Da Nang by the Sea (Feb. 14-16)

We left Hoi An headed back to Da Nang, just an hour's bus ride north..  Laden down by a few shopping spree items had us looking forward to grandma (scheduled to join us in China) taking the extra gear (and weight) home with her.  It is hard not to pick up the occasional items as mementos of our trip and our packs get a little heavier with each country we visit.  

Da Nang was going to be a place to lay low for a couple days for Kim to get over a cold, hopefully hit the beach (if the weather cooperated), plan out the next leg of our Vietnam travels, and to do a bit more sight-seeing. 

During the Vietnam War, the beach fronting Da Nang was the site of an R&R centre for American and South Vietnam soldiers.  Years after the war had ended, the beach became famous again aby its depiction as the site of  an evacuation hospital in the TV series “China Beach”.  The city is now the third largest in Vietnam and is being quickly developed with up-scale resort hotels along the waterfront.  Maybe it’s because we were there during low/shoulder season with the weather not really cooperating, but to us this beach-side of town (across the river from downtown) felt pretty quiet and suffering from an identity crisis, not knowing whether it wanted to remain “off the tourist-grid” or become a glitzy resort destination– we walked the beach in the early evening and had it largely to ourselves.

We’d booked a hotel just one block off the pricey “strip”.  Although the price tag was right, we found out why after we’d fallen asleep the first night and were woken up by noisy neighbours partying into the “wee” hours.  The walls were very thin and the halls echoed the boisterous voices.  Regardless, it turned out to be a great location; it was close to both the beach and a bay where local fishermen bring ashore and sell their morning’s catches.  It also gave us easy access to one of the city's most popular tourist destinations - Son Tra Peninsula

On our trip to the top of the Son Tra Peninsula we stopped at a Buddhist pilgrimage site:

Apparently taller than Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, this 70m tall statue was completed in 2010 and built as a Buddhist symbol to protect the coastline and fishermen from the destructive forces of storms. 

Next to the Godess of Mercy is a Buddhist temple fronted by this large courtyard with many ornamental Bonzai trees and statues. 

This first statue seems to be menacingly on guard over the courtyard to ensure that nobody touches the trees. The others are much more inviting.

On our way to the top of Son Tra we detoured to see the giant Banyan tree which is reported to be between 800 and 1000 years old.  Together, it’s main trunk and numerous aerial prop roots measure at least 10 m in diameter. 

The tree has a special significance to locals, some saying it represents a connection to the spiritual world.

At the top...

we found a statue of Confucius contemplating his next move in a game of Asian checkers or chess. 

The fog had thinned out and the sun broke through enough to give us a decent view of the city.

On our last night we toured the city’s riverfront to view the various lit-up bridges that become an imposing and spectacular site at night.

On our last morning I headed for the beach early to take pictures of the fishing fleet and fishing-related activities.  The fleet looked to be about one or two hundred strong and mostly composed of small and medium sized boats.  The smallest boats were really curious looking – shaped like round baskets (hence there name, the “basket boats”), measuring about 5 to 7 feet in diameter, powered by nothing more than muscle and able to holding up to 4 or 5 people.  They are made of woven bamboo coated with something like a waterproofing tar.  It seemed like these “baskets” were being used to
shuttle people between the beach and the bigger boats anchored in the bay, and to transfer the morning’s catch from the bigger boats to the beach.  Later that day I learned that they are actually used for fishing as well and as far as five or more km’s offshore. Amazing given their size and the reputation that the China Sea has for blowing up. 

I arrived towards the end of the morning’s activities and first watched as a few of these boats were taken out through surf large enough to give experienced kayakers trouble.  The agility that the fishermen were able to manoeuvre them with was impressive.  Without hesitation or fear of capsizing, they would tip their boats way back to meet each crashing wave and pop out on top and roll down the other side. These "boats" were apparently conceived of as a response to the French colonial government’s levying of a tax on boat ownership.  Their shape and size enabled them to escape being defined as boats, and instead as baskets.  They turned out to be so practical and inexpensive to make, that the rest, as they say, is history. 

After the fishing is done, catches are brought onto shore where family members wait at makeshift “processing” stations to sort the different types of species (crabs, shrimp, clams, mussels, snails, fish, octopi, squid are the types of catch I saw) and prepare fish by de-scaling, gutting and filleting them.  While the catches are being processed, buyers circulate between each of the “processing” stations and select what they want for the local restaurant they represent.

We were now ready to move on - we decided to travel by train to our next destination (Phong Nha) based on reviews that spoke highly of the scenery along the coastline...We were not disappointed!

A quiet, secluded beach just north of Da Nang seen through the window of our train.  Next time we come back, we’ll be spending at least a week here staying in the small village just in behind in the forest

Photo of our train as it rumbled along toward Phong Nha.  It proved to be a far cry different experience than riding the bullet trains in China.

We enjoyed our stay in Da Nang but just wish we would have had some better weather to really take advantage of the great beach there.  Next stop Phong Nha!!