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.

Memorable Meals: DaNang

DaNang is renowned for its large seafood emporiums along its famous long stretch of beach. After a wonderful afternoon of sightseeing we were treated to a large seafood feast! These seafood emporiums are hard to miss along the famous China Beach stretch, mainly because the restaurants are huge and occupy the beach side of the main road. So you can dine beachside or inside the large dining halls.

Upon arriving at one of the dozens of restaurants lining the boulevard we were given a table inside and our host immediately order a whole rack of Heinekens. Ok, it's gonna be one of those multi-course dinners. And it was difficult selecting what those courses would be with the extensive menu that had everything you could think of when you think "seafood".We knew we were in for a serious feast when the first things to arrive was metal buckets for inedible bits and pieces, lime with salt and pepper for dipping, and plates of greens.Slowly the food started to arrive at the table, starting with a cauldron of steamed clams in a herb bouillabaisse.The fresh clams were salty, meaty and juicy, couple that with the ginger, oniony and earthy herbed bouillabaisse. All we needed was a place to chuck those shells!

Soon a crab dish and grilled squid arrived at the table. Even though the squid was fresh, the chewy grilled consistency was a turn off and we ended up handing these over to the adults who like having food grow in their mouths with every bite.

Next came the utterly heavenly grilled oysters. We have no idea what this entree cost, but it was worth every penny. Succulent, creamy and tasting of the sea, yet smokey from the grilling, these were fantastic! Between all the side dishes, accompaniments and beer we were stuffed by the time the fifth and final dish arrived. We quickly claimed, as to not offend our hosts, that we were stuffed, but will try the red snapper steamed in chilis, garlic, onions and spicies.Somewhere between pulling the first piece of delicate white meat away from the bones in large chunks and flipping the fish over to get to the other side of the tender perfectly steamed fish our appetites came back and we easily finished our red snapper. Seriously delicious and a great end to our seafood feast.

While traveling through Vietnam a year ago we had planned to stop in DaNang for a few days, but decided to head to Hoi An instead because the beach didn't look very nice and the town of DaNang looked, well, boring. We knew one of the big draws to visiting DaNang was the seafood and especially the large seafood emporiums. Had we experienced this before we would have definitely made a pitstop for at least a seafood feast! Now we know!

Central Vietnam Specialty: Mi Quang

Mi Quang is a rare Vietnamese noodle dish that is actually dry, not soupy, but just as delicious as the other well known Vietnamese noodle dishes. The key flavor to Mi Quang is tumeric soaked noodles with a light delicate broth, but our host made a slightly tweaked version, where the chicken and the egg was simmered in tumeric and served with spicy pork sausage over simply boiled rice noodles. The flavor came from the light broth at the bottom of the bowl along with the chicken, egg and pork patty.Mi Quang is a great dish to eat on hot days, no steaming soup, but it's just as satisfying because of the layers of flavors to the dish. There are, of course, tons of delicious greens in the bowl and on the side if you wish to add more.

Chilis to spice it up, if you wish.

And a fish sauce dipping sauce to add more kick if it's not salty, spicy or tangy enough.The extra special kick to Mi Quang is the fried wontons.

What made this particular bowl of Mi Quang so good was the fact that everything was left mainly on the side and each person got to pick their own fixings and pile on the items they like and not eat anything they didn't like. Much like the way we eat at home, which made the meal all that more delicious.