Denang to Hoian

We left Hue this morning to go to Hoian.  It is our last stop before we head home on Sunday am.  It is ~ 3 hour drive along the shore line and through a passage to Denang.  This stretch of land is bordered by the Laos/Cambodia border.  The mountain range divides the countries. We stopped at the top of the passage to take a panoramic view of the Denang city and China Beach down below.  Denang and the famous China Beach is the city where the US occupied Vietnam during the war.  There are currently 1.1 million people living here. When we got out of our van, we were swarmed by some local people wanting us to buy their goods.  We are getting pretty good at saying "No Thanks" and walking away. We now laugh at the poor people who have not mastered this skill and who are literally swarmed by the people pulling on them begging them to buy from their stand. We certainly feel their anxiey because we have been there!   We stopped briefly in Denang to visit the Champ Museum that houses many of the Champ's Hindu statues.  The Champ people owned what is currently the central part of Vietnam however currently there are only ~150,000 Champ people living in southern Vietnam.  The majority of them fled to Cambodia during the war.   We had a neat lunch with the local people.  It only cost the four of us altogether $7.00 US.   After lunch we hiked up the Marble Mountain and a cave that was used by the Vietnam gorilla's as a hospital during the war.  Inside there are beautiful Budda monuments.  We also visted a shop where the local people make enormous marble statues that they ship all over the world.  Beautiful workmanship but very labor intensive.  It is really sad to see how much these people are exploited!  They still only make ~ $2-5 US/day.  The rich are getting richer and the poor stay poor!!!