June 21 - 25, 2015

We had a taxi arranged in the afternoon to take us from Hoi An to DaNang, which is about a 40 minute ride. Of course, our Hoi An exit, like many other city exits, was not without drama. The woman we rented our house from claimed we lost a key to the safe. The safe we never used. We left the envelope along with the instructions on the nightstand and never touched it again. Not sure what happened, but it was as if the crown jewels had been stolen.

We had been model renters. We even paid her extra money for running the air conditioner more than expected. We paid her for the use of her two bicycles, which we also felt was unnecessary, but we did it. Now she wanted more money for this key. Nope. Not gonna happen. It was such an uncomfortable scene. We couldn't wait to leave. She arranged for our taxi and we piled in and left. We would keep in contact with each other in case the key was discovered, In our haste, we left all of our hats on the coat rack, including Michael's newly purchased hat for Father's Day. Sigh.

We arrived in DaNang. There was no family room at this hotel, so we booked two smaller rooms for a great price. We had four nights in DaNang before our scheduled flight to Hanoi.

DaNang is a city developing at a fast rate. About 15 years ago there were dirt roads, now it is a booming metropolis. They say it will be the next Singapore. We were excited to explore and check out some new restaurants. Unfortunately, the restaurants were not as close to our hotel as advertised. Our hotel was great, but it was in an odd location. We had the use of free bicycles, but it was raining, so we had to grab taxis.

Our first trip was to the mall. We hadn't been to a mall in quite a while (not since our Demi experience in early May). We needed to get Liam a birthday present. We grabbed another taxi as we left. There were two taxi companies waiting for you at the mall. There are men whose job it is just to get you into their taxis. We thought we were prepared and showed the driver our hotel address. I took a picture of him and the car just to be on the safe side. He asked another driver for confirmation on directions and we were off.

Next thing you know, he is riding down the road alongside the ocean. This was not near our hotel. I told him that. I told him to stop and that we knew how much we paid to get to the mall (about $2) and he had surpassed that and we were no where near our hotel. He drove slowly, made some calls, apologized and turned around. I informed him I would not be paying this fee and that I would pay what it would have cost to drive us to the mall. He said he would deduct some about $3.50 from the price. I said no. We finally arrived at our hotel and the price was something crazy. I offered him $2.50 and got the receptionist from our hotel to translate. They said it was his mistake, yes it was, but I wasn't paying for it. It seems silly over a few dollars, but it is the principle and it happens all the time. More drama and of course, Liam got all worked up. Apparently he feels we bring this on ourselves.

The view from our hotel. One of three main bridges.

DaNang at night. Quite different than Hoi An.

The rain continued the next day as well. It was so odd because we had two days of just a bit of rain in the past five weeks and it did not stop us from doing anything. Now it was raining consistently, so the beach or outdoor bike rides were not happening. One bridge lights up to look like a dragon. It spits fire at 9:00 on weekends, but the rain spoiled that as well.

We made plans to see Marble Mountain. At least we could hike inside caves if it was raining. We took umbrellas and made arrangements from the hotel for a driver to take us there, wait for us and bring us back.

There was quite a bit of stair climbing, but it was scattered throughout the various caves. There were many temples to explore as well. The kids did a fantastic job hiking and it barely rained.

Some temples or places to worship built into the caves.

It was a fascinating place and not too crowded. There were some challenging climbs that reminded me that I am not as young as I once was, but I managed nonetheless.

Liam off to explore another section of a cave

It was pretty steep and rough navigating steps.

Another beautiful entrance to a different cave.

Pause for a break and to enjoy the beautiful foliage

Lovely view of the ocean from a lookout spot

Another successful excursion. Happy family!

We left the mountain feeling quite fulfilled. We then discovered our driver was missing. Apparently a family member of the original driver was left to drive us back in a different car. He did not speak English and we weren't comfortable hopping in a car with an unkown person. We managed a call back to the hotel to sort it all out. Just another transportation hiccup for the Collins family...probably not the last.