Last night we had a traditional Vietnamese dinner of Nachos and Burritos up at the rooftop bar. We didn’t feel like braving the melee and going outside to eat after such a long and tiring day and another very early start this morning . These 6 o’clock starts after not sleeping well are killers. Not to mention the weird dreams about talking gorillas!!
They gave us a packed breakfast to take with us to the airport with a lot of pastries and some fruit, since we were way too early for the usual breakfast, then we were picked up for the ride to the airport.
Not sure why we had to take such an early flight since it was only just over an hour long, and we got to the resort by 11.00. Check in wasn’t until 3pm but they endeavoured to get us into a room a bit quicker.
Since we had such a long wait we decided to take a walk to have a look at the old town which is 15 minutes from here.
The weather has changed dramatically from what it was in Hanoi and it is hot and very humid here, which is more what I was expecting in Vietnam. Consequently it was pretty steamy wandering around the many shops and restaurants which lined a waterway which runs through the town.
Getting there we once again had to run the gamut of motorbikes and cars tearing up the streets, and a lack of decent footpaths made it a risky business. I stayed behind Ross as I reckoned they were more unlikely to run into him rather than me since I seem to be invisible.
There is a nasty looking canal running up the middle of the town and a, so called ‘Japanese’ bridge, which spans the centre of it. One side is lined with little bars and restaurants and we stopped there at one of them when we spotted a concoction called a ‘coconut coffee’ which Ross particularly liked the look of.
It turned out to be exactly like the picture of it and he really enjoyed it. I settled for a mango smoothie which was quite nice also, and refreshing after all the sweating.
Crossing over the Japanese bridge we made our way through all the souvenir shops and past all the wooden boats that were anchored in the canal. The boat drivers all vied for our business but a half hour cruise down the icky looking canal really wasn’t very attractive.
As we got further along the street there were people selling fruit, vegetables and lots of different seafood.
I saw one pan of what looked like the little white snails that we see clinging to walls at home. Not sure how tasty they would be!
Following the map, we went in search of an ATM, since we didn’t have much Dong and needed to get some more. Unfortunately though most of the ATM’s marked on the map either didn’t exist or had long since become defunct.
After one unsuccessful rejection, probably due to the machine having run out of money, I managed to get one to cough up some Dong. It was like a sauna in the ATM enclosure and I barely made it out alive.
Since we had both nearly melted away it was time to head back to the hotel where they had a room ready a little early for us and it was off to one of the four beautiful swimming pools to cool off.
The room here is very nice and spacious, although the lighting leaves a lot to be desired and it is going to be interesting trying to get contact lenses inserted, especially at some unearthly hour of the morning.
Tonight there is a special barbecue night featuring a lot of local dishes which looks to be very promising, so since we really don’t want to venture out again into the humidity we’ll stay here for dinner.
The flight this morning landed in Da Nang which is quite a large city but did not look terribly interesting. The children appeared to be getting out of school at 10.30am which I thought was rather odd, but perhaps they start really early. They were also riding their bikes and walking the wrong way down the road which could be fraught with danger.
Even more so than walking or riding bikes down the correct side of the road.
I am yet to work out why parents here wear helmets on their motorbikes while their children who are perched on the bikes between them, are not wearing helmets. I hate to think what the attrition rate is for motorcyclists in this country. I think it would be rather high. We haven’t seen any accidents yet but I reckon it is only a matter of time. There doesn’t seem to be any speed limits either and everyone just goes as fast as they can.
Tomorrow we have our tour to BaNa which is up in the mountains and features the bridge which is held up by two enormous golden hands. It’s a sort of theme park but is supposed to have lovely views as well so it should be interesting. I believe it is cooler up there anyway.
We just got back from our barbecue dinner which was very nice . The staff seemed to enjoy showing off their traditional fare and explaining how each dish should be accompanied with the various sauces
There were quite a few people there and they initially seated us inside before organising another table in the outside courtyard area. Since the evening has cooled down considerably, it was very pleasant .
The resort is peppered with pockets of lush foliage and lots of yellow hibiscus, so it does seem to be much cooler in here than it is down in the old town. The resort has a shuttle bus which takes guests to the beach which is 20 minutes by shuttle, so that will be something to do on our third day here.
2025-02-11