Day 63 - Wednesday March 1 - Da Nang

Da Nang photos

position at 7:00 am: N16 21.5 latitude E108 4.55 longitude
(~20 miles N of Da Nang)
temperature: 65F, 10% humidity, cloudy
distance since FLL: 21,357 miles

Well, another rough night and another exciting morning. Welcome, to our adventure. Another 58 days to go. We were up around 6am with the light. Such light as there is. We have not really seen sun since before Manila. The forecast high temperature today is 64 degrees F. There are lots of red parkas in sight. Everyone who joked what were they going to do with these in LA did not realize that they were for us to use in Vietnam! The last 2 tour guides acted like this was normal weather for this time of year. Anyway, it was very windy and rough and we could not see land anywhere. We checked the coordinates before breakfast in LaVeranda at 7am and we were 2 miles from the point of land at Da Nang. Clay had to get Debbie's breakfast from the buffet for her because she made it to the restaurant but could not get any further. The good new is that he brought her 2 CHOCOLATE CROISSANTS and strawberries with powdered sugar. Debbie tells Clay that life is good, but she says it with tears running. Clay had cold cereal and fruit. While we were at breakfast Debbie spotted land. We went straight up top to see. We watched water pouring out of the hot tubs like Niagra Falls as the ship leaned and listed by about 15 degrees with the swells and the wind. We turned into a bay and could see a large city in the distance. There is not supposed to be anything in Chan May but a commercial container port and a new highway to Da Nang. But, we continued sailing toward it. The water seemed calmer here but we were still listing side to side at pretty steep angles, so it must be from the wind and currents. We checked the wind speed on TV when we came back to get jackets and it was about 50km/h. It was misting rain at first but then faired off some. At 9:05am, an hour after we were supposed to be docked we picked up a pilot. We were about 100 yards from a container dock when he came aboard. This has to be the closest pilot pickup in history.

We stayed and saw the pilot come out to the flying bridge with the Capt. and Staff Capt. He was giving the universal gestures for NO. Both hands waving back and forth across his chest and shaking his head. There was a lot of negotiating. After the pilot boarded the ship and before he arrived on the flying bridge, Capt. Dag had spun the ship around and was backing toward the largest open spot at the docking facility. The pilot apparently did not like this. Lots more negotiating on the bridge and elsewhere based on Staff Captain's time on his radio. Capt. Dag had 2 tries, backing in, pulling back forward. The seas were still rough and the wind still strong even past the breakwater. The pilot got on his radio and a bunch of men with brooms came running and swept down a closer pier and a forklift came and started removing big metal wedge-shaped things. A third try here. Capt. Dag set his mouth in a grim line and it was his turn to give NO language. During this time a whole herd of buses had arrived at the big open dock area. A small contingent of Army people moved in two enclosed booths and were standing around (6 or 8 men in green uniforms). Eventually, Jamie came on the loudspeakers and announced that we were outside Da Nang. He said that port at Chan May had been closed due to large swells and so we had sailed here to a more protected container port in Da Nang. He said that the Capt. was trying to dock us her, but that it still may not be possible. The 4th try was a success. We got head on to the wind instead of the angle-backing Capt. Dag had tried twice before and slid straight sideways once we were even with the pier. Hurray! Of course, we are now 70 miles from where we expected to dock and 1.5 hours late. People booked for Hue tours are very worried. We are booked for Da Nang and Hoi An so we should have much less drive time now, equal to the lateness we think and if we get off our tour should be OK.

Jamie announced about 9:40am that we still do not have the gangway up. We are putting out extra ropes to compensate for the winds and currents here first. Then he made another announcement that we may have some difficulty getting cleared here since we were not expected HERE. He announced that all the Hue tours had been cancelled and that people affected should go to the Tour Desk. He said that Roger would try to get them on other tours. He said as soon as Roger could get ashore that he would also get a complimentary shuttle running from the dock to downtown Da Nang if people did not want to, or could not get on, a replacement tour now. Of course, all this is contingent on us actually getting the ship cleared for people to land and that has been trickier of late than you might think. So, here it is 10am and we are still waiting. Jamie has asked people to stay out of the atrium area until he calls for general disembarking unless they are on tours that are called. We now have more ropes out and strung from pier to pier than you would have thought possible. At some point, enough time will pass that the other tours will have to cancelled as well. We probably really have to leave here on time to make it to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) on time too. More later.

Capt. Dag came on the loudspeakers at 10:05am and apologized for the trouble with the wind and the Hue cancellation. He said that people should be glad to be here in Da Nang and make the most of it as RSSC tried to make it possible for people to see as much as possible here now. Capt. Dag said that this is the normal northern monsoon here and it will get better the further south we go. Let's hope. We'll keep our fingers crossed. At 10:10 Jamie came on the loudspeakers and said that an early lunch would be served at 11:30am. Then, he said we had been cleared and that the people who booked Da Nang - Hoi An should leave now. The people who booked Hoi An just this morning, or wanted to book it, to replace their cancelled Hue tours would leave at 12:30pm thus the early lunch. Da Nang-China Beach tour had been postponed to 12:30pm. So, we're off.

It took much less time to get off the ship today, probably because there were so few people who had previously booked the only tour running this morning. We all had to have our Vietnamese Immigration Cards stamped again here. It was so windy that you could barely keep hold of them and everyone was gripping them for dear life since we had been warned about the dire consequences if we did not always have them and how the ship would not be allowed to leave the last port until they were all turned in at the end of our time here. Whew. Since we are already in Da Nang, we only had about a 15 minute drive to the Cham Museum. Thank God because we were in there for 10 minutes with a 5 minute allowance for the bathrooms or the giftshop. This was a really amazing open-air museum of carved rock friezes and statues from Cham Temples in Vietnam. The Cham had a language like Sanskrit and worshipped Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. The Cham people are now only left in a tiny part of south-central Vietnam. The guide did lead us through and he talked to us at 3 spots showing us a map of all the known Cham temples, and about the history of how the Cham lost territory in Vietnam through marriage, and of their social heirarchy of women being more important than men. Then he showed us a sacred obelisk to bless water. Then he showed us a stele with the Sanskrit, and next to it a statue of Ganesha and he told us the story of Ganesha. That was it. We chose to use the restrooms at the museum. Debbie had the choice of an Eastern toilet or a Western toilet. Since she had used an Eastern toilet at the Water Puppet Theater in Hanoi, she chose the Western toilet today. She was having one of those been there, done that moments. It took us longer to load and unload the bus than the time we had in the museum. The guide did really try, but it is hopeless with 30 people. There were 30 passengers on our tour bus. Then, we drove to Hoi An. We arrived for a "comfort stop" at a nice hotel in Hoi An at 12:30pm to begin a 2-hour walking tour. Most of the people thought they were walking to lunch and got more and more upset the longer they walked and each place we stopped and regrouped was not lunch. Then of course there are the people who truly mystify, they sign up for a 6-10 hour tour and want to go home at lunch time or go back to the ship after they have had lunch and they want lunch to be the first stop. These people honestly need to sign up for half-day tours at the most. But, really the guide should have told people up front that they were NOT going to eat from 12-2pm and let them decide what to do about it. We did not go to lunch until 2:30pm and then half the people wanted to skip the rest and go back to the ship and the other half were ready to return to the Old Hoi An markets, so they could shop. But, he did race us through the streets expecting us to keep up with the cyclos in which the less able-bodied, or those who just did not want to walk were being driven for a $5 fee. But, our group got so strung out and when the stragglers would be recovered it was with bulging bags so some people got in their desired shopping anyway. Lunch was at a very beautiful open-air restaurant on the river. It was called Fullmoon Towns. They had a buffet, but then Debbie was leaning out from our table trying to see what some woman was doing squatting over some open flames. A waitress came and told her that she was cooking the local dish "cao lau" noodles that we had read about before we came here. No one told us to look for that at our lunch and it was a shame because it was the best food there and not everyone even knew it was available or got to taste them. We really liked them. It was 2 kinds of rice noodles and bean sprouts reboiled and then placed in bowl on top of some greens. Then, on top of that some sliced pork and a shrimp if you wanted, then some hot brown sauce scooped out of a pan and then sprinkled with fried noodles and peanuts and a squeeze of lime. Very good. We had 2 desserts. Sponge cake and "husband and wife" cake that was a little cake piece surrounded by some sweet, gooey gelatinous substance and all tied up in a banana leaf. Clay got a local beer, Biere LaRue. It was not so windy in Hoi An as at the coast and it was warmer. Not warm, it was still probably in the sixties, but high sixties instead of low. Just about everyone shed their jackets for the walk through the old streets and markets of Hoi An. It was too bad that time was not scheduled to allow a leisurely stroll with time to actually shop instead of the race through the streets again. Hoi An requires tickets to visit the Old Town of Hoi An and that allows you to visit the temple, an ancient home and a landmark bridge. Again happily, we did not have any trouble in the busy streets or markets with overly aggressive vendors, beggars, or pickpockets as we had been warned. They were probably all there, but we did not see any pickpockets and the vendors while some were aggressive and did touch you, where not overwhelming and neither were beggars. We reboarded the bus and drove toward the Marble Mountain. It is illegal to take marble from there anymore. Now, the marble comes from elsewhere nearby, but all the marble workers still live and work around the base of Marble Mountain. We stopped at a work shop and some shops for marble items. We were there about 30 minutes. Then we drove a different route back to Da Nang to a place to shot pictures of Marble Mountain that the guide did not get was not a good place for pictures because of all the wires and antennas. We drove back out to a 4-lane highway where the perfect clear shot of the Marble Mountain was but we were on the road home then. We drove past some quonset huts that are all that remain of the US military's base here and China Beach on the other side of the 4-lane highway. We were back on the ship by 5:30pm.

It was a great place to visit and we are glad that we got to go. We do need to rethink our tours though. We are not satisfied with the very large groups at the prices we are paying.

We set sail on schedule at 6pm. The captain came over the loudspeakers with an announcement as the ropes were being cast off. He said that due to the strong currents, waves, and 30-50km/h winds and a 180 degree turn that he would make to get us heading south again, that we should take the next few minutes to secure any items in our cabins that might fall and break. He warned us that we might experience "some rolls." Geez. We thought the ship was going to tip over this morning and there were no warnings then. Debbie grabbed some medication and put on a Relief Band and turned it all the way up before clearing items off shelves and placing them on the floor and herself on the bed. Clay stayed up top for the sailaway. We both thought our exit was a piece of cake compared to our arrival here!

Tonight is Country Club Casual and the night of our reservation at Latitudes for TGIFridays. We just tidied up a little and then headed up at 7pm. There were some TGIFriday signs on the windows. But other than that all the stuff could have come from anywhere besides TGIFridays official supplies. There were striped red and white vinyl tablecloths but we don't think TGIFridays owns a trademark on anything that generic. They did have a bottle juggling bartender there who we were told had been "loaned" to Voyager from TGIFridays. We were also told not to expect much from him because it turns out that he suffers badly from seasickness. He didn't look too green and it is really rough tonight. As the waitress was bringing our soup and salad, we were lurching or rolling, however you want to look at it. The soup bowl was only half-full, but still she was watching it and walking. She got diverted by the ship's motion over into the next table and then her eyes got wide as she shifted the soup bowl and tried to catch herself from traveling any further by leaning over the table. Debbie thought she was going to take a header right on to the table, right behind the soup, but the ship lurched back in the other direction and the waitress smiled and drifted back over to our table. She said it was a tough day at sea to be a waitress, that she had worked upstairs this morning. The "loaner" barman only juggled a metal shaker and a fake bottle. We know it was fake and plastic because he dropped it! Oh, well. It was still a fun show. We enjoyed the change of pace. Some of the servings were much larger than standard ship servings and more the size you would get in a restaurant in America. But, some were ship's size. For example, Debbie had an enormous piece of chicken but Clay had a piece of grouper smaller than a deck of cards. Clay got a ship's size sundae, but Debbie got an enormous slab of cheesecake. We forgot to take pictures of all our courses, but we did get menus. We have not been to the new concept being served in LaVeranda and Debbie does not like the menu much so we may not go to it, but we did get a menu for it as well. The menus are posted in pictures for those interested.

When we got back to the cabin there was a Guest Directory on our bed. There are 571 people on segment 3.

Da Nang photos