We’ll share here the story of our stay in Da Nang City.
It was a strategic location during the American War, dividing the North and the South of Vietnam.
Today it’s one of the tourist favorite destinations in the country.
In part, thanks to the beautiful and well preserved beaches. Besides, surrounded by many attractions in the outskirts, it has become a must-visit in Vietnam.
It’s a modern and growing city with lots of new buildings and construction sites.
Close to new attractions like Sun World amusement park and ancient sites from Cham Culture.
Here we’ve learned a lot about vietnamese culture and realized we’d have to re-educate ourselves in order to adapt to local habits. We’d discover we’d have to change our meal times and even learn how to cross a street.
All that while enjoying beatiful cityscapes, relaxing at the beaches and tasting the best coffee in the world!
We loved Da Nang!
Table of Contents
1st Day in Da Nang
Our first impressions of Da Nang City
Already on the way to the hotel, everything we saw through the window left us wide-eyed in amazement. Vietnam, and more specifically Da Nang, didn’t look at all like our expectations.
Out of ignorance, we expected to find ourselves in a visibly poor country. Maybe discover people riding horses on the street wouldn’t have surprised us that much … well… we all know the propaganda that is spread all over Occident about the communist monster…
Besides, everything we had heard about Vietnam prices perhaps fueled that fantasy as well.
In fact, we had booked our accommodation through Booking with a huge discount for being a pre opening. We paid only USD 10 per night for 2 people! For a fairly spacious studio with a balcony, that supposedly even had a kitchenette.
We thought that was backpackers luxury, making the best of a good exchange rate.
However, on the trip from the airport we saw that all the cars were mid-range or high-end. Probably much better cars than the ones in Buenos Aires.
There were also many modern buildings everywhere.
Obviously, we had not done much research before traveling and everything surprised us.
We arrived to our Da Nang Accommodation.
A new, beautiful building, a recently finished work.
You could still smell the concrete … and you could see the dust particles still suspended in the air. A real pre-opening.
When we came in, we were greeted by a very nice girl, but who did not speak English at all… neither Spanish, nor French, nor Italian. So considering we do not speak Vietnamese, communication was more or less successful thanks to some keywords: “booking”, “room”, “Gilda”, “Julián”.
The downside was that we had to occasionally deal with a cockroach, during our stay. However, we understood that, considering the high temperatures in Vietnam and being a new building, it would take them a while until being able to control these horrible bugs.
As a matter of fact, we wouldn’t even say the work was completely finished… Besides, we had only paid USD 5 per person, so we kind of “accepted” it.
On the other hand, the sheets were new; the mattress, new; the air conditioning, also new. We were happy with the cost-benefit ratio, everything was part of the equation.
And perhaps for being ourselves entrepreneurs as well, it seemed logical to us to be quite tolerant. In the end, we knew it was a pre-opening …
They have even placed some decorative paintings in the room during our stay, a clear sign that it was still a “work in progress”.
That first day, after a short nap and not knowing what or where to eat, we decided to skip lunch. Since it was close to 4 in the afternoon, we headed towards the beach. We couldn’t wait any longer to go out.
Getting surprised by everything
On tour trips, we like to walk everywhere. We think it’s the best way to see everything more closely. And you can stop to observe every little thing that catches your attention.
For this reason, we were attentive to everything that was happening around us, under the burning sun and almost 40 ° C.
Recognizing habits
This was not our first trip to Asia. Some habits seemed familiar, such as taking off your shoes to get in any place.
You go into the pharmacy, you leave your shoes at the door. You go into a shop, you leave your shoes at the door. You get in the hotel, you leave your shoes at the door …
We also noticed that, on average, they were rather short in stature. Therefore, being ourselves almost 1.90 m. and 1.75 m., we seemed like kind of giants for the local people.
How to deal with traffic in Vietnam
In this first walk, we also noticed that dealing with traffic and crossing the streets was going to be quite an issue. We would have no choice but to adapt, in order to survive three weeks in Vietnam.
There are many cars and many motorbikes everywhere. You never see people walking. Everybody commutes on a motor vehicle (motorbikes, car, or electric bike), even if their destination is 300m away.
Our technique for crossing the street was as follows: taking a deep breath, looking ahead and start crossing.
Motorbikes and cars generally slow down a bit when someone is crossing. They will dodge you. Just don’t hesitate! Otherwise you may confuse drivers.
Truth is that they seem to be very expert in the traffic that never stops.
Da Nang beach
And so, we got to the beach at almost 5 pm. There was still sunlight and … very few people, but you could tell that people hadn’t left the beach. Instead, they seemed to be arriving.
After sunset, before 6 o’clock in the afternoon, there was no longer a free spot on the beach, it was so crowded.
It actually makes sense, no one wants to be out under the sun when it’s sooo hot earlier. In addition, something that also surprised us was that getting in the sea wouldn’t cool you down, it’s like getting into a bathtub with hot water.
In Da Nang the water is clean and clear. On the sand everything looks very clean as well. There’s not a cigarette butt.
Probably, everyone respected the signs that said that you could not consume anything or leave any waste on the beach.
Sea bathing
There we were, on the sand, with very few Westerners around, wearing swimsuits, of course, realizing that their habits when going to the beach were totally different from what we had ever seen.
Most people come to the beach not carrying anything else apart from what they are wearing and that’s how they get into the sea.
We saw only few children in bathing suits. Many adults and many children just wear their urban clothes to get in the sea.
No kidding, they get in the water with their clothes. Shirts, jeans, shorts, t-shirts, long or short dresses, everything is allowed when it comes to getting into the sea.
We even saw one guy getting in with stockings (jean, shirt, stockings, thus submerged in the sea). And we also saw a group of women dipping their feet in the sea… on low heeled shoes!
For them, we were kind of nudist aliens in swimwear on the beach. We felt quite observed and even photographed.
Walking by the shore.
Late at night, with a breeze running along the beach, we dared to walk along the shore. People kept arriving. Without a doubt, it was the best time of the day to be outside, on the beach.
During our walk, we were surprised by the number of hotels and towers that were being built on the coastline, towards the North.
This gave us the idea that probably on our next visit to Da Nang we will find something very different.
Another interesting thing on the beach in the center of Da Nang is that there are some speakers with functional music, placed every 50 meters. Therefore you could listen to the same music anywhere on the beach. (SOUND ON)
Truth is we did not see anyone with their own audio system playing music. We were again surprised by a little thing.
Around 8:30 p.m. we started our way back to the hotel, planning on taking a shower and then going for some typical Vietnamese food.
Dinner time
To our surprise, we discovered that street food stalls and many restaurants, off the main avenues and away from the tourist areas, were already closed.
Again, warning bells started to sound and we understood that we had to stop thinking like Argentines regarding meals time.
We asked the owner of the hotel, who was already at the reception, at what time they had dinner.
And she confirmed it was more or less between 6 and 8 pm. Afterwards there are few places to dine still open.
It was late, we hadn’t had lunch, all the places where the locals go to eat had already closed, but we still wanted to eat something.
That is why we ended up in a kind of Vietnamese “fast food”, open 24/7, where we tried our first soup. It was just fine, but given the conditions we really enjoyed it.
Let yourself be surprised by small things... like the tables and chairs!!
Now we must comment on a most interesting habit, regarding the tables and chairs on which you sit down to eat.
Whether in non-tourist restaurants or in street food stalls, the furniture that is used, tables and chairs, is identical to the one used in a kindergarten.
For us, they were tiny. Of course, we looked very funny sitting there, with our knees close to our foreheads. Something common for a Vietnamese; for us, definitely, a peculiarity.
This is how our first day in Vietnam went by. Our plan was to go to bed early to recharge batteries for our next day. We wanted to go out for a walk and visit the places about which we had just barely investigated.
2nd Day in Da Nang
Ready for a very hot morning walk?
The temperature at 9 am was already above 38 ° C, we knew we had a very hot day ahead.
We decided to visit the Museum of Cham Culture and, of course, we were going to walk there.
As we said before, whenever we are traveling we like to cover most of our route on foot, so we don’t miss anything on the way.
Our plan was to walk the 3 km that separated the hotel from the museum. We’d cross the famous Dragon Bridge and we’d stop for breakfast on the way.
Big mistake... don't ever leave withouth water or breakfast.
We had no idea of where or what to have for breakfast. We started our walk and soon after a few blocks the temperature began to suffocate us. We had no water (huge mistake !!!) and we started feeling bad.
Fortunately, we found what seemed a chain coffee shop, as if it were the Starbucks of Vietnam. A kind of place we’d never visit in our senses, back home.
But at that moment, the only thing we wanted was to go into an air-conditioned place, sit down, have something cool and relax.
So we just got in Highlands coffee shop.
We ordered what we thought was a matcha iced tea and an iced coffee, along with a slice of lemon pie (at least it looked liked that).
Of course, it did not taste home made, but like frozen processed food. So, we obviously wouldn’t recommend it at all.
Besides we were tacken aback by finding that the drinks came with a few pieces of coffee / tea jelly or something similar.
It was a strange sensation: suddenly something rather solid than liquid rose through the straw. It was horrible for us, although perhaps the shock didn’t help either.
Anyway, we met our goal of freshening up a bit. And so we continued our journey to the museum, buying bottles of water whenever we had the chance. We learned the hard way, but we learned quickly.
We saw on the map that we were close to the Catholic Cathedral. And we rememebered it was mentioned as one of the attractions of Da Nang. It was not on the way to the musem but we took a little detour to check it out.
We didn't feel so curious about the Church as about other temples from Da Nang.
In the end it seemed just a church, not really interesting for us. We didn’t even find it very pretty.
The only thing we could highlight is that being a Catholic church, meeting all western parameters, it was different from the other buildings in its surroundings. And there were signs in Vietnamese. Sure, that was an interesting combination.
Right there, we realized that we were near some pagodas, Buddhist or Taoist temples, which we also wanted to visit.
We set up a short tour to finally reach the museum, including stops at these pagodas that we felt curious about.
We still believed we would like the walk. Besides, we had already learned that we needed to stay well hydrated to enjoy it, so we felt ready to continue our tour.
When we got to the museum, we noticed that our perspiration was not only water, we were sweating salts as well. We saw salt crystals forming on our skin and got a little worried.
Nothing similar had ever happened to us, therefore we started drinking isotonic drinks immediately to keep our salt levels healthy.
Well, let’s get to the important thing, we’re at the museum.
The remains of the Hindu temple My Son are exhibited in the "Cham Sculpture" Museum.
It’s really interesting. You can see many extremely well crafted sculptures and reliefs carved in stone. The My Son temple is estimated to have been built between the 10th and 11th centuries. Besides, in the museum, you can see pots and tools from those years.
Sometimes we Westerners marvel at a church or at any building built back in 1500’s or 1400’s. At the quality of their work and the lack of technology, according to our modern conception, of course.
However, in the museum, we discovered a culture that has records from long before those centuries. We were impressed by the sophistication of the manufacture.
We wonder how it was possible… and what happened that we haven’t heard anything about this at school…
On the other hand, many will wonder why we find remains of a temple inside a museum and not in its original place, where the temple itself is.
It’s not that the Vietnamese do not take care of their culture and historical buildings, quite the contrary.
The answer is that Vietnam has been suffering from wars for thousands of years. First, the territory was occupied by the Chinese Empire, then by the Japanese, then the French came, then the US invasion … Each one made their contribution to destroy something belonging to the Vietnamese culture.
Anyway, when we were about to leave the museum, a few drops of rain began to fall. We were very happy. We thought “a miracle! Now it’s going to get cooler!” But no, not at all.
Rain didn't cool down the environment.
It rained for about 5 minutes, but the floor did not even get. The water fell and automatically evaporated, generating even more humidity in the air. It was crazy seeing floor not getting wet under the rain.
However, while looking at the weather forecast for that day, we did noticed something curious that made us happy.
Afternoons were a bit cooler than mornings, at least that was what the forecast predicted. The forecasted temperature at 4pm / 5pm was 35 ° C and in the morning about 39 ° / 40 ° C.
So we went ahead to see more pagodas.
From there we walked to the Phap Lam pagoda. A pagoda is a tower-type building with several floors, mostly used to practice the Buddhist religion, which is the main religion of Vietnam.
Everything is very impressive inside this place. It looks like nothing we Westerners are used to see. You can find many stone carved Buddha images, drawings, etc.
Something that caught our attention is that inside the temple and on its sides (where the gardens are) there were many people sleeping. At least 50 people, a little after 11 am.
Besides, they didn’t seem homeless people. In fact, we realized that in Vietnam we had not seen any homeless person. Sadly, something very common to see in Buenos Aires, for example.
We came to the conclusion that these people were taking a nap, making the best of the fresh marble floor. It was quite cool compared to the ambient temperature.
We also noticed some people sleeping on beach recliners.
If the day starts very early, like 6 am, to avoid the hottest hours, it makes a lot of sense to take a nap around noon.
We decided to do the same, go back to the hotel to rest a bit. It was already past noon and we felt suffocated.
We needed a shower and a nap.
Relaxing with the air conditioning on to maximum was our only option to make it to the end of the day.
As always, during our walks we found things that caught our attention. As we mentioned before, everyone commutes on a vehicle, people do not walk.
Therefore, the sidewalks fulfill another function. They are used to park vehicles, not to walk on them. Inevitably, then, our walks always involved avoiding obstacles.
We were also struck by the number of marble benches we found all over the city. They are big blocks of polished marble that should weigh about ½ ton each.
Well, it makes sense, considering that a few kilometers away from the city there are the Marble Mountains.
Da Nang is definitely the marble city.
That’s actually why it is frequent to see shops that offer items carved in marble and artisans who craft marble.
That same night we went to the Son Trah night market. The markets are our undoing, and this could not be the exception.
It stands at the foot of the Dragon Bridge, one of Da Nang’s modern attractions. Considering we wanted to see the bridge at night, we would be killing two birds with one stone.
We loved the Dragon Bridge at night.
The bridge is an attraction itself. Its light show makes it very shiny, perfect for pictures. Besides, on weekends and on some festivities the dragon spits fire from its mouth.
On one side of the bridge there is a viewpoint from where we recommend that you take photos of the Dragon bridge, it is one of the best views.
This place is called something like “the viewpoint of love” (the dragon’s eyes are also heart-shaped). It is one of those places where you can put a lock on the railing so that your love lasts forever …
Obviously, there is a store that sells locks a few meters away … Long live love!
And after taking one million pictures of the bridge we headed to the Son Trah night market.
Son Trah night market is something not to be missed. You could find there anything you could look for: souvenirs, food, candies, juices and smoothies, karaoke, etc. Everything is very interesting to see and to try. (Sound On)
We visited the market on a weekday and yet the atmosphere was quite lively. There were very few tourists, it seemed more like a market for locals.
3rd Day in Da Nang
This was our third day in Da Nang and also in Vietnam. We had to come back to Da Nang again before leaving the country, as our flight was departing from this city. Therefore, we put off the visit to Ba Na hills, where the Golden Bridge is, and the excursion through the Marble Mountains.
We had everything ready to go to Ho Chi Minh. Plenty of time to have breakfast and then go to the airport.
From what we had read and from our own (short) experience, we concluded that it was best to adapt to the Vietnamese rhythm of life.
From then on, we'd get up early and eat meals on the local schedule.
So on this third day our breakfast was a Pho, a soup with noodles, vegetables and some meat. It could be beef, pork or chicken. If you wanted, you could add hot pepper, for a good start.
This same dish can also be lunch or dinner. As for breakfast, it is most easily found before 8am. Then many shops or street stalls already stop cooking until noon.
Between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., the most common is to have a cup of coffee. Of course, it should always be after having soup for breakfast.
Vietnam is one of the world's largest coffee producers.
The quality is excellent and there’s a great coffee drinking tradition.
There are coffee shops everywhere and also street coffee vendors. Coffee shops have tiny tables and chairs to sit on, like any restaurant. Something curious is that, following a French tradition, tables and chairs on the sidewalk always face the street.
The coffee is taken hot or cold; alone, with milk or condensed milk. As a courtesy, you’d be offered a glass of tea, which can be hot or cold. Just as in any Buenos Aires cafe you’d get a complimentary glass of water, in Vietnam it’s a cup of tea.
After breakfast we got on a Grab and went to the airport for our flight to Ho Chi Minh.
We did not suspect we'd be living our trip drama at Da Nang airport.
We got to the airport, we tried to check in online, we couldn’t. We asked for assistance from someone on an airport uniform who was standing next to the computers to check in, she couldn’t either. She instructed us to join the queue to check in at the counter. We queued, our turn came, we showed the cell phone where we had the data of our flight and…
OMG the receptionist tells us: “your flight is in 2 months, it’s for August!”
To sum up, there had been a series of problems when we bought our tickets, we had to claim the website for them to send us the tickets and they sent it wrong. We hadn’t realized until then and at that moment we didn’t feel like complaining nor we had enough time. So we looked for another flight and got 2 tickets for USD 140. Three hours later, our new flight left for Ho Chi Minh.
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