Da Nang, Part 3

Later in the afternoon, we had lunch at a very nice resort at Marble Beach.  Marble Beach is the new name for the famous China Beach where US soldiers went for R&R during the war.  The beach was named China not after the country, but because many pieces of ceramic from ancient times were found there.  The name was changed because the Vietnamese people don't like China (the country) very much and they didn't want to name anything after it.  Vietnam is located on the South China Sea, but the Vietnamese people call it the East Sea for the same reason.

On the beach, we got up close to some typical fishing boats:

In some cases, these boats are powered by hand-held motors that are just stuck into the water behind the boat (similar to the one on our leaky tiki in Cambodia).  Other times, they are towed behind a larger vessel.  Notice the three in the background...they are perfectly round and are used to raise and lower nets.  These are usually towed.  They don't drive well when they don't have a pointy end!

Gordon managed to avoid fighting in the war, but he finally did get his R&R on China Beach:

Nearby, we visited the Marble Mountains and toured a store selling hang-carved marble pieces:

There was a pretty hard sell here, and the carvings were just gorgeous, but we couldn't exactly figure out how to get a 100-or-so-pound marble statue into our suitcases.  If you've ever seen what it costs to ship something from overseas, you'd already know that's out of the question.

The guide gave us a lot of info about politics and the situation in Vietnam on the drive back.  In Vietnam, the people pay for everything:  it is mandatory to attend school and mandatory for the parents to pay for it.  Health care is not free.  The guide pointed out that he had never voted in his life because voting "is just for fun".  The government is actually run by a Communist minority.  They simply decide who's taking power next, no matter who gets voted in.  In his province, there was, for a while, a leader who was doing good things for the people...trying to actually provide some worthwhile government benefits.  He was removed.

We guess that the problem may be that the government has run out of other people's money.  In our opinion, a revolution could occur...60% of the population is under 35 and many are not amused.   Remember all the scooters in Ho Chi Minh City?  Our guide says that the people here are "born on a scooter" so to get a scooter license takes a week of classes and a test.  To get a car license takes six months.  Cars, by the way, are taxed at 250%.  That's not a mis-type.  250%.  Only very rich people have cars.

We crossed the Dragon Bridge on our way back to the dock:

Busy day, and we had to hurry to get ready for happy hour!