US soldiers typically had a 2 week RNR in Da Nang before leaving Vietnam when their tour of duty was ending. Da Nang was one of the biggest Army bases and had two airports. Plus of course it had China Beach. This beach has been voted as one of the most beautiful in all of the world. I am not much of a beach person but it was very pretty. And HOT!
With the big hotels being built everywhere it looks more like Miami Beach now. Bet it didn’t during the war.
Kathy stuck her feet in the water. I didn’t. The water was warmer than the air temperature. And did I say the air was hot?
Our tour actually started at a museum of art from the 4th century. I probably should tell you something about the civilization living there at the time since our guide talked forever. But I got bored and walked away.
I even left the museum early to walk to a place that I could get a good photo of the Drago Bridge which is the symbol of Da Nang. That was much more interesting for me than hearing about each statue in the museum. Pretty cool bridge!
Then we went to the Linh Ung Pagoda. Yes, another Pagoda! But this one was better than most.
I loved the many bonsai trees all around the Pagoda. I have typically seen bonsai trees about a foot tall that sit in a planter on a table. These were all outside and perhaps 4 feet tall. But look at the detail. It is a real tree, just small. And I took a bunch of photos of different kinds.
But this Pagoda is best known for its very tall statue of the Lady Buddha. It stands looking out to the sea high up on a hill. Very imposing.
Then off to a place called the Marble Mountain. Actually it was just a factory where marble statues are carved. And they were beautiful and detailed. I suppose they thought rich Americans would buy some. I picked up a small marble dragon. It must have weighed 10 pounds. This amazing carving would probably weigh a ton. There were at least a thousand very large carvings (lots of Buddhas). no one on our bus bought any carving but took lots of photos.
Then as started to drive back to the port city of Chan May I took a photo of a wedding party.
Not everything in Vietnam looks great. There is a huge amount of poverty. Just we generally drove by at fairly fast speeds to get to the nice places.
And one more story about Vietnam and Da Nang from our young tour guide. He was about 30. Much too young to have been in the war. The American base in Da Nang was supplied from convoys that left the harbor in Chan May and went through the long tunnel to get to the city. early on the Viet Cong would hide in the trees on either side of the tunnel to ambush the trucks. So the Americans saturated the hillside on either side with agent orange to eliminate any hiding places in the plant growth. So all of these many years later there are no real trees growing but lots and lots of volunteer viney plants.
Johnson's Travel 