So long Hue and hello HoiAn. Peter was our driver today and what a sweet young man he turned out to be. He is 27 and lives with his grandparents as his mom passed away and his father remarried and has two more sons. Peter has been driving for 7 years and he makes the round trip to HoiAn about 20 times/month. The other 10 days he has trips that are more local around Hue and occasionally further afield but not to HoiAn. In fact, he told us about one trip that he had where his customers wanted him to drive them through Laos and into Thailand. Vietnamese cars are only allowed to cross one border so they had to leave their Vietnamese car in Laos, pick up another one and continue their journey into Thailand. Believe it or not...they didn’t go far into Thailand....just far enough to hit a store where they could buy rice cookers, electric fans, and shampoo! Go figure...they travelled through three countries to do that! LOL! Must be some pretty good shampoo! Peter said they had friends to visit in Laos too so the shopping was just an added bonus I suppose. :-). He added that he loves his job as he gets to travel for free. When we asked him how often he gets a day off...he replied that whenever he wants one he just has to tell his company. When asked how often he asks for one he said maybe just one per month. When asked what he does on his day off he replied, “spend time with my grandparents”. Told you he was a nice young man! For fun, he sometimes goes out for coffee with his friends if he is working in town and finished early enough. After coffee they like to go to karaoke too. In fact, I think it is safe to say that Peter loves music. He had downloaded music for the car and interestingly....he had different tempos for different parts of the drive. While we were driving through nature it was all instrumental and the styles ranged from baroque to golden oldies and country. When in the city he switched to a more up tempo beat that also had vocals and that was modern. Nothing too loud or wild though as he said that isn’t good for when you’re driving. You have to be calm and patient when you’re driving and that kind of music isn’t conducive to staying calm. LOL! Yep...a really nice young man. :-)
The road out of Hue is long and straight. We had seen a long straight road that went all the way to the horizon from atop the SkyView Bar and we were certain this had to be it. Eventually we made our way to a little town called Lang Co where we stopped at the lagoon long enough to enjoy the views of a massive oyster farm where there were fishermen and oyster farmers with long boats and others with little round basket boats hard at work. We also stopped long enough to enjoy a cold drink and visit the “happy room” where the toilet was perched atop a platform in the bathroom. Being on the platform made it extremely challenging as when you stood up from the toilet you’d hit your head on the ceiling unless you stayed bent over or stepped down which was also hard to do with your pants down around your knees! Jeez...the stuff we’re learning out on the road! LOL. Just around a couple of corners from the stop at this lagoon we came upon the LangCo Beach which was the first open ocean we’ve seen since our arrival in Vietnam. Certainly we were in the ocean in Halong Bay but there are so many limestone pillars (and no rolling waves) that it seems like it isn’t the ocean at all. This beach at LangCo is definitely the open ocean....big wild waves crashing in on the sandy shore!
A short distance further (the whole trip today was probably only about 200 km but as you have to drive so slowly it takes pretty much a whole day) we began our ascent up HaiVan Pass. This road was only built 40 years ago and until 15 years ago it was just a single lane. It is considered to be perhaps the most beautiful drive in all of Vietnam because of the vantage you have looking out over the ocean. There were hairpin turns as we climbed to the summit where there were ruins from the wars that have been fought in this region. This summit would have been a very strategic location during times of battle as they could see both land and sea in all directions. This whole area around Hue, HaiVan Pass, Danang, and HoiAn is right in the middle of what was called the DMZ during the war with America.
As seems to be customary wherever people stop there was a “restaurant” and market and so there was one at the summit. I was pleased with my purchase of a jade roller (for muscles) for 80,000 dong (about $5) until Darlene told me that another of the vendors offered the same thing to her for 50,000 ($3)! Oh well, it always comes back to deciding how much you’re prepared to pay for anything and then being happy with that deal no matter what comes later. While at the summit Lynda almost got sucked in to taking a puppy with her! They were cute but.....no way could she talk me into having a dog at my house! And....I’m guessing that there might be a few international borders that might have a thing or two to say about hauling a puppy across them too! LOL
The descent down HaiVan Pass seemed to go much more quickly than the climb up. Perhaps that is in part because every time we got behind a big truck or bus on the way up we had to slow to about 5 MPH until we got to a place we could pass. Going down, everyone is able to go much more quickly.
Next stop after HaiVan was Marble Mountain in Danang. Danang is a huge city and the only thing we were really interested in seeing there were some of the beaches (which we drove along for most of the way into the city), and Marble Mountain. The beaches would be lovely but the weather is not beach weather in that it is windy and the waves were wild! There was no one out on any beaches that we could see. Another interesting fact about Danang is that the airport is right in the middle of the city! That must be a nightmare for pilots and air traffic staff! I guess the airport was there first and then the city just continued to build up around it.
Marble Mountain was an interesting stop. There are in fact 5 mountains and each one is named for an element. There is one for earth, another for fire, one for wood, one for air, and the one we went up is for water. We ascended it via the glass elevator! Now that is the way to climb a mountain! :-). Funny story here.....the four of us purchased our tickets to go up the mountain and to use the elevator (two tickets). We waited our turn and got into the elevator. There were 7 of us in the elevator in total. At the top the elevator doors opened and four people got off....then bang the doors shut on the three of us who were still in there! Gail, Lynda and I were still in the elevator! We pushed the open door button to try to get out...nothing! Lynda pounded on the doors but nothing! (We found out later that Darlene who was standing right outside the doors couldn’t hear anything at all). After what seemed like several minutes but that was likely just one minute the elevator began to descend back to the base of the mountain. It was soooo hot inside there! There was no air movement and we’d been yelling and pounding on the door. By the time the doors opened at the bottom I thought we’d have to tie Gail down to keep her in there so we could go back up. But she was a trooper and once the man at the bottom got over the shock of finding us still in there....he just told us to push the button to go right back up which we did (before Gail could plan her escape). The area at the top of the elevator is beautiful and breezy and much cooler than the bottom. We enjoyed our time up there and used the opportunity to have some quiet time among the pagodas and temples. It really was beautiful. Getting back down the elevator was funny too. We had been under the impression that the elevator ticket was a two way ticket but no.....it was for up only! So we had to buy another one at the top to get back down! The tickets are just 15,000 dong (about $1) but still....really.....what if we didn’t have any more money? Would we have to die up there?
After Marble Mountain (thusly named due to the fact that they’re made of marble) we stopped in at a factory to see some of the marble stuff they make for sale. OMG! What a lot of amazing stuff. Can’t say that I’d like to have much of it in my house but there were a couple of pieces that I could imagine seeing in my yard! Decided against spending any money here though....still too much travelling to do and so we gotta save our pennies!
From there it was a short drive into the city of HoiAn where Peter located the Acacia Heritage Hotel easily as he’s been here to drop guests many times before. The hotel is beautiful but once again...there was some confusion about us wanting twin beds in the rooms! Jeez...and I’d even sent them a message yesterday to clarify! In the end we got what we wanted but our balcony doesn’t look over the pool....it looks out over the town side instead. It’s okay though as the pool area might get a bit noisy I think. I’m pretty sure we’re going to be noisy when we’re using it tomorrow! LOL. We get complimentary buffet breakfast at this place too and having a pool will be nice as we’re here for 5 nights. The cost of this hotel was so reasonable ...We figured it out to be about $16-$17/person/night and when you consider that breakfast is included....that takes it down to about $10/person/night! :-)
After a little wander around the immediate area and a bite to eat we were all ready to call it a night so a game of cards was about all we had in us. Tomorrow will be a new day. Till then....
Darlorlyngai
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