The all day tour to Da Nang (yes, that one), Historic Hoi An, and China Beach (yes, that one) started from Chan May, a very small undeveloped seemingly unused ocean going ship dock at the end of an unpaved road. Apparently this port was chosen by Silversea to give access for easy excursions to both Da Nang to the south and Hue (yes, that one) to the north. This part of the world has that SE Asian haze that makes watercolor paintings so nice and photography so Photoshop worthy. Our drive through the brand new 6 km (4 miles, actually) tunnel and by the brand new huge bridge passed through some areas that seemed to have modern teenagers eating pizza. But in a totalitarian Communist country, things are as they seem and not so much too. Huh?
First we visited a museum with all sorts of artifacts from a Hindu site that was bombed to flatness some years ago. The artifacts that remained were truly great however. Our guide--in typical obscuring fashion--told the group that there had been "some damage of the site from wars and weather." No kidding. We then passed the old American Da Nang compound which for some reason was left in all its decay while huge resort hotels ("for rich, old Japanese", said the guide) were being built all around it. Then to Marble Mountain which actually hundreds of statue shops displayed the most hideous combination of large pieces. The "workshop" had no carvers but lots of packed up shipping crates with clearly readable address labels for western European and American customers. It occurred to me after a good nights sleep that all the carvers must have left the area when the South fell, and that Mable Mountain was actually an historical site and that the shipping crates and labels were 35 years old.
Then on to Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a 1593 Japanese bridge and a number of Chinese temples--but without any Japanese population or Chinese worshipers respectively. The Chinese temples did have huge incense coils, all not showing any use, huge we were told because they "are lit to ward off disasters such as the big tsunami of some years ago." We then stopped at China Beach at the old R&R location for US soldiers and looked at the curious woven round coracle (follicle, oracle, Popsicle?) boats that the Owl and the Pussycat took some time ago. (That one was "a beautiful pea green in" color, I believe.) Actually, a number of those of us in our age group were not very comfortable at China Beach for some reason. We were even more uncomfortable when the guide said that Da Nang was so clean and safe because if anyone does anything wrong--like "throw litter" on the street--someone will mention it "AT THE NEXT WEEKLY COMMUNITY MEETING AND THEY WILL BE MADE TO STOP". Swell!
We got back to the ship minutes before scheduled sailing and watched the two Immigration Officials walk their portable Immigration Shack down the pier so that it can be stored for the next ship, if ever, to need rubber stamping for the guests' visas. A good day but one with lots of cognitive dissonance. We arrive on Thursday afternoon after sailing all night across the Gulf of Tonkin (yes, that one) to fantastic Ha Long Bay. Last time, in the mid 1960s, I had strep throat and dropped my visa in the ocean there. Hoping for a nicer visit this time.
By the way, I have identified the cause of the bad text formatting of a few earlier entries to this journal and will edit the text and fix and formatting after getting to less than 35 cents a minute access, probably early next week after arriving home. Sorry for the screw up (mine and Blogger).
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