When I got to the tour bus, there were four of them , but mine had the same guide as yesterday. What a stroke of luck. Today we would visit a museum, a marble factory, Marble Mountain, China Beach and the Lady Buddha.
We visited the Cham Museum, where we learned about these ancient people of Vietnam. Our guide, Loi, was again very articulate and knowledgable about these religious settlers. They are believed to have come from Borneo, and brought their temples and religious beliefs with them. They settled in the northern part of Central Vietnam. Over time they took over land as they headed toward what is now South Vietnam. They were ultimately subdued by invaders from the north. Only small numbers of their race remain today. Their features are more Polynesian than Vietnamese. They are truly a minority.
The museum was situated at one end of the Dragon Bridge over the river. On Saturday and Sunday the traffic is stopped from 9:00 to 9:30 PM. Then the dragon puffs a large flame followed by a blast of water. This lasts 30 minutes. Last night from the ship we were able to make out the fiery blast. We could not see the water as the ship was quite far from the bridge. It was impressive nonetheless.
After a drive along the waterfront past many resorts and wedding celebration halls we arrived at the marble "factory." First Loi explained what a big business weddings are.
The marble factory was awesome. The grounds are covered with statuary of everything imaginable. There were animals, birds, people, fruit and on and on. At the rear were several workers creating more objects. They seemed to be working without patterns. 50% of these items are exported. The remainder are sold to resorts and the wealthy to decorate their pools and gardens. Amazing!
The marble factory was just the prelude to Marble Mountain. This high peak is indeed a source of marble. At least it was. Now it is a protected site, and is worth more for tourism than raw marble. Loi explained the the way up included 300 Vietnamese stairs. This are irregular in height and depth. They are all taller than US stairs. There was an elevator option that would eliminate the first 150 stairs. We were offered the choice of using all 300 stairs or taking the elevator. I decided to climb all of the stairs and joined four others to do the same.
The temperature was in the upper 90's. So was the humidity. At the halfway mark we found the 30+ others waiting for us. They had missed several spectacular carved dragons and a beautiful carved Buddha.
Loi pointed out the damage from shells fired by the Americans during the war. He took us up to a large cave that had served as a field hospital for the Viet Cong. He explained that elsewhere there were natural shafts in the mountain that led to lower levels. When the Americans arrived at the cave it was empty. The Cong had used the shafts to escape. There was no malice in any of the talk of the war.
The others walked back to the elevator. We hardy and soaked 5 headed toward a different, but equally tortuous stairway for the decent. As we walked we spied a pagoda out on a peak slightly above us. Clearly it would offer great vistas. If we tarried here the others would just have to wait. We climbed up and out for beautiful views. It was worth every bit of effort. When we got down to the base, we waited about 10 minutes for the bus to arrive with the others. No one admitted it, but we thought they must have spent some time shopping.
Then we rode along China Beach. This was the military R&R beach for our soldiers. It is very nice, but totally exposed to the sun. We made a brief photo stop for the beach, the fishing fleet and the basket boats that are also used for fishing. These came into being by removing the pointy bow and stern and making them out of reeds. Boats had to pay a tax, but these"baskets" went tax free.
The Lady Buddha was our last stop. Think Christ the Redeemer in Rio. This is a huge statue constructed of white concrete that was poured in pieces in a factory and trucked up the mountain to this site. It looks out over the sea and is titled Buddha of Mercy. The statue, the grounds and the associated temples are well worth visiting.
Ten minutes later were back at the ship. I had taken many pictures. As I reviewed these with Alice, we both agreed that this trip would have been too much for her. As we were finishing this we received a message that we would get a full refund for Alice's ticket.
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