The Travel Sage
The Best Da Nang Shore Excursion
Out of all the shore excursions we took on our 28-night Holland America cruise, the consensus of our group (me, Mark and our nephew, Will) is that our tour in Da Nang was the best! We booked our guide, Hoa, through Tours by Locals. The first stop on our 12 hour tour was to see “Lady Buddha“. The 67 meter tall statue is in a beautiful setting in the complex of the Linh Ung Pagoda which offers magnificent views of Da Nang.
In the photo below, our guide explains to us that this mythical creature is called a “unicorn” because there is no actual word for it in English.
Hoa also pointed out to us that all of the statutes of dragons include a ball. This is due to the legend that every 100 years, a koi fish leaps over heaven’s gate and bites a ball off of a dragon which causes the fish to turn into a dragon. We all pointed out dragon balls for the rest of our trip through Asia! Can you spot the dragon balls below?
Next, as we drove through Da Nang toward our second destination, I asked if we could stop and take a photo of the harbor and Hoa kindly obliged. The round boats on the sand are dinghies that the fisherman use to get to and from their boats anchored in the harbor. Most of these dinghies are made out of bamboo.
We then headed south out of Da Nang to the Marble Mountains which is a cluster of five marble and limestone hills. Apparently they were once much larger in size before much of the marble was extracted. It’s my understanding that in order to preserve what remains as a tourist attraction, marble is no longer allowed to be taken from here. Before exploring the largest of the hills, we were taken to a place where marble was supposedly being carved. But what we saw appeared to be mostly just a huge store. We were told that we were going to be shown how the marble was carved, but that just entailed a woman walking us behind the stores and showing us a man crouching in front of a large piece of marble and presumably carving it by hand. That was a bit disappointing. After that we were ushered into the store. The prices were quite high so Mark and I didn’t buy anything, but it was nice to admire some of the larger marble pieces, like the bench in the next photo.
Next we explored Thuy Son Mountain, the largest of the five hills that make up the Marble Mountains. I was surprised how much there was to see there.
We were a good portion of the way up the mountain as we were seeing these sites but our guide gave us the option of “conquering the mountain”. By this he meant climb to the top. Out of the three of us, only Will conquered it!
I felt that the best part of visiting Thuy Son Mountain, was going inside the caves. There was a large network of caves and many of the rooms had natural openings in the cave ceilings that let in light. Over several hundred years, shrines and temples were built in the caves. I believe the structure in the first photo below is one of the oldest.
Below is a photo of Mark and Will having a friendly game of chess with the locals.
This buddha statue was carved into the marble in a location where the sun would hit it during a particular time of day and time of year. We were there at almost the right time as the sunlight was hitting the nearby cave wall.
After the mountain was conquered and the caves were explored, we headed out. But first I had to make a pit stop. Forgive the bathroom photo but I just had to share the fact that they made me take my shoes off to use the toilet… ewww! And while I’m talking about the bathroom, I’ll continue with a little more crudeness. Our guide, Hoa, referred to the bathroom as the “happy room”. When we asked why he said it was because sometimes you fart when you are in there and that makes you happy. At this point we really started to have fun with him!
Our next destination was the Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary which is an area of several Hindu temples that were built between the 4th and 13th centuries. This massive Unesco site consists of 350 acres plus a natural buffer area of an additional 2,273 acres. The site is so large that we had to be shuttled from the parking lot in an electric vehicle and then walked quite far along a paved path. It was a real treat coming here and getting away from the crowds. The grounds was very pretty and included mountains in the distance, streams, and lots of ponds with water lilies which were just starting to bloom.
We encountered several lizards like this one. When I first approached him he curved his very long tail all the way over his head.
But the highlight of the Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary was the ancient brick temples.
Below is a photo of our guide discussing the many phallic symbols we saw like the one in the background.
Tragically, quite a bit of damage was done on this site by bombs during the Vietnam War. The first photo below is of a bomb site where the remainder of the temple is being stabilized. You can see bomb craters in the foreground. The second photo shows bomb casings that were recovered from the area. and a wall that was bombed and partially reconstructed.
Before leaving Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary, we watched a traditional Hindu dance performance.
Our last destination for the day was the ancient town of Hội An. This well preserved town was a trading hub from the 15th to the 19th century. We arrived here at around 4pm after already having been on our tour for nearly 8 hours without a break. So, the first order of business was lunch in a local restaurant, and the meal that Hoa had arranged for us did not disappoint! We enjoyed all of the courses but the three of us agreed that our favorite was the Hoi An Crispy Pancakes, which our waitress kindly assembled for us. I’m not sure exactly what it was but it appeared to be some sort of crispy egg patty with baby shrimp in it. Our waitress put shredded vegetables on each patty and then rolled it in edible rice paper. It came with a yummy peanut sauce for dipping. Mark has never been a big fan of Vietnamese food, but after this meal he declared he might be changing his mind about it.
After the lunch break, our tour continued with a stop at one of the ancient homes that was open for touring. The first photo below is of the interior of the home with its beautiful original woodwork made from a type of iron wood. We learned that even though the town floods somewhat regularly, the dense iron wood does not get damaged. The second photo below shows the height of the water level during various floods, and the third photo is of pictures from previous floods in the town.
After leaving the house we continued our tour walking through the town. There were many shops and artisans. The first photo below shows a man carving sculptures out of bamboo roots. We have bamboo in our yard, so I might give it a try sometime. 😉
We arrived at our next destination in Hoi An which was a 300 year old assembly hall built by the Chinese where businessmen met to trade.
At this point in the day the sun was setting and the boat operators were getting ready to take the tourists out on the river. Hoi An is known for its colorful lanterns that make the town truly special, so taking a ride on the river at night is a popular way to appreciate all of the lights. In fact, as it started to get dark the streets became more and more crowded.
But we still had one more stop to make on our tour – a silk weaving demonstration. We were shown all of the stages in the process from the worms, to the cocoons, to creating the threads and weaving.
Of course, after the demonstration there was the requisite shopping. There was a shop with clothing and other textiles, but I focused on a showroom where finely detailed needlepoint artwork was hung. The larger pieces (16X20 inch or more) were so detailed they looked like paintings. But we opted to purchase a small one.
By the time we left the textile shop it was completely dark. The agreement we had with the tour operator was for them to leave us in Hoi An so we could experience it at night and then we’d take a cab back to our ship in Da Nang. But I never imagined that our tour that started at 8:30am wouldn’t finish until after 7pm! Since we were exhausted, we asked Hoa if we could just snap a few photos of the lights and then have them take us back to the ship. Hoa and our driver were kind enough to agree. So that ended our whirlwind tour of the Da Nang, Vietnam area. This excursion and the one we took two days later in Ha Long Bay were my two favorite stops on the entire 4 week cruise!
FYI, if you are traveling to other parts of Vietnam, Hoa recommends checking out Culture Pham Travel company for some of the best Vietnam tours.