As the legend has it, a giant sea turtle (or a dragon) crawled onto the shore, at the dawn of time and laid an egg. When the egg opened it broke into five pieces that became the five mountains of the Marble Mountain area. A beautiful maiden emerged from the egg. Her destination was not revealed. The Marble Mountains are limestone and marble outcroppings and are named for the five elements in nature; fire, water, wood, metal and earth. It was only a 20 minute drive to the mountains and we passed many shops that were selling marble statues. We opted to take the elevator for a small nominal fee because Marble Mountain is all about stairs. Steep Stairs, uneven stairs, long series of stairs, etcetera etcetera etcetera. We explored the recesses of a cave, looked at some shrines, navigated a few sketchy flights of stairs and then headed back out. Additional pagodas and caves were found up another long series of uneven steps. We saw our fill of buddhas and grottos and chose to save ourselves the additional stairs. Once we got back down we walked along the road getting a shout out from all the vendors as we passed. One lady asked me where I was from and I replies where are you from. She said she was from the Moon!
We are still a few kilometers away and the marble shops have already started
Some massive statues
All of these statues are too big to go through a door
Elephantine
A red marble dragon!
Marble mountain in the distance
An even bigger shop with immense statues
The colored stones really allow the details to stand out
We have arrived
Here is the elevator
Lots of trees
He appears to be holding up a umbrella in his right hand. It must be heavy because this statue is buff!
The first grotto at ground level
Not much on the inside
The other marble mountains off in the distance
These other mountains are too treacherous for the public to be allowed to climb on them
The pagoda from the top level
Hey there!
Lets the dragon parade begin
A fancy hotel over by the beach
A secondary pagoda
The writing is made of smaller tiles that have designs on them
Little sheep and deer in this garden of marble
Everybody wants to go to heaven
Having gotten to this level we must descend to another lower level
A glove shop would sell many more gloves to these multi-armed deities
So colorful
The head of a dragon is again made by little blue and white tiles
The dragons clamber up and down the columns
It is jam packed
Love the splendor
Inside is a peaceful lady
Wood and lacquer
The golden idol
Three wooden pieces
Notice the monk in the front making adjustments to the display, that shows the scale of the shrines
Heads up!
Looking back at out first area
Someone must have thrown a stone into the nest of dragons
They are all awake and ready for a fight
Another pagoda
Very uneven and steep. With another 156 steps beyond this point to get to the highest peak in the complex
A very beautiful retaining wall
It is green and lush
Many Hindu and Buddhist grottos are found within the caves
Offerings and goofball in blue
The statue was carved right out of the rock
The story goes that these caves were not open to the sunlight and that some of the roofs of the caves collapsed during bombing raids
The natural light highlights the scale of the roof
Bronzed
Two guys clambered up this broken rock area only to reach a stop sign
Very trick stairs going down to the right then down further to the top of the picture
A passage way between cave chambers. The Viet Cong had a hospital inside these caves during the war. It is very close to a former Air Force base
Another passageway. It looked like another statue but when we got there is was just a rock
Ready, set....play go!
Plaques carved into the wall
Another large statue carved right out of the rock
Sweet hearts
Ashes from some ceremonial burns
Back out into the daylight
I agree!
A boy and his dragon
Limestone bluffs
These bluffs harbored the White Nest Swiftlet a lifebird
The whole complex is huge
Walking down the street
Looking for goodies
Not carry-on sized
Heading out and we pass the other end of the mountain
Sheer cliffs
Another pagoda
The junk man drives a scooter
Cows gotta eat
At the urban pasture
A hard hat for a helmet
New Year is over!
Fun helmets for the kiddos
Are these ogre ears?
Back along the beach
Big hands
Big waves
