Precious Memories: Port of Da Nang, Vietnam

My Son and Hoi An, Vietnam -- December 2, 2016

It was rough sea all night long but since we were in bed it really did not affect us that much.

This morning our ship was scheduled to dock in port at 7:00am but when I looked out the window at around 6:30, when I could see the port with buses and people waiting already, the ship was turning around which I thought she was backing up into port. As I was watching, it became very strange because the ship was actually leaving port and sailed toward the open sea in a speedy manner. I immediately got up and went outside to see what was going on. Several crew members were starting to put away the tables and things from the gangway area. A crew member told me that they had just canceled this port. Later on at around 7:50, the captain made an announcement that because of bad weather and the berth assigned was too short for the ship to dock, making it dangerous if strong wind knocking the part of the ship that is sticking out with no protection. After discussing with port authority and the local pilot he decided to skip the port and leave. While we were sailing away from Da Nang, the port authority called and said the ship at the other berth would be leaving soon and we could have that berth instead. They finally decided that we would turn around and dock at 10:00am and stay in port till 8:00pm for the day. It would really be a big disappointment if we did not get to see Hoi An, which I so looked forward to visit. Now, all is good!

Approaching Da Nang early in the morning.

Bad weather all day long.

After breakfast at the Rotterdam, we met up with Annette and Vinson, our CC friends who organized this private tour to My Son and Hoi An, and got off the ship at 10:00 as soon as the ship docked safely. Most people would be taking tours to Hoi An, Marble Mountain, etc. when dock at Da Nang, but we are suckers for ruins and this tour just fit us fine.

Port of Da Nang

Getting our landing cards stamped at the immigration check point.

Again, we had to walk out to the port gate to meet our guide and a nice van for the seven of us.

Just some random pictures on our way.

Looked like a nice beach.

First stop was one of the many shops near Marble Mountain. That was exactly why I had no interest in going to Marble Mountain. It's just basically a shopping stop for people to purchase marble sculptures and products. They are beautiful but we had no intention to shop for things like these. We did take the opportunity to use the restrooms here before our long drive to My Son though.

My Son Heritage Site

It took about 1 1/2 hour drive to get to My Son on some not so good country road. We arrived at the site around noon and the guide went to purchase our tickets as some went to the toilets out front. I believe our guide said the tickets cost $7 pp.

Entering the site.

Museum, which we did not visit.

Crossing the bridge to take the electric car to the site.

Electric car that took us up to the path.

Our guide for the day.

We had to walk quite a distance to get to the actual site. The first part was well-paved...

then it was dirt and gravel.

Then we arrived at the site. There are about 14 buildings still left on the site from the 74 when they were found originally. Many were destroyed by bombing during the wars. Our guide was very knowledgeable and gave good descriptions of all the history and background information about the Champa people. After a while it got a little too complicated for me to remember everything regarding all the gods and kings at different eras.

One of the bomb craters.

I believe this was a symbol for male and female.

A lot to see even in terrible weather.

This reminded me of our day in Olympia, Greece when we visited there on a rainy day also.

Going inside one of the building where the priests prepared themselves for the ceremonies.

There were some more buildings on the other side of the river but due to bad weather we did not attempt to walk over there. Supposedly there is a bigger bomb crater on that side.

We spent about an hour there at the site.

One would need to cross this bridge to the other side of the stream.

Original bricks from the ruin.

On our way to Hoi An after visiting My Son in the comfortable van equipped with wifi.

Hoi An

Arrived Hoi An at around 2:00pm. Our guide had to purchase our entrance tickets first at the booth.

Still raining.

Walking toward the Japanese Bridge. By now, we were all very hungry and hoping to find some hot pho for lunch. But we were told that they only have pho in the morning for breakfast.

Instead, we were introduced to a Hoi An specialty called cao tau. A noodle bowl that can only be found in Hoi An. Cost, $3 a bowl (60,000 dong). It was very flavorful except there is no soup but a spoonful of light sauce at the bottom of the bowl. It was like a mix of Chinese and Japanese noodle with the pork pieces resembling the ones used in Japanese ramen. The crispy pieces of rice noodle made an interesting twist.

The restaurant where we had our interesting lunch, just a couple of stores before entering the Japanese Bridge. Service was good.

Now we are ready to explore.

Entering the Japanese Bridge.

On the bridge.

The temple

Inside the temple

markings of the flood levels

Exterior of the bridge

Fishing boat on the river

Pouring rain

The colorful lanterns made this old town came alive.

Bicycle made of bamboo

Then we went inside this private residence museum which was very crowded with tourists from all over the world.

Definitely Chinese

Again, markings of flood level inside the building.

Even on that day, it seemed that the place would be flooded any time.

Looked like the boats would be sailing toward the streets.

This is such an interesting town that I would love to come back on a day with better weather.

We were soaking wet by the time we were leaving and it was wonderful getting back into the van for our ride back to port.

We arrived Da Nang port at around 5pm and once again we had to show our landing cards to the immigration officials who just checked our numbers against the computers and then handed the cards back to us.

We did another load of laundry once we came back and rest a little before dinner.

And I forgot to take pictures of the dinner menu again.