Jan 23, Monday – Danang

To prepare for air travel in a few days we have now moved a little north to the large city of Danang where we will spend two nights. The plan was to relax today and explore an attraction tomorrow – but rain is predicted for tomorrow so we did it all today.

Marble Mountain is an area of five karst mountains outside of Danang with the largest providing the most exploration opportunities. There hundreds of stone steps up to amazing views, caves, pagodas and temples. I like this phase in one write up “it is part historical treasure, part natural wonder and part spiritual (with both Hindu and Buddhist sites).”

We were smart and started our “climb” by taking the elevator! I guarantee that the elevator ride did not detract from the day’s exercise since there were many heights to reach via uneven stone steps during our time there. We followed the map as we climbed up to pagodas and views and both up and down into small and huge caves. When we met two men that are yoga teachers they challenged us to climb up to the highest peak – we may have skipped that one because we were already tired – but we did it! Great views too. Below are some of our photos.

After dark Dirk suggested we walk along the river to take picture of the lit up Dragon Bridge and huge Ferris wheel. We continued toward a brightly light square with crowds of people and found ourselves in the middle of a decorated river walk with flowers, lit up displays, flowering trees, tall painted posters, etc, where parents and young adults were busy taking pictures of each other in front of these decorations. The half mile area was packed with people moving in all directions – a happy, busy crowd. Note: In Vietnam it is the year of the Cat (in China it’s the year of the Rabbit).