Short and Sweet
The drive from Hoi An to Da Nang was only about forty-five minutes. It was pouring rain when we left and it was interesting to see all the different modifications people had made for their bikes for just this situation. Many people simply wore full-length ponchos and went for it, but there were also a lot of different homemade specialty covers that went over the individual and parts of the bike. One guy had fashioned a tarp in such a way that it perfectly fit over his entire bike and went up over his body with only a whole for his head to pop out of. Genius.
On our drive we passed dozens of marble shops. The Marble Mountains, which are actually a cluster of five marble and limestone hills, are located a short distance from Da Nang. Extraction was recently banned there and now materials are being transported from other quarries.
This time we had booked a room ahead of time, but it had free cancellation so if we didn’t like it we could just say no thanks and find something else. It turns out that it was a great room only a few blocks from the beach, so we threw down our bags and headed for the water.
Beach Backdrop
The beach here was really lovely. It stretched out forever and there was plenty of space to quietly hang out. The only busy section was the spot where the buses of tourists stop. Oddly they don’t seem to spread down the beach. They just congregate right in that area and do their photo shoots. I love watching a good photo shoot and there have been no shortage of them during our travels. I love watching groups of friends taking their shots of each other jumping in the air and the typical cheesy poses.
The one thing that really bothers me though is the serious photo shoots. I didn’t see any of that here in Da Nang but I have seen it so often in our travels that I feel it’s worth talking about. Full disclosure. I have Instagram. Yes Stacey, we know, we are on your blog and the link is right there. I have selfies on Instagram. Not tons, but some, and most of them have been taken from the privacy of our home before heading out to an event or after a hair appointment. This is in part because I feel like an ass taking a selfie in public and I also just don’t often want a photo of myself that close up. I feel my best photos are taken in dim Barbara Walters style lighting and from a good distance. Mostly though I like photos with my friends and a great deal of the time I post things that I have shot while I’m behind the camera.
I have nothing against you selfie lovers out there, some of my closest friends are selfie takers (you know who you are), but I just can’t bear it when I see women (and so many young girls) posing for shot after shot after shot like they are professional models. I get that we all want a nice picture of ourselves in a beautiful place to post on social media but I feel the world has gone mental with this obsession. Taking a quick snap or two is one thing but if you are posing for five or more minutes I am going to start judging you. Maybe judging is the wrong word. Mostly I am going to think about how you think about and view yourself in the world and I am going to feel sad. This is especially true for the young girls I see. Little girls, as young as upper elementary, I have watched pose with backs arched, bottoms jutting out, hands on hip, hair being flicked. It’s bad enough to see grown women doing it, but the young girls kinda break my heart. I just think that it’s sad to know that what they have learned so far in their short lives is that this is what is important. I grew up reading fashion magazines and was obviously influenced by what I saw on television and in print, but that seems to be nothing compared to what young girls are force fed daily now. I could go on an endless rant about this but no one needs that. I’ll only say one last thing. My niece is a gorgeous little girl but it drove me insane that people were constantly telling her so when she was just a tiny thing. I think it’s important that all little girls are told they are beautiful, but I’d prefer that they got complimented more often on other traits. I tried so hard to always tell her how clever she was, or kind, or anything other than something to do with her looks. In short, I’m asking you to fight your natural instinct to immediately tell little girls how beautiful they are (yes, I’m a monster) and find something else to praise them about.
Okay, I’ve totally gone off the rails. The people on the beach were mostly just having a great time and not taking themselves too seriously. I enjoyed sitting back and watching them capture their happy holiday moments.
City of Lights
I loved how lit up this city was! The bridges, the buildings, the streets, are beautiful at night. There are some lanterns but mostly it’s the bigger architectural pieces that are alight. Some of the taller buildings have light shows on their facades and many bridges are also adorned with multi-coloured bulbs. The Dragon Bridge was pleasing to look at during the day and night. We were not in Da Nang for the weekend when apparently the mouth of the dragon breathes both fire and water, but it was still cool to see.
As we walked toward the bridge we saw a stage had been set up but were not able to get the low down on what was meant to be happening there. All we could get from the guys monitoring the area was that something musical was indeed happening there later that night. An internet search was no more helpful. It was 6 pm and by this point I had gotten Andre to walk around with me for the past 4 hours, after he had initially told me he wasn’t interested in going to look at anything that day. Needless to say we didn’t stick around. We grabbed a taxi and headed home to watch some Netflix.
No Ulterior Motives
Da Nang was super chill. Not a single person approached us to buy anything. It felt bizarre to walk down unobstructed sidewalks, yes sidewalks, without constantly having to say no thank you to people or dodge vehicles. When people talked to us they did so for no other reason than to chat or say hello. It was wonderful.
Our guest house recommended a restaurant down the street for pho and it was amazing. Just one lady cooking up dishes with a baby on her hip. Everything there was fabulous and cheap as chips. A bowl of pho was two dollars. One day Andre ordered Pho and I ordered a rice with mixed vegetables and a bowl of tofu in fresh tomatoes (this was my favorite), and we shared some stir fried greens. It came to eleven dollars. I could have easily eaten every meal at Pho Cuong.
NYE With Friends
A few weeks back Andre had found out that a friend of his was going to be in Da Nang with his fiance for New Year’s Eve. Andre and Devon had once worked together bartending at Vinyl. I had never met Devon but unbeknownst to me I had worked with his brother Eaton when I was bartending at Ceili’s. When Andre made the connection for me I burst into hysterical laughter because I remembered Eaton very well. Let’s just say that Ceili’s had mostly female staff, including bartenders. Eaton was one of a few guys behind the wood and he was a lot younger than most of us ladies. Ladies may not be the right word. We were creeps. Eaton was young and fit and there was an ongoing joke about him doing everything shirtless… poor guy. Anyway, I immediately texted my girlfriend Carol who also worked with us and told her about our NYE plans. We had a good laugh about how much we had sexually harassed Eaton and agreed that he likely could have had a #MeToo claim against us. Ah the good old days! We ended up meeting Devon and Nicole at a tapas place for dinner and I shared this information with them, but neither he, Nicole, or Andre felt bad for him. Hopefully we didn’t scar him for life. It was really nice to spend an evening with some fellow Canadians.
Nicole and I got chatting about fireworks. I had been watching Sydney ring in the new year on my phone. Pause for a fun fact. On a recent inflight magazine I read a blurb about Australians celebrating NYE. Apparently they have a special tradition of dressing up and wearing masks to celebrate. I lived in Sydney for nearly a decade and I never once saw anyone wearing a mask. Maybe in Tassie? Anyway, we had both read that there were to be fireworks launched near the dragon bridge that night. So after dinner we started walking toward the bridge to find a good viewing spot. We had to take a pause on our way there because it had begun to rain again. There had been showers on and off throughout the day. It didn’t last long and we got to the bridge with minutes to spare. We did find it odd that there was absolutely nobody else out and about, but we chose to ignore this information and got ourselves positioned and proceeded to do our own little countdown. I had my GoPro rolling as Andre and Devon screamed happy new year into the empty darkness. Nothing. Crickets. It reminded me of the scene in Garden State when they scream into the great abyss.
We weren’t ready to give up. Maybe their clocks were a bit off. We gave it a few minutes. All of a sudden a loud noise erupted from behind us. We turned to see a restaurant on the corner had basically set off a ton of sparklers all around its exterior. It lasted only moments but it was better than nothing. We laughed about the fact that we ended up right across from likely the only place in Da Nang that had any sort of display.
As we headed back the way we had came we passed a couple guys who had been waiting for the fireworks for hours. Bless. We had all read the same information about the fireworks and chalked it up to the fact that maybe they had been cancelled because of the rain. It seemed only logical to stop somewhere for one last drink and we found ourselves at lounge with a bunch of locals who looked at us with some curiosity as we sat down. We ordered a round of homemade beers and then called it a night.
It was a quick two days in Da Nang and we would have stayed longer, but we had already booked a flight before arriving there.
181 days in…
Last stop in Vietnam is Da Lat.