While we were in Danang, we visited two historical sites, My Son and the Marble Mountains. In addition, we used Danang as a base to go to Hoi An (see Hoi An post). While we weren’t at tourist sites, we had lots of fun at the beach and pool.
On one of our off days, we spent the entire day in the pool and at the ocean.
After we finished swimming in the pool, we decided to be a bit more adventurous, and we swam in the ocean. The beach was a lot of fun. We enjoyed jumping over waves as well as making sand castles.
In the ocean, Mom kept trying to take pictures, and Elise and I kept kicking salt water in her face every time she tried. She ended up storming away from us, muttering under her breath.
At the end of our beach day, we enjoyed a delicious meal at Madame Lan. The highlight of dinner…morning glory!
Everything was delicious except for the shrimp paste noodles (shown below in top left). I found the shrimp paste (brownish-gray stuff in the bowl) repulsive.
The next day we went to My Son, a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva, the god of destruction, who the Champa kings considered their protector. The first temples of My Son were constructed with wood during the 4th century, but those temples were destroyed in a major fire in the 6th century. My Son as we know it today was built by the Cham people in the 7th century and is similar to Po Nagar Cham towers in Nha Trang but on a much grander scale. Interestingly, the temples were forgotten for hundreds of years until the late 1800s when they were rediscovered by the French.
My Son Sanctuary is made up of several tower clusters. Each cluster has a main worshiping tower temple in the middle, surrounded by smaller towers and buildings for other purposes. Bricks and stone pillars were used to build the body of the temples, while sandstones were used to make reliefs showing scenes from Hindu mythology.
The inside of the temples was built with no windows and was designed to aid the shamans in communicating with the devas (Hindu gods).
Sadly, the temples were seriously damaged during the Vietnam War. The Vietcong used the area as a headquarters, and the Americans, not knowing that My Son existed, dropped a lot of bombs over the area, accidentally destroying the temples. Today the temples are being restored. India is helping with the restoration because My Son is an important Hindu site.
One of the challenges of the restoration has been replicating the red bricks. If you take a good look at one of the walls, you will see red bricks and moss-covered bricks. Interestingly, the moss-covered bricks are new, and the red ones are old. The Cham were excellent brick firers, and they used a special type of resin to hold the bricks together that prevents moss. Modern-day archeologists still can’t find the exact recipe for the resin that was used. It’s suspected that it came from a local tree, but nobody can figure out which tree it is.
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After our tour was finished, we went to lunch at a banh canh noodle restaurant. Like many of the restaurants in Vietnam, it was a typical small restaurant on the side of the road with short tables and stools.
Banh canh is a thick Vietnamese noodle soup. The noodles are chewy and can be made from tapioca flour or a mixture of rice and tapioca flour.
The next day we went to the Marble Mountains. The Marble Mountains is made up of a cluster of five mountains named after the “elements”: Kim Son (Mt. Metal), Moc Son (Mt. Plant), Thuy Son (Mt. Water), Hoa Son (Mt. Fire), and Tho Son (Mt. Soil). We only went to Thuy Son, which is the biggest. Once you make it to the top, you see Tam Thai pagoda, which is a 400-year-old pagoda. The Tam Thai pagoda was impressive, but my favorite part of the Marble Mountains was its caves. Some of the caves even have temples built inside them. The caves are breathtaking, as they are huge, and the Buddha statues inside are sculpted out of natural stone.
One of my favorite caves was Tang Chon cave. Inside Tang Chon cave, there was a temple and many sculptures. There is also a section called the wind cave. It has a constant natural source of a nice breeze.
My favorite cave was Huyen Khong cave. It has a Buddha statue in it, and it has a natural sun-hole. The sun rays all shine onto the Buddha.
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After we finished exploring the Marble Mountains, we went to have lunch by the beach.
After our lunch, we went to the airport and flew back to Hong Kong, concluding our amazing two-week trip in Vietnam with Bebe.
Great trip summary! The beach trip looked so relaxing and fun.
Thank you for reading my blog!
WOW! Evan – those caves look so cool! Thanks for the comprehensive update!
They were cool! By cool I mean chilly.
That looks like a lot of fun at the beach.😀🐬
It was fun!
Great recap of the many sites we visited in Danang. Marble Mountain caves were amazing. The Huyen Khong cave was the most interesting and beautiful. Thank you for all the pictures. Love, Bebe
Gong Gong and I got a very short drop by at Danang 岘港 in Sep 2016, which happened during our Vietnam cruise trip. Our cruise anchored at Danang one day, we disembarked in the morning and took a 2 hours bus ride to Hoi An, after spending 2-3 hours in Hoi An, we spent another 2 hours on the road to get back to the Danang Harbour. Therefore, we did not visit any tourists spot in Danang, only got less than 1 hour to walk along the famous China Beach in Danang. You have a more fruitful trip！Lucky you!