The road from Hoi An to the Marble Mountains runs in the lowlands near the sea. Rice paddies abound.
Approaching the famous, and revered, source of marble, stone works and retail shops also abound. And the wares are exotic, beautiful, perhaps overly expensive, and definitely too heavy to carry home.
Fascinating, but we must move on. There are, apparently, five marble mountains, each named after an element. We visit Water Mountain. The view from here, encompassing other mountains, is stunning.
On Water Mountain itself, we visit an impressive seven-story pagoda. Its entryway is flanked by dragons. (I love dragons!) Other shrines on the mountain also have entryways guarded by mythical and semi-mythical beasts.
There are dieties and buddhas in the shrines . . .
. . . and in the caves!
