Today we are in Da Nang, Vietnam.

We went on a tour to Hoi An, about 45 minutes from the dock.  Hoi An, on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is a 16th Century town that has been well preserved and is a living museum.

Our first stop on the way was to see the fishing fleet

Fishing Boats

The round cup looking things on the beach are boats that the sailors use to row out to the boats – they look like coracles from early Anglo Saxon history.

Fishing Fleet

From the fishing boats we travelled along the coast a few kilometres and stopped at China Beach, famous from the days of the war in the 70s known in Vietnam as the American War.

From China Beach we went to Marble Mountain to see the marble carvings.  There was a huge array of large and exquisite marble carvings on offer – but too large and heavy for our luggage!

Marble Carvings

Marble Mountain Showroom

On the side of Marble Mountain are several Pagodas

Pagoda on Marble Mountain

After browsing the statues we moved on to a silk works where silk is made and woven into products.  We saw the silkworms feeding and some silk cocoons as well as the silk being spun and wound onto bobbins.

Silk being stored on wooden reels

The silk works also had many silk items for sale and it was an amazing array of colour. Here is an embroiderer working on a scene.

Silk Embriodery

Next stop was Hoi An.  This is an amazingly well preserved ancient town that was fascinating.  It is a very popular tourist destination and there were people everywhere but with some patience I managed to get some pictures without too many crowds!

Hoi An Street

The Japanese Covered Bridge was built in the early 1600s

Japanese Covered Bridge

We wandered around the town browsing the sights

Fruit Vendor

We had lunch and then stopped at the vegetable market village where green produce is grown for the area.

From there we drove back to the ship arriving mid afternoon.

Just before sailing away from Da Nang, a dance troupe came on board to put on a show for us which comprised traditional dancing and singing.

Da Nang Farewell Dancers

There was also some “street theatre” in the show but unfortunately I missed the introduction so didn’t really comprehend the action although it was colourful.

Dancer/Street Theatre

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