VN6 - Marble Mountain and Da Nang

 VN6 - Marble Mountain and Da Nang

The rain which had been threatening the whole tripe finally arrived, and as we headed out this morning towards the car and the drizzle, 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 the day, but the day only got more exciting as it went on.

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 (CITY NAME), 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 stone ranging in size from jewlery to 9 foot virgin marys confirmed it. (AWK, rework or drop) The first tickets we bought were for the cave within MM, which we then learned were not tickets for the mountain itself, for that we needed 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 individually, 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 in the marble of MM itself. Then there was another (long) flight, and a trail slanting upward, which lead eventually to more steps!

Luckily, the drizzle hadn't intensified any, and except for making everything slick, the rain was actually pretty nice - it meant I didn't have to sweat, since nature was taking care of that for me. If only it had drizzled some extra O2 (DO SUBSCRIPT) as well...   Actually, I take that back, that would take temperatures down to -XXX degrees, but you get the idea. However, it finally leveled off and we passed through an arch into a fissure in the top of the mountain, a natural courtyard through the center. And in that courtyard there were... more stairs! However, it was a short set (the equivalent of 2 stories or so), and it went into a cave. Of course we had to do it.  The first cavern was a room-sized opening with a buddha inside, and as we waited for the squeeze to the next room to clear, I noticed some bats hanging out in the highest point. The squeeze (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 was quite beautiful and only let in the smallest hint of drizzle.  Looking around the room, I saw light trickling in the back as well. 

Are we supposed to go this way? Not sure, but I'm still gonna send it. 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 beyond that.  We hung out on top, standing on sketchy wet rocks, taking pictures, and just enjoying the summit, but eventually it was time to head back down.

We stopped by another overlook (note to the family ahead of us: If you are sketched out climbing wet rocks next to a 100' dropoff, maybe don't try to take your 4 year old up with you), swung by another cave (really more of a giant alcove, of course with an equally large buddha), and made our way past the far entrance to the courtyard to the central branching-point of the MM range. From here, we followed the signs to the next mountain! The main path lead to another alcove, which had a cave, off to the side. Once we rounded the corner in the cave I was stunned. The main cavern was the size of a cathedral. There was even a 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 do MM, and do it in this order.

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 ended up at a rubbish dump with an amazing view, and then circling back to the base of the "Highest Peak" trail.  Oh well, nothing to it but to do it. 

It sucked. Hundreds of thin, steep, and slippery steps. Lou left me behind, and I didn't fight it. Stairs like this remind me I need to run more, but even on my most motivated days I'm not doing stairs for fun, so I may just need to accept that things like this will always be painful. But worth it? Probably worth it. We arrived on the top of the mountain adjacent to our previous summit, which unlocked the view 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 driving around the neighborhood on a firetruck, I was up on the peak of my house so I could spot him. And then, of course, 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, and of course we hiked up to them (almost always up) every time. Eventually we ended up in a graveyard which spit us out on the back entrance to MM. After checking sattelite view, we walked down someone's alley, cut through a trail behind someone's pig sty, and made it to the main road and the second entrance to MM. 

Lou was convinced (SYNONYM) we should head back up to find her parents, but I eventually convinced her we shouldn't climb the entire mountain again, and it'd be easier if they came down the elevator to us instead. I even offered to buy a second set of tickets to the park so we could take the elevator. I was done climbing mountains. We walked 5 minutes down the road and back to the elevator, and when we arrived the drizzle switched 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.

Reunited at the base, we then went over to cave we'd bought tickets for. There were several flights of stairs to get in, but if this cave is so good you can sell standalone tickets just for it, it's gotta be worth it, right? We all headed in, and crossed a bridge into the mountain over a pond filled with koi fish and statues of grasping arms reaching upwards.  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 narrower but longer. It also had skylights with rivulets descending some of them, and it too had an enormous buddha gracing the end. What this cave had that the other didn't, however, was 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 sculpture of torture the whole way. Lou explained they were representations of the afterlife for specific sins. Theives, pimps, children who dishonor their parents... At the bottom, another buddha! You're supposed to reflect on your misdeeds and feel pennance at the bottom, but I was mostly reflecting on the fact I had to reclimb all those steps.

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 a bigger staircase! A super sketchy wet staircase, at times more rock-scrambly than stairs, it eventually dumped us out, calves burning, on a small balcony half way up MM. The view would be great if we hadn't just done MM itself, the comparison and the knowledge of what was next made it kinda meh. Next was 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 nothing abnormal at this point. Local specialty for the town we're in, of course. 

Our new hotel in Da Nang looked 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 floor, overlooking the river and the dragon bridge. I walked in, threw open the curtains, and it's excellent. Second only IMO to Huizho. My legs were done, everyone was tired, so it was naptime / reading time.

After an hour or so, 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 this is serious business. Regardless, it was nice to get out and see a new town. Selfie-stick acquired, 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 this is the thing to do in Da Nang proper and we're gonna do it. A nice short 2km walk later, and we arrived at the docks. I had assumed a sedate pleasure-cruise, but instead there were two-story sightseeing boats festooned with lights and blasting music. Right before we left, the music kicked up several decibals and a bellydancer danced her way around the boat. I'm still not sure why, but the crew of dancers made their way down the whole lineup. 

WE GOT AN EMPTY BOAT SAY THIS IN CONTEXT. Finally underway, everyone was just sitting in their seats. I had to show these people how to boat. So I wandered around the boat, prompting others to do the same, and then descended the stairs and headed out 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. All of the boats from the docks began lining up, all pointed towards the dragon, and all the soundsystems ramped up. 

The dragon bridge has a special talent. Every evening on the weekends, 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, or something.  Not quite as large as I'd expected given the size of the dragon, but flamethrowers are a passion of mine LINK VIDEO, 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 and passed with about a meter clearance, both of us under full steam. It was impressive. 

Out of curiousity, I started counting the boats. I got to ten, then walked to the stern where I counted another 10 behind us. The ships all docked, stacked two deep, and we disembarked while belly-dancer waved us goodbye and pointed us to the exit gate.

Another 2k back to the hotel, interrupted this time by a stop for icecream! Cacao was the best, durian the worst, by far. By so far.

I intended to write this at the rooftop bar, but they were shutting down. Lou invited me to go walk to the nightmarket, and I shut her down. (MAKE thIS FLOW BETTER). 20k steps / 9 miles is enough for a day, especially when it feels like half of them were stairs. So instead I'm typing in my bed, next to an old vietnamese dude watching tiktoks in his bed... at full volume.