Marble Mountain

Monday, we hot-tailed it to Marble mountain on the moped. 19k north of where we are, just below Danang. One of the nice things about riding about on your own moped is that it's hassle-free, no one selling you anything, or so we thought. Whilst riding along (very carefully Tom) a girl on another moped rode along side us and started chatting. Basically she ended up leading us straight to the mountain, however we did have to look at her marble shop (theres always a catch) and have a bit of lunch at her shop as well. To be honest after walking round the mountain for 3 hours we were hungry and it was a tasty lunch so everyone was happy, she even kept an eye on our moped.
The area around Danang is a flat plain next to the sea and then you come across 5 massive, well, mountains really. Its a bit like Halong bay, but on land and only 5 big rocks, not 3000. You can walk about one of these mountains and it is indeed made out of marble. The area is famous for its marble sculptures which are exported round the world and there are dozens of shops all round the foot of the mountain filled with marble lions, horses, buddhas and other assorted creatures. Apparently they get all their marble from China now, otherwise there would be no marble mountains left for the tourists to visit.
The main mountain then: We climbed up some steep (guess what...marble) stairs up into and onto the mountain. Let me explain at this point that its absolutely riddled with caves and over the years monks (I presume) have carved out various alters and buddha type statues and these are one of the main reasons for visiting. At the top of the stairs is..... a temple :) A nice, er, concrete statue of a white buddha and a very attractive 7 tiered pagoda with some gorgeous veiws of the surrounding area. Just behind the temple was the entrance to one of the caves and followed by an old lady trying to sell us incense, we ventured in. There were some holes in the ceiling of the cave allowing enough light in to see and there was a small temple type building inside. On one side of the temple was a small buddha statue and on the other side another passage way. Through the passage we came into a much bigger cave which had a massive buddha carved out of the rock, a truly impressive sight. We came out of the cave and followed the path around through the mountain. It was a beautiful day and we were both working on our new lobster appearances. We went into another much smaller cave and passed a buddha statue and then following some local kids, we had to squirm our way through a narrow opening and back out onto the mountain path that led us straight to the top of said mountain, from where we got an awesome view of the beach and the other mountainous rocks. Sam was getting a bit hot and bothered in the baking heat in the open at the top :), so we headed down through the trees on a different path which led us to a clearing and yup, another temple. We stopped for a rest and Sam had her now daily coconut and on we went. The next cave was the best by a mile! We both felt like Indiana Jones! Walking down into the cave, under a stone archway, down some stairs and round the corner we were greeted by a massive cavern with beams of light arrowing down from holes in the ceiling. There was the usual buddha cut into the rock and some small alters, and also a small temple which had the light cast directly on it. It looked amazing, so....Temple of Doom :) Luckily there weren't any nazis about as I'd left my whip back at the hotel. It's hard to describe how amazing this cave was, but hopefully you'll get the idea from the pics. After the cave we wondered about the last bit of the mountain enjoying (at last) the fantastic weather and after having lunch, zoomed back down the coast to Hoi An. By the way, price wise, the moped cost $4 a day and a litre of petrol was about 40p (I presume that's cheap) and $4 dollars, about 2 pound 50. We are dealing in 3 currencies at the moment, most things are in Vietnamese Dong, but then some things are in Dollars, all hotel prices are say $10 for a room, but we always use Dong :) and of course then we're translating everything into pounds, it gets a bit confusing at times. Luckily I have my trusty calculator that I bought in Japan for 200 Yen :)
The next day and our final day in Hoi An was spent lounging on the beach and sorting out Sams clothes that she'd had made. Hoi An has been the turning point for both of us on our Vietnamese adventure, at some points I was seriously wondering why people would come to this country, but over the last week, me and Sammy have seen it in a different light. The sun has helped alot, blank grey skys for 2 weeks casts a dirty, grubby glow on things and moving south, everything has improved. You get alot less hassle for some reason and people are definitely more friendly. We are now in Nha Trang which is a beach resort basically, it's like being on holiday in Turkey or somewhere like that, but miles cheaper :) Long white sandy beaches, cheap diving and cheap beer, its wicked!! The journey down from Hoi An to Nha Trang really changed things for me. 13 hours on a bus, but the scenery all the way down was unbelievable. This is without doubt, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to! The countryside is so green, I've never seen anywhere as colourful and fertile as Vietnam. The rice paddy fields stretch for miles with mountains always in the background, everywhere else is covered in trees, mountains included. Also, the sheer amount of massive rivers that you pass, now all of them green or blue adds to the whole picture, its staggeringly beautiful and I'm so pleased we're here :)