A Farewell to Remember

We're back in DaNang to catch our late night flight back to Saigon. We spent most of the day in Hoi An eating the last bites of the local specialities before heading back to DaNang to gather our large suitcases and repack.

After a quick meal with everyone, some of us went upstairs to rest up before our late night flight, especially because a new bottle of cognac was opened and singing the national anthem started. Soon the singing stopped and the beers and glasses of cognac were put away. But where did everyone go? Apparently to an exclusive airport known as PNT International.

Our DaNang host had invited a friend, a professor at the local university, who apparently loves airports, invited us over to see his house. And in particular a room in his house dedicated to all things airport.

Including a mini airport named after himself, complete with model concourse, runways, lights and miniature airplanes.

Not only were there model airplanes on the miniature airport, but a whole wall display with matching pictures of the actual airplanes.

And EVERY airline was represented.

He also maintained a whole wall display of the tiny liquor bottles you get on airplanes.

Our favorite bottles were the little international liquors.

Seriously this man loves airports.

Meeting such great people in DaNang made our time there so memorable.

Oh No We Didn't!

For those of you who have never participated in karaoke, gather all your friends, rent a private karaoke room, get a couple of drink in ya and release your inner rock star STAT! Our host had a karaoke room on almost every floor of their house, so it was bound to happen.

Was it fun? Hells Yeah!

We all got into it and yes, there was some dancing!

Daytripping: Marble Mountains

Just a short scooter ride through town, over the bridge and then along the flat road to the coast lies the Marble Mountains. The impressive 5 marble and limeston hill peaks, that resembles a dragon's claw, as if its claw was turned up and holding a stone, jetting out of nowhere in the sand next to the ocean. It's hard to miss. As we approached the mountains we could see temples and large white buddhas carved into the hillside.Thankfully it was a cloudy, almost a cold afternoon, otherwise the trek up the stairs into the cave temples would have been exhausting.We didn't grab a map at the entrance and the large map at the base didn't describe whether the temples were cave temples or traditional temples. So we just wandered around and tried to head for the cave temples before it got dark.The cave temple was dimly lit, but once down the dark steps and inside the cave, an oculus lit up the interior showcasing smaller temple buildings and dieties alters carved right out of the marble hillside.We soon found the cave temples too dark to go into and decided to stick to the outside temples and sights.We made it to the viewing area that overlooked the valley and the ocean below, which we could see through the marble archways - pretty incredible.By the time we reached the viewing platform we were pretty thirsty. And being Vietnam, you simply think of something and bam! It's right in front of you before you know it!

We did notice that the Marble Mountains had much fewer beggers and vendors milling around the site, unlike the large white buddha in Nha Trang or the somber temples in Hue. Maybe it was the time of day or it being Tet New Years, we still managed to find a delicious Wonder Farm gourd drink that tasted EXACTLY like carmel popcorn. Seriously - Carmel Popcorn.We wandered around finding temples and interesting archeways and buildings tucked into the mountains.The buildings at the Marble Mountains were extremely ornate and so peaceful and interesting we could have wandered around there all day.Being the Marble Mountains there were also wonderful stone marble features.Our favorites were the white marble buddhas. So much so that we bought a few marble statues for ourselves from the very aggressive vendors at the entrance. We wish we could have gotten this one.The Marble Mountains were definitely something we had wanted to visit many times before and it was as beautiful as we had imagined.