Vietnam Part 1: Da Nang (August 3 – 4)

I have to start off with the crazy travel day I had getting from Bali to Vietnam. Distance wise….it’s not that far, (Only 1,560 miles), but there were no non-stop flights and really no easy flights.  Instead I took three flights that were only 81 miles more, but countless hours more. (My flights were in miles:  562+677+382 = 1,621 miles).

Crazy Travel to get to Vietnam:

So the best route I could find was the following:

1. Air Asia: DPS to SIN (562 miles) – Go through immigration, get Singapore visa on arrival, and recheck my bag with Vietnam Airlines
2. Vietnam Airlines: SIN to SGN (677 miles) – Wait an hour for the check in counter in Singapore to open (even though they are all sitting there behind the desk doing nothing and looking at all the passengers waiting to check bags in) before I could check in my bag. I did watch a “big meeting” of all the agents at 10:30am right before they opened up and once the meeting was over, all the baggage areas opened up at once. What’s different is only one line per flight so you had to really pay attention to your destination city and flight number and then hurry to get in line before it was too long.

• Arrive SGN and formally apply and obtain Vietnam’s for Visa. I had to submit my pre-approval visa letter, visa application, one photo and $45 US cash. It was actually less painful than I expected, as most of the people on my flight were locals…maybe it paid off to fly Vietnam Airlines vs other airlines that cater to tourists more. Yea!
• Once I had the visa, I had to clear immigration, get my bag, walk all the way over (to the very run down and barely standing) domestic terminal. I actually think the building may be close to be condemned.   In the waiting area, there were literally at least 4 buckets collecting dripping water. So now I got to check my bag in for the third time in the day. Fun times!

3. Vietnam Airlines: SGN to DAD (382 miles) – This was my final flight. I was close, but of course it wasn’t that close. My flight was delayed a few hours and ended up leaving 3 hours late. As you can see in the photo below, my flight left 5 minutes before another scheduled flight. So two flights left five minutes apart but I was finally on my way.

So I left the villa at 3:30am in Bali and finally got to my hotel in Vietnam at 8:00pm. Long travel day, but I arrived and was ready for dinner and a large beer!   It was kinda fun as I had breakfast in Bali, lunch in Singapore and dinner in Vietnam. Not often are you able to have three meals in three different countries.

A nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Chicago is 1,800 miles and about 4 hours…so what should have been a 4 hour flight if there was one took 14 hours of transit.  Crazy!

Da Nang City

When I came to Da Nang, I knew this was the closest airport to a few cities I was interested in (Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue), but I hadn’t done enough research to really plan out where I would go and for how long. I guess that is the beauty of traveling with an open schedule. From those I had spoken to, they all said to skip Da Nang as there wasn’t anything to see or do and focus on Hoi An and Hue. I figure there has to be something in Da Nang, so I would spend a little time there when I woke up before grabbing transport elsewhere.

So once I checked into my hotel, I headed to the riverfront as that is where most of the restaurants and bars are and I knew there would be other things to see. I’m glad I did as the riverfront did come alive at night. There are two major bridges and both are lite up at night including the famous dragon bridge.

Dragon Bridge

The Dragon Bridge runs over the River Han in Da Nang, Vietnam and took almost 4 years to build and opened in May 2013 so it’s fairly new. I learned it cost 1.5 Trillon Dong which sounds like so much money…but it’s about $88 million US. The bridge was built in the shape of a dragon and breathes fire every night at 9pm. Unfortunately, I got there a little too late to see it, so I have to take the word of others that it still breathes fire. It was fun to watch from the balcony where I had a late dinner as it changes colors from Orange, to green to blues to purples. Then during daylight, the body of the dragon is a bright gold color. So here are a few night and day photos of the dragon bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traffic in Da Nang

The traffic in Da Nang was crazy. I remember the crazy traffic in Ho Chi Man City from six years ago being nuts, but Da Nang was also bad…but in a different way. Here, the traffic just goes when it wants and with little to no road rules. There aren’t really any stop signs or stop lights – even at major intersections. Cars, motorbikes, bikes and walkers all just go when they want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I was walking and trying to cross the main streets (with 3 or 4 lanes of traffic), I felt like a human player in the 1980’s Atari game called Frogger (remember that game…and how it worked)? You really had to move across one lane, look both ways, then sideways, forward, maybe back and then try to continue forward. Frogger was the best way I could describe what was happening. It was harder at night as some cars would speed up, some used headlights (while others did not) and the streets were not well lit so it was a little tough to determine speed and distance of the cars and if you could make it across or not. So crossing the street really became a game of chance and bravery.

While I sat upstairs having dinner, I was amazed just watching the traffic whizz by and watching tourist try to cross the four lanes of the busy riverfront street. It was difficult and entertaining. For this reason, I decided to get my local beer shot by the crazy traffic filled river front and added the country’s flag here as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traffic at Busy Crossroads

During the daytime, the traffic was just as entertaining but easier to maneuver. I was shocked at the major intersections. At this major intersection, including two directions entering/exiting a major bridge, you had five ways of traffic. There were no traffic lights and cars and motorbikes were all coming at the same time and trying to avoid each other. So this means a lot of honking and swerving. I finally stood there to watch and was in amazement for a while. So I took a short video of it. This video wasn’t actually the worst of it, but it gives a sense of what the streets were like. Towards the end of the video, I noticed someone dropped something from a scooter coming off the bridge. So they pulled over on the bridge side (which is a traffic lane not a shoulder), walked back to pick it up and avoid cars. I zoomed in, but it was hard to see…but you can get the gist of the craziness.

Video of Traffic in Da Nang or click on http://youtu.be/UzcRk5PDc8w

The Museum of Cham Sculptures

It sounded like the main must see site in Da Nang was the Museum of Cham Schulptures, so I figured I should go see it.  I learned that prior to the establishment of the museum, the site was known as the “garden of sculptures” and many Cham sculptures that had been collected in Da Nang and elsewhere had been brought there over the preceding twenty years.  It was a nice museum to visit, but it was so hot I took a quick look and moved on.  Here were a few of my favorite  sculptures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to view More about Museum or go to: www.chammuseum.danang.vn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

China Beach

This is the beach that all the American Soldiers went to during the Vietnam war.  It’s actually called “My Khe Beach” but all the Americans called it China Beach and I learned the hard way, the Vietnamese don’t call it this as I was quickly corrected whenever I mentioned China Beach.  They don’t like this name.  I got a couple photos of it when I drove by on my way to Hoi An.  Since the beach stretches all the way to Hoi An, I didn’t stop to get out and walk around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marble Mountains

The Marble Mountains are halfway between Da Nang and Hoi An and I asked my driver to stop so I could explore them more on my way to Hoi An.  The mountains are a cluster of five marble and limestone hills.  The five ‘mountains’ are named after the five elements; Kim (metal), Thuy (water), Moc (wood), Hoa (fire) and Tho (earth).  All of the mountains have cave entrances and numerous tunnels, and I went in them all to explore and man was it hot!  I felt like I was dripping when I came out…oh wait – I was dripping with sweat but the climb up was worth the effort as it was a beautiful view of Da Nang and the ocean.   Several buddhist sanctuaries can also be found within the mountains.

 Here are some of the photos I took from the hike to the top. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was an elevator to reach the very top of the mountain, but the hike up was half of the battle and worth the effort as there were many nice views and pagodas, temples and other things to see along the way.

 

 

 

 

Here are some of the photos I took from inside the first cave:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Here are a few photos from the view once I climbed to the top of the stairs inside the cave:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logistics:

Hotel: Moonlight Hotel Da Nang – www.moonlighthoteldn.com.vn

This hotel was fine for a night. The hotel was in a decent location about 4 blocks from the river front and easy to walk and close the airport. I would stay here again if I was passing through town as it was a modern hotel that did just fine for one night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Restaurant:

• Waterfront Da Nang (I went for dinner) – www.waterfrontdanang.com.  Really great dinner right on the busy river front.  I got a table upstairs and outside to watch all the action on the riverfront and the traffic.

 

• Bread of Life (I went for lunch) – www.breadoflifedanang.com.  I read about this restaurant and made it my mission to find it and was so impressed with the food and service I would return for sure if I ever came back to Da Nang. The mission is to provide the Deaf with opportunities, training and employment as the Deaf make all items and the breads fresh from their bakery. I actually went against my major travel rule and ordered Mexican food in a non Spanish speaking country (and I never do as I’m always disappointed). But this time, I was very impressed as the lunch was very tasty.  There were also bakery goods so I got a brownie to go and it was very tasty and a treat since I haven’t had a basic brownie in a long time.