31.10. Roadtrip to Hue

Today was another travel day, but a very special one. For the first time, we continued our journey on our own with a scooter instead of a bus or similar. We were able to leave our big backpacks at our hostel in Hoi An, from where they could be sent to a central location in Hue and picked up by our next hostel there. It was a convenient service and everything went really well.

After leaving Hoi An, we arrived in the next big city, Da Nang, after about 45 minutes. There, we visited the Marble Mountains, which had incredibly large caves in their rock formations and are used by believers as places of prayer and commemoration. The rock mountains rose up out of nowhere in the flatland, with several of them and each named after an element.

We were at the Water Mountain, the largest and most impressive of the mountains. It was covered with pagodas and beautiful Buddhist temples on the surface.

Underground in the caves, there were various Buddha statues and prayer niches. It often went very deep into the mountain, where it could get very narrow and grotesque figures appeared on the walls. When you were higher up, the light was used very skillfully and sometimes beams of light fell exactly on certain statues or places, a very impressive sight.

You could also climb to the top of the mountain and enjoy the view of the other mountains of the Marble Mountains, the sea, and Da Nang. However, you had to climb back down a slippery path.

After visiting the Marble Mountains, we continued north along the coast of Da Nang until it merged into the westward leading Da Nang Bay. This was followed by the actual highlight, the Hai Van Pass. It curved along the local mountain range, offering a spectacular view of the beautiful Da Nang Bay and the city itself. Since I had driven up, Andra took over the wheel on the other side and we drove back down into the plain, with a view of the Vietnamese coastline.

Since we didn't feel like driving on major roads, we took smaller side roads, passing a lagoon where houses of a floating village could be seen and through a suburb of Hue. It was actually very calm there until it suddenly turned 5 PM and the small road got crowded as if it were rush hour in a big city. 5 minutes later, the hustle and bustle cleared up as we passed by a secondary school, which apparently ended at 5 PM. By the way, the school system here is the same as in the US. Primary school is attended for four years from the age of 6, followed by five years of secondary school and three years of high school, after which a university can be attended. The entire education system costs a fortune, as we learned in conversations with several locals, and often a good education fails due to the parents' bank account, which once again makes us appreciate the incredibly good situation in Germany.

Since we didn't take the fastest route, we underestimated the time a bit and quickly realized that we would arrive in the dark. That wouldn't have been a problem, but we couldn't for the life of us find a way to turn on the lights on our scooter and driving without lights in Vietnam would have been a nightmare for us. However, it must have been a light sensor, because as it slowly got dark, the light turned on with the correct switch and we could relax a little. The good thing about the late time was that we once again had the pleasure of a spectacular sunset, which we could admire over the vastness of the flat land on the coast.

Fortunately, I drove us unharmed through the dark streets of Hue and we had dinner with two friends, who actually have the same plans here in Vietnam as we do and who we know from our former school. So we had a cozy Halloween celebration.

Normally, I don't have the time or motivation to review my texts, as it is often very late. But I did it this time and noticed that I made more or less mistakes. I apologize for that, I hope it can be forgiven...

Thanks again for regularly reading my blog and for your general interest in my journey, it always makes me very happy.