Travelogue :  Kyvan's Southeast Asia Adventure

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Nov 23, 2005
Da Nang to Ocean Cloud pass
 

Ok, last night in Da Nang, I got a massage. Now get this, they were charging foreigners $10/hr. They had a separate price for those who are Vietnamese, $5/hr. In every definition of the word "foreigner," I am one. But because I spoke Vietnamese to the front desk girls at the counter, I was given the Vietnamese price. "Massage mot tieng di co." It was awesome. It was awesome to finally get a massage after having given so many in my time because people know I'm good at it. And no it was not a "sexy" massage. It was legit.

So in Da Nang we were hiking up some pretty steep stairways up Non Nuoc (Marble Mountain). The view up there was wonderful. Like Grandview Park (in Sunset district, San Francisco) Vietnamese style. There was majestic scenery of mountains, ocean, houses. And we were showered upon. Not a heavy downpour, but this curious Vietnamese rain that is a gentle and delicate mist, a lingering light rain that just will not go away. It isn't heavy enough to get you wet but it's big enough to lodge into your eyelash and make you blink.

There are caves up here! Caves that contain relics and alters, and soft, filtered sunlight that illuminate the incense smoke filled cavern. I wandered inside another cave to discover an opportunity to do some rock climbing up a steep slope through a small opening leading up to the peak.

Heading to Hue we went over Deo Hai Van (Ocean Cloud pass) which is a mountainous road. It has switchbacks and is very high. This is the Pacific Coast Highway of Vietnam. We see coastline, beaches, rice fields, and lush mountains. It is cold and windy up here! A complete change in environment and weather, where we went from dense humidity to a frigid airy atmosphere in the clouds. There is a railway that hugs this mountainside and mom said she almost died on this track when she was 5 years old. She was headed to Hue from Saigon when her car slipped the tracks, derailed,and leaned onto the cliff. If it derailed and went the other way, she would have freefalled to the ocean waves below, to what would have been quite a dramatic ending.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! No turkey, gravy, candied yams, or cranberry sauce for us. Just beef noodle soup, shrimp paste, and fried fish with nuoc mam (fish sauce) for us.