Day 81 - Chan May, Vietnam

Tuesday, April 1

After a good sleep I arose at the unlikely hour of 8:22.  We had been told last night we would be late arriving due to technical difficulties last night (after we turned and started to sail away we stopped for well over an hour).  Just before 9 am the captain announced (in one of the few that are actually piped into our staterooms) that it would be about 12:30 before we docked.

Since I was up so early I had some breakfast and read my book.  Then I watched us sail into the harbor and turn getting ready to dock.  At noon I went to the a Royal Court Theatre to get ready for my tour.

I had chosen "Da Nang and Non Nuoc Beach" for my excursion.  We set out first for the Cham Museum which had artifacts of the Cham civilization.  Our next stop was at the Marble Village noted for its stonework.  We then stopped for a beer or soft drink at Non Nuoc beach.  During the time when the US had an Air Force base here it was called China Beach (on the way we passed some of the hangars that were remains of the base).  I tried one of the local beers called Biere Larue.  Our last stop took us to an embroidery shop and the Han Market.  The market had a little of everything - fresh fruit, meat and seafood (neither on ice), all kinds of dried fish and shrimp, cookies and candies, plastic string (maybe used for fishing?), clothes, fabric, cleaning supplies, and more.  It was amazingly hot and smelly inside.

We returned to the dock just before six and there was time for some shopping at the stalls (not nearly as good as the market at Ha Long.

Back on the ship I immediately showered to try to get rid of the smell of the market.  Dressed for dinner but first I had to go to the sail-away.  When I got to deck nine all of the chairs had been tied up and they had a few tables out for the Al Fresco dining.  I watched as the last of the buses returned from tours and we did not sail until after 8:30.  By the time we pulled away it was too late for the dining room so I ate in the Lido.

By 9:30 I was really tired and decided to call it a night.  Worked on the blog for a bit and went to bed at 11:16 (that's what happens when I get up early).

Today's Programme had the following in it...
Trixie's Birthday
As today is a special day for Trixie, our ship's cat and lucky mascot, we would like to ask you to help her celebrate her birthday.  Her favourite treat is chocolate.  We therefore kindly ask for any donations of chocolate including the pillow chocolates, to be placed in the box provided in the Grand Lobby.  Thank you for your kindness and generosity.

This was followed in the next Programme with...
Thank You!  We would like to thank those of you who kindly donated chocolate to Trick-sie, our ship's cat.  It was the Purrfect April Fool!

old and new housing

downtown Da Nang

local shop

downtown Da Nang

Our guide said that most houses in Da Nang are 5 meters wide

local shops

traffic jam

Cham artifacts

Dragon Bridge

remains of US Air Force base

Non Nuoc (China Beach)

Non Nuoc

Han Market

crabs

dried fish

fresh (?) meat

cookies and candy

Any ideas what these are?

Street food (cost was about 25 cents)

fishing village

tourist transport

Smooth sailing until next time!