Three months in Da Nang
After breakfast on the first of February we went to pick up our keys to our new apartment. The landlady, Mrs. Hony was there and explained a few things about the place, we get a cleaning service once a week.
We went to the Con Market and walked most of the way there. Nadine found the yarn store she heard about after searching google and bought some. We went over to the big C supermarket which is just across the street from the market where we picked up some food and supplies for the apartment. Nadine also picked up some art supplies in one of the stores in the mall.
Sunday morning, the weather was still on the cool side so Nadine still needs to were her sweater. After lunch we walked down to check out the
beach, very wavy with a strong undercurrent.
We walked to the Vin Com Plaza which is very close to the upper most bridge. It took us over an hour to walk there. We saw many interesting sites along the way, we stopped at a yacht parked on the dock and went on, it has two restaurants on board. We looked around for a possible future place to eat. We eventually arrived at the plaza and went inside to explore. This is a very modern and western style mall, it has four floors of shops and restaurants. It was quite expensive. It even had a small skating rink inside on the fourth floor where the food court is.
We heard from Jennifer Brittain and she and Matt might not be able to come to Da Nang because of Chinese New Year and it is hard to find a flight or they are too expensive.
We took the hop on hop off bus in Da Nang and spent the day finding out about the city. We got on and purchased our tickets on the bus, 250,000 each for an all day ride on either the red line or the yellow line. We started with the yellow line. We stayed on the bus for the whole route looking at some of places we might stop. For some reason it goes to the airport. It took the better part of two hours and we continued on the bus until we reached marble
mountain about eight kilometers south of the city. We got off the bus and walked a fair bit being guided by a lady showing us the way. We got the elevator up to the top and wandered around looking in caves and seeing lots of Buddha temples. We spent an hour here and it cost us 125,000 or $3.59 each.
We waited for about 30 minutes for the next bus to come by and we stayed in until the airport so we could switch to the red line. The red line covered more of the city as well as the lady Buddha.we went by the beach and followed the shore line until we arrived at the lady Buddha . She is very large. It was a nice spot to wonder around. We also saw a tall Pagoda near by. Back on the bus after some pictures and we travelled through the fashion district. We ended up at the airport again for the third time today. We switched buses to the yellow line and headed home. On the way we passed the dragon bridge which was also lit up.
We bought some Vietnamese coffee so we tried the little drip coffee gadget and it was very good, so we sat in the patio and drank coffee. While we were enjoying our coffee, Jennifer messaged us and said they are arriving Wednesday morning. We are over the moon excited.
We explored the other side of our area where the expat bars and restaurants are and found a number of them but a lot of them are closed due to the new year holiday. We also found a small store that caters to the expat community call the lotus mart. They made Nadine’s day, they have HP sauce and maple syrup.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Nadine and I went to the airport to pick up Matt and Jennifer, we had the signs Nadine made to greet them with. We showed them around and took them for lunch at our local market. Things were very quiet today
because it is the Tet holiday on the 16th and most of the shops were closed. We also went to the beach for a cold beer.
On the evening of the 15th we headed to the dragon bridge to take in the New Years celebrations. There were bands playing, food stalls, and lots of hearts from Valentine’s Day all lit up. We walked to the other side of the bridge so we could see the fireworks, they started at midnight after everyone hollered happy new year.
Jennifer and Matt packed up the next day and headed for Hoi An for the rest of their vacation. It so nice seeing them again, especially here in Vietnam.
I did some planning for Hoi An as well as a trip to Singapore. We booked a hostel in Hoi An to go and see Jennifer and Matt for an hour or two before they get on their bus to Ne Trang.
Tuesday, Uber to Hoi An, 270,000 dong, our first experience with Uber. The city has changed a lot in the past 4 ½ years. We found the familiar parts but it has grown up so much. We walked across the bridge and found the night market and spent a few hours wandering around.
The hostel was quite nice but a little walk to the main area. Breakfast was included, self serve – eggs, pancakes, and bread and peanut butter. We chatted with a guy from London who spent two months in India traveling. He has been in Vietnam for a couple of weeks and is heading back to the UK next week.
We bought matching outfits, I got a banana shirt and Nadine a banana dress. People were laughing at us quite a bit, I don’t blame them. Nadine also bought a nice little deck dress, red and black. We went back to the hostel where we left our back packs and waited for Jennifer’s message letting us know where they were.
We got the staff there to call us a cab and headed for the beach side of Hoi An to meet Matt and Jennifer. 2:41pm we are in the taxi going to meet Matt and Jennifer and a motorcycle hit us from behind, everybody is ok.
We found them in a little restaurant and we ordered a ham and pineapple pizza, it was surprisingly good. We hung out there for a bit and then they wanted more food so we went to another restaurant close by on the water.They ordered calamari and spring rolls. I had a beer. Nadine had nothing. They left at five in a van to go and catch their bus and I called an Uber cab. He was there in 10 minutes.
I worked on the flights for our trip. We decided to go to Singapore and Malaysia and forgo the Philippines. We also want to go to Hong Kong to see Jimmie.
It was a little after 11 and we decided to walk to the Maharajah restaurant that Sean mentioned in his blog. It was the best meal we have had so far in Danang. We walked back on the beach after a short walk down a road we took when we were looking for apartments, Nadine recognized the restaurant we ate in three weeks ago, the kangaroo.
Jimmie got back to us about the weekend visit and I booked our flights to Hong Kong. We got a message from Val saying the Jimmie wants a lantern from Hoi An as does Val. We are planning to go there tomorrow so we will have a look for some
February 28, 2018, We went to Hoi An for the day. Uber taxi took a detour. He asked us through google translate if he could take a detour. He called us grandparents. Nadine was a little concerned
when he turned off down a sketchy side street.
Not a lot of tourists in Hoi An. We had a nice lunch on the other side of the river. We spend most of the day shopping for clothes for Nadine and the lanterns. We bought six colorful ones, two for Jimmie, three for Val and one for us. We still have a couple at home from the last time we were here. Nadine also picked up two dresses and a pair of pants for herself. We also looked at a painting but it cost $199.00 US. We didn’t buy it. We caught an Uber driver home around 5pm.