Da Nang, a real treat!

Da Nang was a real treat because I had no idea of the places we would see today. Da Nang airport is very modern (a lot more organised than Hanoi) and so is Da Nang city, lots of resorts along the coastline and no where near as busy as Hanoi. There also seems to be a lot more order, e.g., cars on the right side of the road, traffic lights, road markings etc... It's interesting because back in the day Hoi An and Da Nang were very popular with the outside world and there was apparently a big port here but due to changes in the sea bed boats could no longer come in. This has meant that it hasn't grown as fast as Hanoi has had to and I think this may have been a real blessing for this part of Vietnam.

At the airport we were greeted by another lovely tour guide, Hai, who took us to the museum of Cham Sculpture, China Beach and Marble Mountain. 

The Museum of Cham Sculpture celebrates an ancient culture famed for its sculptural talents. It had a magnificent range of images gathered from ancient My Son city and dating from the first to the 14th century displayed there. Tomorrow we are heading to what is left of My Son city (I'm looking forward to this), unfortunately it was heavily bombed by the Americans and only 20 of the 70 temples still remain.

The Buddha sits in the middle surrounding by lesser deities. The Cham people worshipped buddha from the 9th century until the 10th century.

For the most part the Cham people worshipped Hindu gods

Another great thing about Da Nang was the seeing the sunshine. Check out the following pictures from China Beach. Today I learnt that China Beach was where American soldiers were sent for r&r and you can see why they chose this spot. It is beautiful! Good surf too which leads to another fact I learnt today; the first international surfing competition was held there 1992!

The family at China Beach

Jump for China Beach

Brother and sister love x

Our next stop was Marble mountain, another spectacular spot. It's one of 5 mountains that are all named after the 5 elements; earth, metal, wind, water and fire. The one we climbed was called Water Mountain. It had lots of interesting things to see and all the entrances/pagodas/temples were in gorgeous settings. A highlight of the hike was the last cave. It was in there that the Vietnamese soldiers came to hide and it was also used as a hospital. Lucky the Americans never found it and bombed it. 

This is a seven storey structure that houses seven different Buddha. On the top floor is golden Buddha.

Light shining through from the top of the cave

Happy Buddha

Me with our helpful guide, Hai. This is where we could look out and see the other four mountains.

After our tour we checked into our resort in Hoi An and have just been lazing round all afternoon. It's called the 'River Beach Resort' and it's in a prime location with the river behind it and the beach only a 2 minute walk away. Right next door is a beauty salon and mum and I both got a manicure and pedicure. It was quite expensive, both treatments cost us a whole $9!!! Can you believe it? Haha and my fried chicken noodles and coke for lunch set me back $3.50. It is ridiculously cheap here. We are here for the next 3 nights and I'm looking forward to a bit of a sleep in tomorrow. Soon we are off to the main town to find a tailor to get some things made. Cannot wait!