Danang - Day 4

We woke up early and headed out for a full day or touring around Danang. We had hired a guy to take us around the city for the day, so we were picked up about 9:00 am and taken to the Cham Museum. The Cham were an empire in Vietnam that built similar style temples like Angkor in Cambodia and Ayutthaya in Thailand. All are of Hindu influence which is evident in the carvings. This museum was built to house the sculptures of My Son, the site of ruins of the Cham Empire. The sculptures were impressive and reminded us of Angkor. They removed the sculptures from the remains of the temples because robbers would take them, and already had.

After the museum, we were taken to an upscale marble store where the girls working hoped we would buy a table, sculpture, or anything. They did have this solid marble decoratively carved table and chairs for only $1400, which included shipping to Atlanta. Pretty impressive and it was beautiful. I guess our driver didn’t think we’d be actually interested in the Marble Mountains, so he was going to skip them. We told him that we’ actually like to see the Mountains, and not just some store ran by his cousin. Such is the way you have to travel in southeast Asia.

Marble Mountain was impressive. We climbed the steps to the temples, pagodas and grottoes that were built into the side of the mountain. There are actually 5 mountains surrounding the areas, each with folklore names representing Air, Water, Earth, Fire, and Metal. The top offered wonderful views of all Danang farmland, the city, the beach, and the numerous resorts which will one day dominate the coastline.

From Marble Mountain, it was an hour drive to My Son to see the ruins of the temples. They were impressive enough, and it was clear that restoration was truly a work in progress. We did get an idea of how the temples once were and stood, but it takes somewhat of an imagination to do so because of the state they were in.

We decided to head back to the hotel where Jamie, Gary, and Kathy enjoyed a head, shoulder, and back massage. Gary didn’t enjoy his, and I’ll let him explain why.

Dinner was an interesting experience because our first choice was closed due to Tet. We settled on and quite enjoyed a grilled fresh fish experience on the beach at night. Several families had strewn up tarps, small grills, plastic table and chairs, and charged enormous prices for you to dine on the beach with fresh fish. It was tasty enough though and we felt good going back to the hotel afterward.