Travels in Vietnam: Da Nang

The next country on our tour of Asia is Vietnam. We had heard many good things about Vietnam and I had co-workers who are Vietnamese and gave suggestions on where to go. So we took their advice and started in the coastal city of Da Nang.

About two weeks before we arrived, we applied for a 90-day Visa on the Vietnam Government website and were granted them in a few days; it was a relatively simple process. We landed in Da Nang, a famous city to many Americans who were alive during the war with Vietnam (and we learned more when we visited some of the museums around the city).

Tony, the taxi driver who picked us up from the airport, offered to take us around the city to the cultural sites, the same as the taxi drivers we had in Bali and Java. We made a few excursions with him, that you’ll read about in upcoming posts. He took us to our hotel, the Seashore, where we booked for a month. We were located on the 10th floor, with a great view of the beach and ocean, as it was right across the street!

Easily our longest stay of any place thus far, we were excited (and a bit nervous) about an extended stay. Staying only a week or so in every previous destination for nearly five months made us crave a longer visit, and this vacation city, we thought, was the perfect place to rest and recharge. The hotel also had a rooftop pool that we enjoyed, and tables to eat which we took advantage of when we didn’t feel like venturing out. The view was great from the top and we could see the whole city.

We stayed in the Son Tra neighborhood in the north of Da Nang, at Man Thai beach. There was a beach bar across from our hotel, that was quite popular with tourists, where I would drink a strawberry tea with diced strawberries and Jessica would have a Vietnamese iced coffee most days after beach walking in the morning. The first morning, though, we had a watermelon tea and coconut water.

Da Nang is very popular with Vietnamese tourists especially in the summer time. We can definitely attest to that, as there were many families at the big restaurants near the hotel that we would see when we would walk in the evening, and also at the beach.

We learned that most Vietnamese, tourist or local, go to the beach starting at 4am-6am, and then later, after 4pm, as they want to avoid the sun. The sun comes up really early, and we asked the locals we met what time they rose in the morning, and they all said before 6pm. Our driver, Tony, said he woke up at 4am and would go swimming before starting his day.

Then in the afternoon, once the sun was on the decline, we saw the beaches packed with people, beginning at 4pm every day until dusk.

We also visited the more popular beaches, My Khe and Da Nang Beach, but only one time each, as we had the more relaxed beach across the street. These other beaches did have loungers to sit and order drinks and hang out all day.

Our end of the beach was where the fishing happened. When we would walk the beach in the late afternoon we would often see four or five people with a rope tied to them, pulling in something from the water. We would often have to walk under or step over the rope, but they would do this for more than an hour, so we never saw what they pulled in. Eventually, we did, and they were actually working in teams, to pull in these massive nets of fish.

They would then sell them right on the beach; a scale would come out and motorbikes would take the squid to the various markets. This also happened very early in the morning too.

At night, the fishing boats would be out on the water all night, and would sell their catch at 4am on the beach. At first, we were a bit nervous about all the boat lights and couldn’t fathom that they were all fishing boats; we were expecting some kind of invasion.

It was also pretty to look at the city from the beach and our balcony at night.

Usually my favorite pictures are taken walking around the city, and here are some that give a flavor of Da Nang.

We had such fun in Da Nang, and did a whole bunch of things, from museums and temples to neighborhood walks and churches, eating so much good food, going to the movies, getting a haircut, a lot of massages, and even getting a teeth cleaning! There’s a lot to come from Da Nang, stay tuned!