Over the weekend (Day 16 and 17) we rode back to Danang and visited the quaint town of Hoi An for some more site-seeing and shopping!

First stop – Paradise in Danang. On the way to Hoi An, we stopped over in Danang to visit the Marble Mountains. Since some of the team members arrived early and were able to check out the Marble Mountains (my first post in Vietnam!) at the beginning of the trip, we took a slight detour and relaxed at a gorgeous Hyatt Regency =)

  Stop 2: Lunch. The non-veg and veg group are always split up:

Veggies:

Outside the restaurant:

Stop 3: Hoi An. I will let the pictures highlight the stops on our walking tour:

Our hotel:Chinese Pagoda:

                 Japanese Bridge: The symbol of Hoi An. It is a covered bridge with a Buddhist pagoda attached. It was constructed in the 1600s, still standing. It also has small altars of dogs and monkeys, the reasoning of which is still unknown.

The pagoda:View from the bridge:Silk Factory and Lanterns:

Silkworms and cocoons    

For the rest of night, most of us did some shopping in the market and found some great hand-crafted items.

The next morning, we started our visit at MySon – the remnants of over 70 Hindu Temples built by the Cham people in the early 4th-14th centuries. We first attended a traditional Cham dance/music performance. Then, we walked through the mountains to see the ruins. After having preserved the beautiful temples for centuries, they were all destroyed due to the carpet bombing of the American army during the Vietnam War. The site has been recognized by UNESCO as evidence of an Asian civilization which is now extinct. The temples are shrines for the Hindu Lord Shiva, but many of the idols have since been removed and placed in a museum in Danang (which we also had the opportunity to visit) for preservation. It was great to see the Hindu Gods that we believe in represented in this culture. Most were recognizable and beautifully carved in stone.

Dance and musical perfomances, very similar to Indian classical music and dance:

The remnants of the Hindu temples

Holes from the bombing

The statues conserved in the museum in Danang

Lord Ganesha:

Brahma: For Lord Shiva:

Goddess Lakshmi:

Next stop, the tallest Lady Buddha Statue in the world (also in Danang). It is 67-meters high, 17-meters in diameter and has 17 floors. Each floor worships a different Buddha. The 17th floor has a flight of stairs leading to the statue’s head.

After this, we had two last stops. One, at the top of a mountain on the way back from Danang and the second, a quick swim at the beach =)

This is just small glimpse into the pictures we took over the weekend.  I have many many more that I will share later =)

And now, back to work!