Dina's Travels: On to Central Vietnam: Hoi An, Da Nang, and a taste of Hue

Saturday, after a 1.5 hour flight from Saigon to the Da Nang airport in central Vietnam, we drove south about thirty minutes to the city of Hoi An. We drove by the coast of the South China Sea and learned how Da Nang has flourished, since the time of the Vietnam civil war, where this city was the center of U.S. military operations.

South China Sea coast

The city has done so well because of the visionary city mayor with support from the national government. It has become a lovely resort area, and residents have benefited with more schools, more clinics, better roads, and more jobs.

"Hoi" means "meeting" and "An" means "peaceful." It refers to three rivers which meet here. 35,000 people reside in this city, and we stayed in a hotel very close to the historic district.

Chinese and Japanese came to Hoi An in the early 17th century. Spanish, French and Dutch traders followed later in the 17th and 18th centuries. The town had a busy port. When the French attacked in 1858, they built a bigger port in Da Nang, and Hoi An was forgotten. With the open door policy started in Vietnam in 1992, back packers came and soon guest houses popped up.

On arrival at the Silk Luxury Hotel, we were gifted with Bahn Mi sandwiches by our guide, Khanh on the left. As usually, a vegetarian option was available. We then dropped off laundry across the street and paid by the kilo..

Below is a view from our hotel window:

When this area opened to foreigners in 1992, backpackers began to come so soon people began to rent out rooms and make small hostels.

At 3:30, our group walked from our hotel for less than ten minutes to the old city.

Before crossing the bridge, we passed this red ship, similar to those used for trade in the 1600s by the Japanese.

Below was the entrance to the covered bridge. The bridge was built in the 17th century by the Japanese. The fee to cross it to the old area is $7. It helps maintain the old wooden houses in the town, Most of which were built in the 17th and 18th centuries.

When we walked down the road, we saw many colorful shops. The paper lanterns are a specialty of this region.

More beautiful cards sold on the street by a vendor

After walking down the road, Khanh led us into an ancient Chinese house. These two vendors were in front of it.

Below a railing inside the house, up about eight feet.

There has been heavy flooding in this town every decade or so. I'm five feet tall (152 cm). I'm standing next to the post showing the height of flooding in certain years.

Below is a post card picture of boats used when the town has flooded: When streets flood, items on the first floor are moved up to the second floor for safekeeping. Last year, there was a flood that was four feet deep. It took the army three days to clean up and repaint that part of town. A friend of mine had been on an OAT trip to this area a few years ago and was stuck in their hotel in Da Nang because of the heavy flooding and could not get to Hoi An!

There is a new hydro electric plant in the area, so they hope it can manage and prevent floods in the town in the future.

Near the back of the house.

Afterwards, we visited a Vietnamese-Chinese Buddhist temple. We learned of four sacred animals: A Unicorn for strength/power is in front of the temple. Dragons represent the king. Turtles represent longevity, and the phoenix is a symbol of nobility.

Below: a huge mural past the entrance to the temple depicting the hardships the Chinese endured to cross the sea to get to Hoi An.

These large conical incense candles are for sale for $25 in the temple and burn two weeks.

Incense burners hanging from the painted ceiling

Later we shopped and then walked along the water two blocks from the main street of the town and had dinner.

We saw other visitors being pushed in chairs. We much preferred to walk after traveling by plane and bus half of the day.

These boats would later go out at night with their lanterns lit.

This old town was peaceful and relaxing. We could have easily stayed another day and there were other places to go nearby that we had no time to visit.

And in town:

We then chose to pamper ourselves by getting a foot massage across from our hotel! Others from our group got the same and a body massage too.

Below, a close up of our fishy slippers!

The next morning, our group chose to skip the optional tour on a boat trip and to an organic vegetable village. Julie and I opted to walk in town and window shop a bit more.and also see where produce is sold.

Then we took a cab to visit the marble mountain Linh Ung pagoda. We paid a small amount to take a tiny elevator half way up. The view was lovely! We were among the few Caucasians there--a nice change.

An entrance to the pagoda below. The [pagoda was built form 2004 to 2010. It's represents a work of Vietnamese Buddhism in the 21st century.and is considered" a meeting place of heaven and earth’s sacred air and people’s heart." It ."is part of Da Nang Marble Mountains, a cluster of five marble and limestone hills" in that area

Inside

The walls behind the temple were covered with beautiful carvings.

And others were on the outside walls of the pagoda.

We walked farther along and found the entrance to a cave.

They definitely WERE slippery!

We walked up and in carefully, and saw this statue inside.

As well as old tree roots:

We also saw other stunning sculptures on our way down:

The Lady Buddha was guarded by these two stunning mosaic-covered animals.

Below is only part of this gigantic carving of demons and cherubs and humans..

The other six in our group took a taxi to the Golden Bridge in Da Nang, a 150-meter long bridge (500 ') with two giant stone hands designed to look like they support the bridge. It opened to visitors, recently, in June, 2018.

Then they went up an extremely long and spacious cable car (built in 2013) to the top of the hill and Sun World Ba Na Hills Resort--which was somewhat like an adult Disney Epcot. .. It is 4800 feet above sea level and a lot cooler than Da Nang, at sea level below.

Sun World is quite a mix. It has a French village, a spiritual area with pagodas, a massive beer garden, and a Fantasy Park, among other things.

After having another foot massage and picking up our laundry, we ate dinner together and felt refreshed.

The next morning, Monday, November 25, we left our hotel at 7:30 and headed north to Da Nang..

Da Nang has a population of 1.5 million people. The area is very popular with Russians, with special hotels and restaurants catering to them. The visionary mayor has helped get support from the national government to make part of the coast in town for foreign tourists, and as a result the city has wider streets, more clinics, schools, and employment for the residents.

The city sits in the middle of the S shape of Vietnam, so it was easy for the French to attack and capture in the 1800s and a strategic place for Americans to use as a base from 1964+.

There we stopped at a marble stone workshop. This was actually the display shop and not the workshop. The workshop had been moved out of this developing urban area because of noise and dust pollution.. The workers use big machines, masks, and protective helmets to cut the marble and make the statues.

The place was huge and held a lot of beautiful marble sculptures with variety of colors in the marble.

Three women modeling the dusty, hard work on marble

The marble came from a mountain ridge on the border with Laos and Cambodia and northwest China. This ridgeb is over 3,000 meters (9800') above sea level.

Beautiful furniture but not too comfortable

I loved the zebra status below.

Pretty flowers adorned the yard among the statues.

Many of these statues are bought by rich Chinese tourists, as well as others from Thailand and Russia. Vietnamese hotels also purchase them. ..

Even the shawl is of marble!!!

A lily in the midst of all these spectacular statues

Lord Ganesh

Our next stop was on the beach along the China Sea in Da Nang. As we got off the bus, we saw a jack fruit vendor on his bike.

We saw the Lady Buddha on the hill in the far shore. This statue was erected 6 years ago to protect the people from storms. Just as we were about to leave, the rain began.
The white mark on the far shore is the Lady Buddha statue.

Below is part of the Dragon Bridge entering Da Nang, the longest bridge in Vietnam. Click on the words Dragon Bridge in the previous line to see how spectacular it is! On Saturday night, "flames" from the dragon mouth spout for ten minutes.

Add caption

A view as we drove out of Da Nang:

Lots of sea food is exported from this region , but it is very expensive for locals, so Khanh only eatrs it about four times a year. Below you can see fishing nets raised earlier to empty the catch:

We drove North through a the almost 4-mile-long (6.3 km) Hai Van Tunnel to avoid driving the long way over a mountain pass to central Vietnam. It is the longest tunnel in SE Asia. It is 39 feet wide. Work began in 1998 and finished in 2005. It was a joint venture with a Japanese company and Vietnam.The tunnel reduces the distance between Da Nang and Huế by 20 km. (Speed limit is 30 mph). Motorbikes and larger trucks still have to go over the Hai Van mountain pass route . A new road and new tunnel is being built next to the first one to reduce congestion, so each separate tunnel will be one way.

Approaching the long tunnel below--The road on the right is the new one under construction.

Inside the tunnel below with one lane in each direction and large shoulders:

South of the tunnel, there are two seasons, hot and hotter. North of the tunnel on the other side of the mountains, there are four seasons, and the temperature was much more moderate.

We stopped along a lake to eat lunch. Four of us had special reusable Lunch Skin bags with which we packed lunch each morning.

By our rest stop, a bride and groom were taking pictures on a small raft by the shore.

A delicious nut etc. cracker that this young woman and her family make. I wish we had gotten more. She was selling it from a basket on the steps.

A friend from our tour from Vancouver braving the waters to try out the swing:

In mid-afternoon, we arrived in Hue, the capital of the Dang Trong Kingdom from 1738 to 1775 and of the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802--1945. Hue was the home of the last royal family. It now has a population of almost a half million, and the city was built by the French. .The local people eat spicy food with chili and lemon grass according to Khanh.

From Wikipedia, "A major attract is its vast, 19th-century  citadel, surrounded by a moat and thick stone walls. It encompasses the Imperial City, with palaces and shrines; the Forbidden Purple City, once the emperor's home; and a replica of the Royal Theater. The city was also the battleground for the Battle of Huế, which was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War."

We walked with Khanh through the Imperial City and the Forbidden purple city, great for our legs after sitting in the bus so long  In Hue, Khanh explained that religion enjoyed stronger support in Hue, with more monasteries than anywhere else in the country and also the home of the nation's most famous monks.

Entrance to Citadel

The Fortress for the king took 30 years to build and has ten gates.

The new king in 1802 moved the capital to Hue from Hanoi as the latter was located too close to China. The French attacked in 1888. They wanted teak, elephants, gold, silver, bronze, and the rice fields. The last king escaped to France in the middle of the 20th century and died there in 1997 at age 84.

The Noon Gate below was constructed in 1833 as the main gate to the Imperial City.
I watched a video about this huge city and the first picture below is a reconstruction of what it would have looked like after construction. Of the five gates, emperors could only enter the main central gate. Most others entered the two side gates.

Below is what it looks like today.

I was impressed how well these historical sites are being preserved.

The cutest little girl also visiting!

The emperor's royal areas, as reproduced in this movie:

The room where he would receive visitors and supplicants:

Hue is not an exciting city, but our hotel rooms were unique:

If you look carefully below, you will see that it isn't a dial phone like we grew up with a push button digital phone.

Many of us went on the optional cycle (pedal rickshaw) tour through a street market

Dusty air!

Bridge mainly for motorcycles and us. We were next to the railing

and then we passed a multi-faceted gym before heading off to dinner!

We went to a family run restaurant in the old quarter for an "Imperial style" multi-course meal. There was a beautiful garden and lily pad ponds outside the restaurant.

We met our hostess and she told us a bit about the history of the home. We saw the prayer niche and also some lovely artwork in the entry.

The shrine is in the niche to the right of the picture above. It is in its own room/alcove.

A beautiful, old vase with a credit card machine next to it!

Picture similar to the ones we saw in the art workshop, possibly with egg shells in it.

Khanh explained the difference between the Vietnamese and Chinese calendars. He said that they were similar but cat is substituted for the rabbit in the Vietnamese calendar. Khanh showed us a lovely calendar with both Vietnamese and Western dates.