VN6 - Marble Mountain and Da Nang

The rain which had been imminent for days finally arrived, and as we headed out into the drizzle this morning Lou asked for my room key. I hadn't realized "We're leaving at 9" meant leaving the hotel.... forever. After learning that fact, I then learned I could repack my bags in under 60 seconds! Exciting start to an exciting day.

The main event for the day was Marble Mountain... I had ascertained that it was not a mountain full of marbles, but nothing beyond that. However, as we drove into some city [turns out it we were back in Da Nang], I saw some stunning upthrusts of rocks dominating the city skyline, turns out the biggest conglomeration is Magic Marble Mountain! If there was any doubt, the dozens of shops selling marble ranging from jewelry to life-size dragons confirmed it. The first tickets we bought were for the cave within Marble Mountain, which we then learned were not tickets for the mountain itself, which required a different ticket. Definitely confusing, but at $1 a pop hard to be upset over.  Mom and Stepdad took the elevator to the top, and Lou and I set off on the hiking trail. Which was stairs. And they were sizable, both in quantity and quality, each step far taller than a step should be.  We quickly arrived at the what I thought was the top, and it turned out to be a landing, with a shrine, pagodas and sculptures made of the marble of MM itself. Next came another long flight of stairs, at the top of which we found a trail slanting upward... to more stairs!

Luckily, the drizzle hadn't intensified any, and except for making everything slick, the rain was actually pretty nice - nature taking care of my evaporative cooling so I didn't have to sweat. If only nature would throw in some extra oxygen.... Anyways, the trail finally leveled off and we passed through an arch constructed in a cleft of rocks, entering a natural courtyard in the center of the mountain. And in that courtyard there were... more stairs! However, it was a short set (only the equivalent of 2 stories or so), leading into a cave. Of course we had to do it.  The first cavern was a room-sized opening with a buddha (and a few bats) inside, where we joined a queue for the squeeze to the next chamber. This tight passage (which we had to climb up, of course) lead to a larger room which stretched 60' overhead to break through the top of the mountain, forming a natural skylight that only let in a misting of drizzle. As we admired the room, I spotted a waver of light slipping in from a crack in the back.

There's no signs indicating that we should head this way, but that's only encouragement in my book. Some slightly technical climbing over slick marble later, I emerged onto the topside and found a path! I shouted down that it was a real thing, and soon Lou (and another family) all emerged to join me. This path was short, almost flat, and lead to the peak of the mountain. We were flanked by the other mountains in the MM family, had the city spread out beneath us, and the ocean pounding the shore beyond that.  We hung out on top, standing on sketchy wet rocks, taking pictures (of course), and just enjoying the summit, but eventually it was time to head back down.

We stopped by another overlook (where we watched parents that shouldn't have been climbing on wet rocks struggle to pass a small child up to a 100' drop....), swung by another cave (really more of a giant alcove, of course with an equally immense buddha), and made our way past the far entrance of the courtyard to the central branching-point of the MM family. From here, we followed the signs to the next mountain! The main path lead to another alcove, which contained an entrance to another cave. Once we rounded the corner in the cave I was stunned. The main cavern was the size of a cathedral. There was even a full-sized shrine built inside of it, which only took up a single corner of the cavern. Truly impressive and awe-inspiring. And of course some stairs, but who cares when it's in the biggest cave I've ever seen in my life.  If you ever find yourself in Da Nang, definitely check out MM, and try to hit the caves smallest-biggest like this.

Exiting the cave, we only saw 2 trails headed up, one which said "Highest peak" (didn't we do that?), and one which was unlabeled, heading up the second mountain. So we took that trail! It headed out past the restrooms and got narrower and less travelled, until we were ducking under very wet bushes and relatively sure this wasn't part of the tour. Turns out, we were right. We passed a rubbish dump with an amazing view before the trail circled back to the base of the "Highest Peak" trail.  Oh well, nothing to it but to do it. 

Steep, wet, offsize, brutal.

It sucked. Hundreds of thin, steep, and slippery steps. Lou (like usual) ran on ahead, and I didn't fight it. I was painfully reminded that I need to run more, but luckily the hypoxia has mostly blocked the climb out of my memory. Was it worth it? Probably. We arrived on the top of the mountain adjacent to our previous summit, which unlocked the slice of the panorama that had previously been blocked. Plus, I have a deep-seated compulsion to get to the tops of things. If there's a mountain, I want to summit. If there's a 'bando, I want to roof it. A week ago when Santa was riding around my neighborhood on a firetruck, I was up on the peak of my house looking for him. Anyways, then we had to go down all those steps.  If there's another sign that says "Higherest peak", I'll let Lou run that trail solo.

Having taken all the "up" trails, that only left the down trail. We wound our way down the mountain, taking the long route wherever possible. This lead us past a number of shrines, look-out points, and pagodas - all of which we hiked up to (and it was always up to). Eventually we ended up in a graveyard which spit us somewhere behind MM. After a quick check of satellite view on google maps, we walked down someone's alley, cut through a trail behind someone's pig sty, and made it to the second entrance to MM. 

Lou was adamant that we should head back up to find her parents, but I advocated against climbing the entire mountain again, going so far as to offer to buy a second set of tickets so we could take the elevator. Anything that meant I didn't have to climb the mountain a third time. She eventually acquiesced after talking to a ticket-checker, and we walked 5 minutes down the road to the elevator, and as we arrived the drizzle escalated to a downpour. We were just in time to hide under the awnings and wait for her parents to descend. I checked my phone and was flabbergasted to find that we'd only done 3 miles - it felt like at least twice that. [Looking it up, we climbed (and then descended) 3000' in those three miles.]

Reunited at the base, we then went over to the first cave we'd accidentally bought tickets for. There were several flights of stairs to get in, but if this cave is so good they can sell standalone tickets for it... it's gotta be good, right? We all headed up, climbing the stairs and crossing a bridge into the mountain -  over a pond filled with koi fish swimming between grasping arms stretched towards us.  Another 100 feet in, and this cave is even bigger than the last! It felt slightly less grand, but I think that's because it was traded width for length. Like the last megacave, there were skylights (with rivulets), and it too had an enormous buddha gracing the end. Unlike the last cave, this one had side passages. The first went down. Oh well, what are we gonna do, not see what's down there? Lou's parents (smartly) decided to wait up top, and we went down so many more stairs, passing sculptures of torture the whole way. Lou explained they were representations of the afterlife for specific sins. Thieves, pimps, children who dishonor their parents... a unique punishment awaits us all. At the bottom, another buddha! You're supposed to reflect on your misdeeds and feel contrition at the bottom, but I was mostly reflecting on the fact that I had to reclimb all those steps.

More sketchy step!

Back in the main chamber, the second side-passage went up! What's another flight or two among friends? But like every other staircase in this mountain, it lead to another (bigger) staircase! A super sketchy, dripping wet staircase, bordering on scrambling and requiring all four limbs for portions,  it eventually dumped us out, calves burning, on a small balcony half way up MM. The view would be impressive if we hadn't just done MM itself,  but the comparison and the anticipation of the descent made it kinda meh. So we buckled down and tackled all those stairs in reverse, squeezing past the people headed up.

But we did it! And with Magic Mountain completed and thoroughly damp clothes, we went to lunch. Some noodles with beef and peanuts, good but pretty typical at this point. Local specialty for the town we're in, of course. 

Our new hotel in Da Nang is surprisingly fancy. We checked in, and as always in these case I hoped for the largest room-number possible.... and got it. We had rooms on the 17th (and highest) floor, overlooking the river and the dragon bridge. I walked in, threw open the curtains, and it's excellent, very similar to Huizho.  My legs were done, everyone was tired, so it was naptime / reading time.

After an hour or so of recovery, I went out wandering with Lou to "see what was in the area". Apparently what was in the area was searching for a selfie stick... it sounds like a joke, but instagram addiction is a full-time job. Regardless, it was nice to get out and see a new town. Selfie-stick acquired (and tested), we headed back to the hotel and off to dinner.

Dinner was equally typical, and it was on our way to the boat! Tonight we're taking the boat to see the dragon... yes, the dragon we can see from our hotel-room, but dragon-boats are the thing to do in Da Nang, and we're gonna do it. A short (2km) walk later, and we arrived at the docks. I had assumed a sedate pleasure-cruise, but instead there were a fleet of two-story sightseeing boats festooned with lights and blasting music. Right before we left, the music kicked up to near-painful decibels and a bellydancer shimmied her way up and down the aisles. I'm still not sure why.

Finally underway, everyone was just sitting in their seats.... It was up to me to show these people how to boat! So I wandered around the ship, ultimately descending the stairs to the bow, where I was soon joined by others. And as we pulled up to the dragon bridge, joined by half the tourists on the ship. The dozen+ ships from the docks began lining up, all pointed towards the dragon, and all the sound systems ramped up expectantly.

NGL I just stole this pic off the internet. 

The dragon bridge has a special talent. Every evening each weekend, at exactly 9pm, it breathes fire. 9pm struck, and a huge jet of fire erupted from the dragon's mouth. We're talking 40' of diesel flamethrower.  Not quite as large as I'd expected given the size of the dragon, but flamethrowers are a passion of mine, so I'm not complaining. After several minutes of spurting flames, the dragon switched to smoke (or water?), and the boats started booking it back up the river, in what essentially became a race. The ship beside us cut our stern while both under full steam, coming within a meter of a collision - which may have impressed me more than the dragon itself.

Out of curiosity, I started counting the boats. I got to ten, then walked to the stern where I counted another ten behind us. The ships docked, stacking themselves two-deep alongside the pier, and we disembarked while our belly-dancer waved us goodbye and pointed us to the exit gate.

Another 2km back to the hotel, broken up this time by a stop for icecream! Cacao was the best flavor and durian the worst by far. By so far.

Back at the hotel, Lou invited me to go walk to the night market, but 20k steps / 9+ miles is enough for a day, especially when it half of them were stairs. So instead I'm typing in our room, across from an old Vietnamese dude who is falling asleep while watching tiktok... at full volume.  Luckily I think I'm tired enough even that won't keep me up.