Our first early morning start for a few days. We have booked a tour of the main attractions in the Da Nang area which meant for an 8am pick up from our hotel and a minibus ride to our first stop the Lady Buddha.

We first visited one of Laughing Buddhas which symbolises prosperity and abundance and you are encouraged to rub the large stomach, as being fat rather than thin, is a sign of good fortune.

Linh Ung Bai But pagoda, Son Tra is the largest of its kind in Da Nang City. The structure combines the modernity and tradition of a Vietnamese pagoda.

The pagoda with turtle shapes is located on a hill of Son Tra peninsula, halfway up the mountain, facing the sea, with its back against the primeval forest with many animals and birds of Son Tra peninsula – today we just spotted the monkeys who are watching and waiting for food, or anything else to hand!

Being the tallest Buddha statue in Vietnam, Lady Buddha is located at Linh Ung Pagoda on Son Tra Peninsula. The Lady Buddha Da Nang statue is inside Linh Ung pagoda courtyard with a height of 67m.

The statue leans on the mountain, facing the sea, the kind eyes looking down, a hand exorcizes while the other hand is holding a bottle of holy water sprinkling peace to the offshore fishermen

From the statue we can see the whole city, mountains and Son Tra Sea. Looking into the distance, Marble Mountains and the beach are surrounded by a fine white sand shore. It’s truly stunning.

Our next stop was a visit to the Marble Mountains, via a marble factory just in case anyone on the trip had a spare $25,000 to purchase an urn.

The area is known for stone sculpture making  and stone-cutting crafts. Direct rock extraction from the mountains was banned recently. Materials are now being transported from quarries in Quang Nam Province.

The Marble Mountains are a cluster of five marble and limestone hills located south of Da Nang City. They are named after the five elements: Kim (metal), Thủy (water), Mộc (wood), Hỏa (fire) and Thổ (earth.

All of the mountains have cave entrances and numerous tunnels, and we climbed to the summit of Mount Thủy. Within the mountains are several Buddhist sanctuaries.

The mountains were very near the American Air Facility during the Vietnam War and contained a hospital as well as a place for the Vietcong to hold up when attacking the American airfield and helicopters.

The Marble Mountains are home to several Buddhist and Hindu grottoes.  A stairway of 156 steps leads to the summit of Thuy Son. It provides a wide panoramic view of the surrounding area and the other marble mountains. There are also a number of grottoes, including Huyen Khong and Tang Chon, and many Hindu and Buddhist sanctuaries.

The sanctuaries feature statues and relief depictions of religious scenes carved out of the marble.

There is a huge cave known as Am Phu, and deep inside is a re-creation of a Buddhist hell where sinners confess crimes, suffer punishments, and hope to reach heaven’s light.

After a thoroughly enjoyable tour led by our local guide Tony, we were then treated to a late lunch at a nearby Vietnamese street restaurant.

The food was the best we’ve had since returning to the country, helped by understanding how best to eat the food and the order to place in the lime, crackers and greens, as well as the oh so spicy chilli.

After the tour finished mid-afternoon we headed to a local cafe we’d been recommended where we drank flavoured coffee & banana smoothies next to a carp filled pond, in a hidden town garden. It was very atmospheric and the drinks were pretty good too.

After our busy day, we decided to have a relaxing evening in and ordered Vietnamese rice and salads to our room and enjoyed the sunset from our balcony overlooking the sea.

Tomorrow we are on a walking tour of Da Nang when we hope to see a few of the art galleries and museums, as well as the odd coffee shop and/or bars!

Until then.