5 February - Chan May, Vietnam

No horn blowing … must be only where there is a contingent meeting us!  Kind of a sad port… it’s a low tech port. They export, as the guide said, ‘acacia wood dust’ to make particle board… okay he didn’t actually say particle board… but that is how I interpreted it 🙂. Here is a pile of it. 

There are lots of what I call ‘sea jacks’.  But apparently they have a real name ‘tetrapods’.  Actually that is a registered trademark of Fudo Tetrapod, but it also refers to the concrete blocks in a variety of configurations (3 to 8 legs).  There purpose is to create a porous barrier that dissipates the power of the waves.  Our guide said they are getting ready to expand their deep sea port… there are miles of these things, literally 

So we drove to Da Nang… first we went to a market… it was bustling… i didn’t take many photos… but you could have a dress made in 1 hour :)

For my Fire Protection friends… these are positioned on all the stairwells…hmmm

Lots of colorful produce

Next we visited Marble Mountain… which was not much of a mountain… but more of a shopping excursion… and yes I bought something…. It’s a cute little 60’s-ish owl…

Yes Grace.. that is an orchid :)

They ship… I asked Jeanne if she wanted anything for the garden…  I can’t believe she didn’t take me up on the offer… we’d be the only ones in CV with a marble elephant pagoda lantern :)

The next stop was pretty impressive, the Lady Buddha.  She is up on a hill that overlooks Da Nang… she is said to protect the fisherman.  She is 67 meters tall - that is about 219 feet (no I haven’t gone metric on you!).  A few pics… the big bonsai (I know oxymoron…were stunning and the lotus pedestal was also beautiful… an of course no shortage of dragons…

 

On a final note for the day… you will all be glad to know that I finally finished my first 3 bottles (Tanqueray, Compari, and Sweet Vermouth)…. On to my second set!!!