Danang, day two: Onward to Hue

The drive from Hoi An to Hue was the longest we took by bus. Covering a distance of about 160 kilometres, it took about seven hours instead of the expected four hours. Along the way, we made three stops in our itinerary. No, wait. We made FOUR stops which included an unscheduled stop by a beach to watch fishermen bring in their catch to sell to their middlemen. So these four stops together with the long drive through the Hai Van Pass took up the whole of the seven-hour trip.

Chua Linh Ung

Our first stop was at the Chua Linh Ung in Danang itself. It is a sprawling complex. There is a main pagoda building but it tends to be ignored because every tourist will ultimately find the 67-metre high white statue of Kuan Yin, just a stone's throw away, to be more fascinating. And all of us, the old farts from The Old Frees' Association, are just like any other tourist. We gravitated there too, trying to find the vantage point to photograph the statue. At the base of the statue is a worship hall. Curious, my wife and I tried to find the flight of stairs that would allow us to climb up all 17 floors of the statue. Unfortunately, we found the entrance roped off. What a pity.

At every place we stopped, we would all make a beeline to the toilets. At the Chua Linh Ung, instead of a proper restroom for the men, we had to do our business along a long, narrow corridor. Using the urinals would be an experience by itself.   

This is the entrance into the Chua Linh Ung itself. Up a flight of granite steps....

....and you'll find yourself in a spacious stone garden filled with bonsai plants and statues of the 18 arahants lining the perimeter. At the back is the main worship building, which we just viewed from afar, such was our haste to go see the Kuan Yin statue. 

Breath-taking view of the 67-metre high statue of Kuan Yin which looks over the city of Da Nang. This is indeed the meeting place of heaven and earth.

The worship hall below the Kuan Yin statue.

A face-on view of the worship hall. The centre statue is that of Sakyamuni Buddha, flanked on the right by Kuan Yin and on the left by Sam Cheong (Tripitaka)

Emerging from the worship hall, we decided to take a clockwise walk around the Kuan Yin statue. 

The building isn't tilted. My camera was, though.

Saying goodbye to the Chua Linh Ung.

Thong Bao beach

The unscheduled stop. While speeding towards Hue, the driver spied a group of people on the Thong Bao Beach and stopped the bus for us to wander down to them. These people were fishermen and they were selling their day's catch to the locals. We joined in to watch them sort out their catch. There was a wide variety of fresh seafood.

Here's a closer look at the fish, mantis prawns, shrimps, crabs....

A fisherman bringing his catch to the shore with his associates standing by to upload them. Photo by Leong Khoon Wah

Photo by Leong Khoon Wah

The fishing boats are in the background but just note the waves coming in.

Hai Van Gate

So our journey continued. The bus made its way gingerly up the Hai Van Pass north of Da Nang. This is a winding road that hugs the Annamite Range for some 21 kilometres and traverses a mountain spur that juts out into the sea. As we were seated on the left side of the bus, we missed out a lot on the scenery looking seawards. Instead, all we saw, for much of the whole 21 kilometres, was the side of the mountain.

But there were some consolation. Occasionally, we'd see small shrines by the roadside: shrines put up by grieving people to mark the spots where fatal accidents had occurred in the past. Once, we also caught a glimpse of some elaborate praying ceremony on the mountain slope. Yes, the mountain pass was a dangerous road. In fact, the day after, our tour guide informed us that another fatal accident had occurred.

The Hai Van Pass is a two-lane highway with one lane going in either direction. Except for one place along the highway, called the Hai Van Gate, there is no-where else that vehicles can stop. At this rest area, one can climb up the Gate where a fort once stood. It is now abandoned and in ruins. In 2017, archaeologists unearthed the foundations of two 1826-built gates which had been damaged during the war (1946-1975).  Before and after the Hai Van Gate is reached, there are two dangerous hairpin bends apart from the sudden curves and blind corners.

Thua Thien-Hue is the name of a province in Vietnam.

Here we go, climbing up the abandoned fort

Could this be a pillbox, a look-out tower?

This is the rest area at the Hai Van Gate. Traders have set up all sorts of small businesses for the tour buses that stop here. 

Coffee at The Lagoon

After all those visits to the Chua Linh Ung and the abandoned fort at the Hai Van Gate, it was time for some real Vietnamese coffee. Our final stop was at the aptly-named Cafeteria The Lagoon, a rest place that looked over the peaceful Vung An Cu lagoon. It seemed like a popular rest area to me: popular with newlyweds wanting to take their wedding pictures against the backdrop of the lagoon and the Annamite Range in the background. Even as we were alighting from the bus, we could spy a couple posing on a sand spit in the faraway distance. Busybodies that we were, some of the old farts even went across the spit to watch the photography session. But many of us chose to remain in the cafeteria with our coffee and fresh coconut water.

Photo by Tony Beh