The Marble Mountains are located around 9 km from Da Nang city and are one of those attractions that frequently touted as “must see”. There are five mountains in total and they are named after the five basic elements in Eastern philosophy: Mount Metal, Mount Plant, Mount Water, Mount Fire and Mount Soil. The mountains are steeped in interesting history, but it’s the legend of Marble Mountain that I like the best (being half Welsh I got a lot of time for dragons). Many many years ago, when times were simpler and man was rugged, a rather large dragon rose from the oceans and laid an egg inland. The egg grew to a gigantic size and when it eventually hatched after a thousand years (ancient dragons were known for a very long incubation period) it left behind five fragments of egg shell which formed, yes you got it, the Marble Mountains.

I visited the mountains with my better half, so she says, during the Tet holiday and the beginning of the covid pandemic. It was not as busy as expected and we spent most of our time on top of Mount Water, which is the mountain where you should spend most of your time, and inside the Hell Cave. I was unaware that the cave was called the Hell Cave at the time, and I would go on to label my experience “the heaven and hell mountain”.