We’d heard a lot about Da Nang and the Marble Mountain. Also, wanted to check out the Lady Buddha, as we haven’t seen many female buddhas, let alone a lady. So we signed up for the tour.
Ellen woke up the morning of feeling quite ill from a cold. We considered skipping the whole thing, but she decided to tough it out.
As usual, we were the last to be picked up, so we had to sit in separate rows in the van. We headed off to Da Nang, with out tour guide, “Sherlock,” at the helm. He was pretty good, giving us a crash course in Vietnamese. Turns out “Bo” has over a dozen meanings/pronunciations depending on what type of accent is used over the “o.” According to Sherlock, the most important meaning was the one that means “tip.” Hmmm.
As we neared Da Nang, we passed many huge resorts, including Marriott, Hilton, Radisson, and other international brands. It reminded both of us of the “resort rows” in Mexico. When we hit Da Nang proper, the road separated to hotels from the beach. It is still late Winter/early Spring, but there were some people swimming.
The Lady Buddha
What they don’t tell you in the tour brochures, is that this was all built since 2004. The site was packed with, as it turns out, Koreans. 60% of the tourists to this area are Korean. Sherlock shared with us that Vietnam practices a form of Buddhism that came from India through China. Many of the tourists seemed very devout.
Sherlock explained some of the symbolism of the unicorns, one of the main Vietnamese symbols. It has a lot of work to do, with meanings of peace, mercy, good fortune, prestige, and loyalty. It’s also believed to represent intelligence and goodness.
We first visited the pagoda. This seems to be the word they use for what we called temples in the previous Asian countries we visited. There were four main buddhas –
Many people were rubbing the belly of the happy buddha. Apparently this brings happiness and luck. This explains why a random old man had come up to me, rubbed my belly, then given me a thumbs up the other day.
As we walked down to see the very tall lady Buddha, we were treated to a bunch of very cool bonsai trees:
Finally, the Lady Buddha –
Marble Works
Turns out the is a fair bit of marble in Marble Mountain. There are easily a dozen marble works nearby. We, of course, stopped to see how they sculpt it, and as it happens, to visit their gift shop. Some of the larger pieces sell for tens of thousands of dollars, but it is cheaper than most other places, so they have a substantial international business.
Marble Mountain and Am Phu Cave
Both Marble Mountain and Am Phu Cave are at the same spot. We have to give Da Nang credit. They have built tourist attractions from virtually nothing. We went into the cave, which was, by the way, used by the Viet Cong during the war to hide from their enemies. The religious stuff is all new.
The cave itself was pretty tacky.
It’s over 300 steps to get up to see anything at Marble Mountain. There is an elevator for the first half. We arrived 5 minutes after the elevator closed. We sat patiently as most of the rest of the group climbed up and down. Doesn’t sound like we missed much.
