### Hi all! How have you been with the recent adventures?
For me, it's another solo adventurous trip I made last week that I want to share with you here!
You are probably not gonna see the most gorgeous photos taken by a professional camera here, but you're gonna follow me step by step to discover the most popular mountains in Da Nang, Viet Nam.
### Marble Mountains
###### WHY IS THIS PLACE SPECIAL?
- **It is not only Marble Mountains is one of the main tourist attractions of Da Nang which attracts a huge amount of tourists from in and outside country, it is also about the culture, religion, and how it got involved with the war in the history.**
It's gonna bring you a complex experience with complex values!
It was not the most sunny days to take stunning photos as I said.
I was alone so I decided to not pull my camera out and only use my phone to take photos, so I could focus on climbing the slippery stairs and rocks!
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### What you need for this trip?
***Tickets:**
Visit ticket: 40,000 VND (about 1.7 USD)
Hell Cave ticket: 40,000 VND (about 1.7 USD)
Elevator: 15,000 VND (about 0.63 USD)
Today is all free because we have not tourists anyway!*
**What to bring:**
- Light clothes to hike (for sure haha)
- Good hiking shoes and a hat
- Water - you'll drink water every 10 minutes haha. But no worries WCs are everywhere up there!
- Phone and camera
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### A bit about Marble Mountains
> **Marble Mountains (Vietnamese: Ngũ Hành Sơn; lit. "five elements mountains") is a cluster of five marble and limestone hills located in Ngũ Hành Sơn District, south of Da Nang city in Vietnam. The five mountains are named after the five elements: Kim (metal), Thuy (water), Moc (wood), Hoa (fire) and Tho (earth).**
All of the mountains have cave entrances and numerous tunnels, and it is possible to climb to the summit of Mount Thuy. Several Buddhist sanctuaries can also be found within the mountains, making this a tourist destination.
The area is known for stone sculpture making and stone-cutting crafts. Direct rock extraction from the mountains was banned recently. Materials are now being transported from quarries in Quảng Nam Province (and well, I promise you I always told my tourists this truth haha). 😆
> **Marble Mountains was officially given the National Special Relic certificate by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on January 20, 2019**
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Alright, now, follow me!
Marble Mountains is about 12km to the Southest of Da Nang, takes 20 minutes to drive!
As you get there, this is what you'll se from far away
There are two gates, and on this trip I'll take you to come in from gate 2 and come out from gate 1!
Looking down the street from Gate 2
Walked in the gate and you'll see this - Nobody! All the souvenir shops closed cause there is no tourist. Usually it will take awhile to get through this part cause you'll get distracted by so much of beautiful stuff.
There are two ways to get up to the first level of Mount Water where Linh Ung Pagoda is located, you either turn left to get on the elevator or go straight to walk up the stairs.
Here I'm gonna turn left - not to use then elevator, but to take you to a big beautiful cave at the mountain foot:
### Hell Cave!
Turn left and you'll see this instruction sign - with and ATM and ticket place - so thoughtful haha
Look at the right bottom, that's where we are now!
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The entrance to Am Phu (Hell Cave)
### A bit about Hell Cave
> **Da Nang’s Marble Mountains is renowned for its numerous mysterious caves. Most notably, the Am Phu (Hell) Cave is the longest and most mysterious at this tourist site.
The 302m-long cave is located inside Thuy Son (Water Mountain), which is one of the 5 mountains symbolising the basic elements of ancient oriental philosophy. The arches of the natural cave range from 45m to 50m, and there are impressive rock formations featuring the Buddhist perception of hell or purgatory.
It was said when King Minh Mang traveled to Ngu Hanh Son in 19th century, he witnessed the gloom and magic of this cave. The king ordered 12 soldiers to light the torch to go inside, but the torch went out after every few steps. It was thought as some invisible force has forbidden the entry of humans, not allowing close proximity. Therefore, the king named this cave the Hell Cave, both expressing the heavy hidden gas and recreating the visions of the afterlife.**
Alright I'm a bit scared of these arms and hands so let's just head inside 😆
> The cave has 2 sets of stairs - one up to heaven, and the other down to hell. Buddhist monk Thich Hue Hung was monitoring the restoration of the cave between 2003 and 2006. In his explanation of the Buddhist philosophy of causality, he said that those who did good deeds in life would be guaranteed a trip to the cave’s 'Thien Thai Gioi' (Paradise) immediately upon their death, whilst anyone committing wrong or evil actions would descend to the 10 circles of hell, and especially to the ‘Nguc A Ty’ (A Ty Jail), which is the cave’s deepest point.
The way to go up was really slippery, narrow and dangerous for someone to go alone so I did not go up there. I was there once before and it will lead you to the top of a corner of the mountain. This rainy season is not the best time to visit the caves but thank to this, I got to hear the sound of the rain drops inside the cave! I wish I could record it! 😊
I promise you it felt a bit scary to go alone in there hahaha
Normal days you'd have to watch out for other people so you don't run into them in the dark!
Here used to be a station of Vietnamese soliders during the war to hide and recover from injuries of the battles.
I'm amazed by how all this created by Mother Nature!
Walking through the impressive stalactites and stalagmites, you'll get so impressed by the cave’s Purgatory section, through which sinners’ souls must first pass to be punished. There is also a court where hell’s judges evaluate a sinner's acts and decide on the level of punishment. In the middle of the cave is a statue of the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva who is often referred to as the Bodhisattva of the Hell beings. Here, a spiritual scale is used to weigh one’s good and bad deeds. Most notably, the cave has many man-made sculptures showing threatening scenes of punishment.
I don't know why these rocks are always there! Here is where you can look up all the way and see the light outside !
Leaving the cave, I realize it was getting dark quickly and gloomy outside, so I knew I was going to get quite dark photos when I climb up on Mount Water haha 😆
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Alright, I'm heading up now! It's like 4PM now, and my friend called me out of nowhere asking: Where are you?
Then he saw my background and he told his baby son: You have such crazy antie! 🤣
Here one way is to go back to Gate 2, where I came from, if you keep going you'll get to Linh Ung Pagoda. Let's go!
Looking back down!
And looking up! 😆 I'm not scared of stairs! Aren't you? 🤗
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The first area you'll get to is Luimbini Garden - The Lumbini Garden was the Buddha’s birthplace. In Sanskrit, Lumbini means ‘the lovely’. In a common pagoda in Viet Nam, there is always a space to facsimile this to tribute Siddhartha Gautama.
Besides, it is said that there are nine dragons coming from the air spraying water to shower the Crown Prince. That is the miracle just happens when great people and saints appear in the world.
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Now is the gate of **Linh Ung Pagoda** - One of the three Linh Ung Pagodas in Da Nang, Viet Nam.
> **Linh Ung is an ancient pagoda with great historical value. The pagoda was constructed and named Ung Chan in the period of King Gia Long (Nguyen Dynasty), but King Thanh Thai (Nguyen Dynasty) renamed it Linh Ung Pagoda in 1841. The pagoda, considered part of the beautiful landscape of Da Nang, has been restored many times.**
Inside the main sanctuary are representations of the three Buddhas: A Di Da (Amitabha), the Buddha of the Past; Thich Ca Mau Ni (Sakyamuni, or Siddhartha Gautama), the Buddha of the Present; and Di Lac (Maitreya), the Buddha of the Future.
There was some ceremony going on inse so I could not walk in this time
Seeing the sign of a beautiful spring coming already - cherry blossoms!
What I love about it here is I won't see those flowers often in the South where I was born because it is too hot there haha.
> The Buddha is depicted sitting on a Lotus flower, symbolizing the one who overcame the pain of that prevails in the material world and became enlightened, just like the Lotus flower which starts to grow in the dirty and muddy water but manages to surpass the water and produce a perfect flower.
Walking up these stairs and I kept going with my adventure!
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After walking up and turning around looking at where you came from, you'll see these signs. It looks complicated but very easy when you are there, and fun to explore as well! 😊
This leval is the elevator area and the other side is to keep going up.
So before going up, let's have a look at the elevator area!
So, if you decide to use the elevator earlier, this is where you will come out from!
Now let's keep heading up before it gets too dark!
**The total time you need to explore all this mountain is about 4 hours actually!** Myself did it in about 3 hours because I had to skip a few spots that were dangerous to go alone.
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You'll see these signs everywhere and all you need is to decided where you want to go haha.
Now let's see **See Watching Tower** with me first before heading back to turn to **Van Thong Cave and Tam Thai Pagoda**!
As I was walking up these stairs I was doing a video of myself speaking and climbing at the same time. It was really funny I talked to myself the whole trip 😆
#### And so! Here you go! Tada!
That's the ocean! And looking towards your left side is Da Nang, and the right side is Hoi An!
I'm trying to practice my direction sense haha 😆
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Heading to the other way to Van Thong Cave and Tam Thai Pagoda
I could not help but looking up and down haha. Maybe at least I know how far I have made and it cheers me up 😆
Usually this is the spot for tourists to sit and relax before they keep going. Nobody's here! I kept telling myself that. In my memory you would never get to sit down - No seat haha
However the cool about this trip is I have an ability to clear up the excitement I had when coming to a place for the first time. The next time I always feel excited again and there is always a bunch of new changes that I see, I feel, I discover again!
**Van Thong Cave** - Sadly this is almost the only place I could not walk inside. This one you gotta pay extra attention when visiting, specially in rainy season.
It is extremely narrow, drak, slippery and slope ínide. Many many times I heard that a Western person - size will barely fit it. However, it is worth a try if you want to be adventurous, just be a bit careful. It will take you to another corner of the mountain top 😃
Here I talked to a local man vendor who I was selling drinks. A small chat about the situation of no tourists, how they make money for a living and and we all hope the tourists can get back soon! I bought the second drink here though the first one I bought at my parking lot still in my backpack 🤗
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Now I guess it's time to go down to Tam Thai Padoga, you'll have the feeling of going down already haha
Aaaaaaa! Beautiful stairs that "got me at hello" 🤣
And I promise you you would hangout with bunch of mosquitos here! They were chasing me all the way up and down!
Running in and out these corners even excited me a lot!
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**And after climbing up a bunch of rocks that I could not film myself while climbing, everything had to stay safe in my backpack, I got to the top! Yes I guess?** 😆
Aaaaa! It's so cool up here! Fresh! And the feeling of complishing something alone is just so glorious!
> **Before I left I sent my live location to my buddy at home. When I was up there I sent him a video too to let him know I'm safe.
And though it's not very sunny to take photos, as I always say: All about the journey, not the destination!
All for experiences. And experiences are always special in their own ways! 😊**
And now all of sudden some guys showed up from the bush haha 🤣
They came from another way which I had no idea. And we were like: Ohhhh! Now we know next time we can discover the other way! 😀
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Now is 5:30PM I think and I have to head down before it gets too dark!
Here is the back of **Tam Thai pagoda** on the way heading down - Yes! "Don't forget me!" haha
If you need WCs, here is time, go to that right path!
> **Tam Thai Pagoda is on Thuy Son (Water), one of the Marble Mountains. This pagoda was constructed in 1930 and is considered a national pagoda and a Buddhist site**.
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One of the reasons I don't take photos of inside pagodas often is: If I do, I will have to keep those photos very carefully and "clean" somewhere respectful! I'm pretty much Buddhist and I don't just let the photos sit around in my junk files 😊
Now, let's walk down with me!
Believe me sometimes walking up is easier, walking down, you gotta to control your speed or you would roll all the way down! 😆
And so, you remember which Gate we are coming out from now? Gate number 1! Yes! 😊
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Oh wow! Look at how many words I have written haha!
I think writing all about Marble Mountains it would take 10,000 words or more! 😆
But I hope this trip brings you some fun as you are exploring the place with me!
**From this trip I want to remind myself of how adventurous I am
How much I want to keep seeing things out there in the world
How much I enjoy my time alone and I know so do you!
How grateful I am for Mother nature
How much I hope for the world to reopen again and we all may see each other around!**
Keep your spirit up and keep shining!
Stay safe and happy ! 😊
***Little Beatle ♫***
[//]:# (!pinmapple 16.002713 lat 108.262400 long Marble Mountains, Da Nang, Viet Nam d3scr)
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