Cambodia & Vietnam Trip – Day 12
Pictures from Hoi An & Da Nang
David’s birthday – we all forgot, till Jarrad sent him a SMS to wish him a Happy Birthday!
Breakfast, was a slight improvement, on previous but still not that great. Brendan was happy, he had corn flakes, David had eggs on toast, and I had an omelette, followed by fruit.
Met our driver, at 9am for the tour, of course he can only speak a few words of English!
First we went to a Marble factory, gorgeous statues, would be worth a fortune, at home. Ended up buying two elephants, to be shipped back home for Aud$800, they each weigh about 250 kgs. Expensive but would cost a lot more back home (At least that’s what I kept telling David), not that I would buy them in Australia. Then we went to Marble Mountain, the whole mountain is marble, though the government has stopped the locals from using it for their statues. They get their marble from China!
Entrance to the caves, in the mountain, cost 10,000VDn each. We walked along the walkway, which has carvings of the Chinese zodiac characters on each pole, into the cavern. The caves were quite long, though inadequately lit to be able to take advantage of all the colours! We followed the natural steps, down through many chambers, and it was very interesting. David climbed the steep iron ladder up to the top, where there is an outlook over the village below, while Brendan & I sweltered in the heat below.
A quick visit to the surrounding shops where we bought two lion statuettes for Brendan, five musicians for me, and a Chinese boat and man for David, for a total of US$35 and all from marble.
Next stop was the Museum of Cham Culture, where the driver left us for two hours. The statues were not as good, as in Cambodia but still interesting, we then went to find something for lunch, but the area is not very touristy, so we ended up buying a packet of Cheese Ritz Crackers for 15,000VDn to tide us over , then we were off to China beach.
It is nothing to write home about, made famous by the TV series of the same name. It wasn’t very appealing for swimming.
David took a few photos of the local pagodas etc on the way back, and had the driver keep stopping at various view points, and tipped him 20,000VDn.
Went for, a cooling swim, in the pool. It had a, bath like, temperature of 32.5degC, then off to the streets again. Found another little clothes shop, where we ordered 2 shirts for Brendan, and one for David (US$13). Back to our first shop, to try the fittings, most had to be slightly altered in one way or another, and will be ready tomorrow.
Found “Banana Split” restaurant and had tea, with David & Brendan having Chicken Cashews, Brendan also had some spaghetti, and I had pizza 223,000VDn. Started our walk back to the hotel, and stopped to order 2 more shirts ($14).
Stopped at an upmarket embroidery shop, the pictures were beautiful, but very expensive with one small one costing US$80. David really liked them, so we may come back tomorrow. When we entered we only saw one lady, by the time we had gone ½ way into the shop there were six of them, all fussing over Brendan, while he lay on the floor. They fanned him, and got him drinks, and kept petting his head, they loved his hair! he is a big hit with all the ladies, of all ages! Took a photo, but I’m not sure you’ll be able to tell Brendan is in amongst all the ladies!
