Da Nang and the Marble Mountains

7th July, 2007.

We stayed at a nice place near the China beach. The communal eating arrangement made for story swapping with people who have come from the north. We met one hard-case American called Sparticus. He told us about the situation in Hanoi and talked at length about Halong Bay. He insisted that we spend a little more money as there are many rip offs from bad tour operators in Hanoi. We also shared some experiences with two English girls who had just completed the Easy Rider tour as well.

Although we paid for air conditioning, the arrangement in Da Nang is that the city has power for the whole day, and at 6pm the power is redirected to the suburbs, including our beach guesthouse .So there was no escape from the heat indoors.

The next morning, we headed for the Marble Mountains, which are, indeed, marble. There are hundreds of shops trying to flog off marble sculptures as we approached the entrance of the Marble Mountains.

One of them, Thuy Son, is honey combed with caves in which there are Cham, Buddhist, and Confucian relics, pagodas, and temples. The summit is reached through a warren of narrow chimney caves which ascend steeply. It offers a panoramic view of what was Da Nang Airbase and, China Beach. The interesting thing is that this mountain was occupied by the Viet Cong throughout the war. They had their own hospital in these caves. There is a carving on the wall commemorating the destruction of 19 American planes on the ground below by a VC woman's unit. I am constantly stunned by new information about how close the enemy was most of the time. The mountain and its monastery walls and monuments are marked by many bullets. There are actually 5 summits which make up the Marble Mountains. They are named for the 5 elements, Earth, Water, Metal, Fire, and Wood. This was a fascinating place.

To cool off after a sweaty morning we swam at the beach for the rest of the afternoon and then made plans to get to Dong Ha: The Demilitarised Zone.