6th May 2010
We left P’rau this morning after another wonderful local meal and early night. The road from P’rau to Da Nang was quite narrow and lined with more ethnic minority villages. Again I felt like royalty as we passed many groups of schoolchildren on the way to school, shouting hello and waving.
Unfortunately, since this was the main road into Da Nang from the mountains, we did encounter lorries and a lot more traffic as we drove down the steep incline back down to sea level.
At one point we were passing through a small village where there seemed to be a celebration going on, with people beating drums and singing. Quy stopped to ask what was going on and the guy said that it was a festival and that tomorrow they would kill a buffalo. Each villager would then drink some of its blood as an offering to their gods. The meat would be shared between the villagers and the skull would go to the village chief. Quy said if it had been today we would have stopped for a gander, I’m not sure whether I’m glad we missed it or not :).
All too soon we were off the narrow mountain road with its stunning views and back down into the heat and humidity of Da Nang. After a small lunch, we headed up the stairs of Marble Mountain. This is a cluster of five marble and limestone hills each named after one of the five elements, metal, water, wood, fire and earth. It is possible to climb to the summit of the mountain peak, but due to the heat, we gave this a miss. Half way up, there is a buddhist sanctuary, with several caves with buddha statues in them. The area is famous for stone sculpture making and stone-cutting crafts, which are in evidence everywhere through the back streets.
After Marble Mountain, we crossed the main road and went and sat for a while at China Beach and enjoyed an ice cream (which I even managed to ask for in Vietnamese!). We wrote some glowing recommendations for Quy and Tam in their books that they use for future customers before taking a ride around Da Nang, which appears to be a very modern city. We went up to the large statue of the Goddess of Mercy which overlooks the bay.
It was soon all over and Tam and Quy were dropping us at the airport in Da Nang and heading back to Hue.
We made the quick hop down to Saigon and got a taxi at the airport (we know what we’re doing now!) Driving through Saigon was like coming home, after seeing the rest of Vietnam it just seems like a brighter, more vibrant and more modern city. We love it!