cave that leads to heaven we unfortunately didn't.
Heading into Da Nang city proper we were confronted by swarms of traffic and traffic police eyeing us warily, as if willing us to cause an accident so they could pounce. Temperence prevailed however and we made it to the bank and back out again without incident.
Back to Hoa's Place (which we highly recommend by the way for you fellow travellers tuning in - set on China beach 10km south of Da Nang, 13km North of Hoi An at the base of M. Mountains) where Hoa's wife Giao had prepared us a feast of fish, chicken and mountains of veg., rice and noodles. We burnt the midnight oil with Tim recounting his failed attempts at teaching several hot Swedish girls to surf that day and playing a twist on 'Asshole' (a card game).
Up early the next morning for a surf (yes there was a degree of surf albeit 2 foot) grabbed one of Hoa's Mini Mals and paddled out for a few waves. Schhols of small fish would slam into the side of me ocassionally as they leapt through the air and I stepped on a few crabs as well, (luckily not
Marble Mountain
The climb to heaven - Ricko with St Peter fighters). Beautiful, and offshore too...
Packing up our things we were on the bike back to Hoi An to retrieve our tailor goods, have a bite to eat and post some stuff home (look out Heather!) before boarding the bus to Hue.
Easily one of the most enjoayble legs of Vietnam so far, nice people, great food, good shopping and happy campers.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.035s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Bia
non-member comment
Aren't you enLIGHTened yet??
Hey guys, Loving the blogs. You should seriously consider putting them all into a book and publishing it as your own travel guide.... let's make the title... "Why you should take a torch with you everywhere while you travel" ;) Missing you guys .... although Ricko seems to be missing a bit of himself as well... who IS that skinny lad in all your photos Shkelly?? Love ya, take care, buy me something nice! Bia xxx xxx xxx xxx