Today we rented a motorbike from outside our hostel for $4 USD for 5 hours. We headed towards DaNang, which was about 15 miles from Hoi An, to Marble Mountain.
Marble Mountain
The mountain is made up of different marble, hence its name, so there are several marble statues being sold around the area. We did not know quite what to expect of the mountain, but it turned out to be fantastic. We went to several Buddhist shrines and temples in China, but we have to say that this is one of the top ones we've ever been to. Inside the mountain there were caves that you went through where there were several Buddhist statues and altars. However, as you descended down, the statues and images turned to be more and more evil, representing the different layers of hell. Then in a separate part of the mountain there were steps descending upwards that led to the outdoor night and thus representing heaven or nirvana. For most of the time we were there we were the only ones there, so we had this huge cave to ourselves. We ascended up the stairs and went outside to get a view of "heaven." You could see the village below and the beach off in the distance.
DaNang
We were not that far from DaNang, so we decided to keep going on the motorbike. We followed the road around the ocean and on one side there was the beachfront with many new high-end resorts being built and on the other side there were the "slums" and some of the worst living conditions that we have seen so far in Vietnamese cities. However, as you looked up in the hills it almost made us feel like we back on the Hawaiian island of Kauai with the clouds hanging in the valleys. There was a Buddhist statue up in the hills so we continued to drive along the coast taking in the magnificent views as we went along.
The motorbike was a lot of fun and we think we're going to try to rent more of these throughout our trip. We had the time of our lives zooming around on our little motorbike. We were so impressed with how fuel efficient and cheap it is to fuel that Alex thinks we should get one when we get back home for short transportation purposes! Ha ha!
More Hoi An Specialties
For dinner we went back to the same place we ate last night and tried a different food vendor. Tonight we tried another Hoi An specialty, Mi Quang, which had everything from noodles, quail egg, shrimp, pork, rice croutons, peanuts and broth. We also tried some chicken wontons tonight. After dinner, we went to a café and ordered some of the Vietnamese white coffee, with the condensed milk. We are really enjoying this coffee and are thinking that we might have to implement the condensed milk instead of cream and sugar when we get home!
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