17th century Japanese bridge
Chua Ong Pagoda
Jinshang Temple
While in the ancient town we hopped onto a boat for a trip along the Thu Bon river that feeds into the ocean and was the route traders took for centuries to get their goods to and from their home countries.
An island in the river where anyone who can get their cattle over there can let them graze freely - seems like a challenge but apparently folks have figured out how to do it!
Fishing nets that are lowered and raised to catch fish
After our exploring of the ancient town, we headed to Da Nang and the Intercontinental where we were overwhelmed with our hotel's setting. It sits atop of Monkey Mountain and overlooks a private bay. The highlight for the Virkler kids was the fact that a tram takes guests up and down the mountain since it is so steep - it made for an absolute beautiful ride up for breakfast or down to the beach for dinner. Needless to say we all loved our stay!
The next morning we got ready for our eco-tour with Jack Tran's Ecotours. Specifically we were doing a fisherman's and Palm Forest tour which allowed us to see local villagers' ways of life. We learned about their fishing net equipment, basket boats, how they make their homes and what they eat. It was certainly an eye-opening experience that made us appreciate our creature comforts at home.
I should note that there are some major acrobatics that can be done with a round boat IF you know how to steer it and if you know how to keep your balance really well. The larger boat we were on blasted music and these two guides hopped in basket boats and started dancing around - very funny to see and then a little scary when they pulled us into the boats and we started spinning around too. Thought I might vomit at one point!
Once the boat acrobatics were finished we took the basket boats into the coconut-palm plantation where these palm trees are grown for their fronds which are then used as siding and roofing of village homes. There is also a coconut-palm fruit which some locals use to made a type of sugar.
Our guides were very creative in using the palm fronds to make fancy jewelry!
We also visited one villager's home where they treated us to rice crackers, fresh coconut and tea. The wife stitches palm fronds together for siding and roofing while her husband has dug a lagoon beside their shack and they raise shrimp there to sell. It was very rustic (Ella was desperate for a bathroom and they told her she could use theirs but it turned out to just be the area behind the house) but perfectly clean and they were very proud of what they had.
Here we were learning how to pull up one of the huge nets from the river floor once it had been left to hopefully collect fish. It was definitely a lot of work and not a lot of yield but we only left it down for 2 minutes where normally it's left down for hours in the evening with a light over it to attract fish.
The yield was one small crab, one shrimp and lots of small jellyfish (which apparently make a tasty salad that I'm glad we didn't have to try!)
After lunch back on the boat we returned to Hoi An and hopped in our van for a 90minutes drive to My Son (pronounced mee-sun sort of!) which is a collection of abandoned Hindu temples dedicated to the worship of the Hindu god Shiva. They were built by the Cham people who resided in Vietnam during the 4th - 14th centuries. It was abandoned in the 15th century when the Cham people were forced south by the Viet people. It was rediscovered in 1898 by a French explorer who stumbled upon it in dense forest. It is a UNESCO world heritage site but unfortunately it is mostly just temple ruins due to US carpet bombing during the Vietnam War. We saw a traditional Cham dance at the site as well.
Today was spent with Phat Tire Ventures on a rappelling (also known as abseiling) adventure! I had no idea how the kids would do with the big drops that we were getting ready to attempt but they were amazing! We started with a 14 meter drop into a dark hole where we couldn't even see the bottom ......
Checking out the trail
We made it to the bottom! Next was a 27 meter drop into an old Buddhist temple with a large statue in the middle. After that we took a break for lunch and walked down to another cave (still in use as a temple so can't climb in it) where we really felt like we were in a scene from a movie - the ceiling was probably 80 feet up and old stone statues were carved into the walls.
Our last rappel was 47 meters (154 feet) through a hole made by a US bomb during the Vietnam War. It was so dark and we couldn't see the bottom and it took a lot of bravery to lean back and step off the edge but everyone did it! We didn't know until we all got to the bottom that it's called is Hell's Cave and we were quickly able to tell why- it was transformed into the buddhist interpretation of Hell. The first level where we dropped in is known as Purgatory and then you continue exploring down different tunnels where different scenes of Hell are displayed. It was all a little unnerving since you are in dark, small spaces but luckily you finally see "a light at the end of the tunnel" and you climb back out of the cave (phew).
Henry, born in the Year of the Pig
Ella, born in the Year of the Horse
and Sumner, born in the Year of the Monkey (this year is the Year of the Monkey as well)
The drive from Marble Mountain where we were rappelling back to the hotel gives us a wonderful view across the bay to the huge 64 meter high Buddhist statue that sits at the start of Monkey Mountain. It was an impressive site with all the fishing boats in front.
Enjoying the pool!
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