Vietnam - Part 3

Day 4ish: Da Nang

Mercifully, the flight to Da Nang is quite short, just over an hour. 

We didn't bring any checked bags, so we got through the airport pretty quickly and grabbed a cab to the hotel. Immediately it was apparent that the Big Fancy Resort Hotel we had picked weeks ago was way fancier than we were. The room was very spacious, and featured a king size bed, rainfall shower and very large tv. The absolute best part of the room though (and presumably our motivation for choosing it) was the private balcony overlooking the beach. Not only could we see the ocean, but as long as the patio doors were open we could hear the crashing surf. We kept the balcony door open pretty much all the time when we were in our room because we both love the sound of the ocean.

Our first morning in the big fancy hotel we decided to try their big fancy breakfast buffet. Clearly catering to their international clientele, the buffet had a myriad of different cuisines featured. Of course there was Vietnamese (pho), but also American (streaky bacon, waffles, pancakes, cereal), British (baked beans, grilled tomatoes), what I'm going to guess was both Japanese and Korean (sticky rice, steamed vegetables, chicken curry), along with a whole host of pastries and desserts that disguised themselves as acceptable breakfast foods.

We assembled ourselves a smorgasbord of options including potato wedges (which I ate with chopsticks) and American style bacon (which neither of us has had since we got to Australia, also eaten with chopsticks). It may not have been authentic Vietnamese cuisine, but the bacon in particular was amazing.

For our first day in Da Nang, we decided to check out the marble mountains, a cluster of 5 peaks just on the edge of the city. As the name implies, the mountains are made of marble. They have been partially carved out, creating a series of caves that contain carvings and temples, connected by winding staircases and tunnels of varying size. The sides and top of the mountain are covered with lush greenery: palms, moss and vines hang down the cliffs and over the edges of the caves. It was very slightly drizzling by the time we got there, which made the whole place feel even more lush, jungle-y and mystical.

I've been finding it very hard to describe a lot of the sights we have seen in Vietnam. I feel like I don't fully have the language or comparators to do it justice. All the plants here are so lush and green, but look very different from plants at home. There are way more palms and plants with big broad leaves. Many of the broad leaves have a wet or waxy look to them, somehow making them look even more green. The full effect is that many green spaces look very tropical and jungle-y.

We explored pretty much every inch of the Marble mountains. Some of the structures were relatively new, but others were very very old. While the place clearly has a lot of tourists, almost none of the signage is in English. This is pretty common in Vietnam, and makes it a bit harder to learn about what you are looking at. Normally, when we travel Justin will research the attractions/things to eat in the area, and I will research the history of the area to help give context to the place we are seeing. It is much harder to find information about Vietnam than I was expecting. A lot of the English resources are pretty sparse and limited on details. We didn’t have an official tour guide for the marble mountains, so we didn’t always fully understand what we were looking at, but we still enjoyed all the sights. 

After the marble mountains, we headed back in the direction of the hotel. We grabbed some coffee along the way. The weather had gotten a bit worse, and it was Christmas Eve, so lots of nearby restaurants were closed. We grabbed some pho from the hotel and went back to our room to relax for a bit. At some point, Justin decided he wanted to try out the hotel's rooftop infinity pool. It was still drizzling, and it had become very blustery. It was probably only about 19 degrees (albeit a warm 19 degrees). So off he went into the (surprisingly) unheated hotel pool. Not to be outdone, of course I got in too. You could tell The Vietnamese guy working up there thought we were crazy. After our quick dip, we enjoyed a hot chocolate and a beer poolside (19 degrees in Vietnam feels much warmer than 19 degrees at home, and it was still pretty humid) before heading back down to our room.

We relaxed in our room for a while before heading out to check out the Da Nang night market and dragon bridge. The night market is essentially exactly what it sounds like: a market that only opens at night. Like many of the other markets we had seen, there seemed to be no limit to what you could buy there: food, clothing, souvenirs, toys, etc. It was busy, but less crowded than some of the markets we had seen in Ho Chi Minh. We walked through the stalls looking at everything, as people gawked and commented on Justin’s hair. The mohawk got some attention in HCMC, but in the smaller city of Da Nang, it was a full blown spectacle.

After the market, we headed to a rooftop bar with a good view of the dragon bridge. The dragon bridge connects one side of Da Nang to the other, and the supports of the bridge are built to look like a dragon. There is a big dragon head at one end, and on the weekends it breathes fire. We posted up in the bar and ordered some drinks. The passion fruit daiquiri I got was amazing, but the dark & stormy Justin ordered was made with tequila instead of rum. It was pretty weird, but of course he still drank it. At 9 pm they shut down traffic on the bridge and the dragon did in fact breathe fire. It wasn’t the most impressive thing we have ever seen. I recognize how ridiculous that sounds. How could a bridge that breathes fire be unimpressive? But the actual fire breathing doesn’t really last that long, and there isn’t a lot of variety. Its just a couple big streams of fire. We had to remind ourselves that this is a functional bridge that also shoots out fire. Not a specific fire shooting device. Definitely still worth seeing.

Day 5: Da Nang for Christmas

We had a pretty leisurely morning on Christmas. We coffee-shop-hopped our way into the main part of town, checking out some local sights along the way (a famous bridge, an art park, the river). We had pre-booked spa packages for the early afternoon, so at 1 we headed towards the spa. The next 90 minutes was some serious relaxation as we both got full body massages. That was followed by 60 minute facials, and then time in the sauna. By the time we were done, we were both very relaxed, but also starving. We headed to a nearby cafe for some bahn mi. We had essentially skipped lunch, and were both still hungry, so we then walked to another place for some pho. Realistically, we probably didn’t need two dinners, but why not. It was Christmas. We walked on the beach for a while, before heading back to the hotel. We still had some time before we were scheduled to talk to people at home, so we headed up to the rooftop bar to have some drinks and enjoy the view. It wasn’t Christmas in Nova Scotia, and we were missing everyone at home, but it wasn’t a bad day overall.

Also, I’m not sure what that Vietnamese massage therapist did to me, but the day after the massage, my muscles were incredibly sore. But then the day after that, I miraculously felt fantastic. No idea what she did, but it was great.

Day 6: Da Nang to Hoi An

On our next day, we were scheduled to head to Hoi An, a smaller, even more ancient town. Before we left for Da Nang, we re-visited one of our favourite coffee places near the hotel. Justin humored me in my desire for breakfast pho, though he didn’t partake himself as he can’t wrap his head around soup for breakfast.

Da Nang and Hoi An are close enough that you can take a taxi from one to the other. Along the way we passed through a bunch of rural communities. There was even one point where we had to slow to a near stop as a farmer shepherded some cows across the road. When we got to Hoi An, it was too early to check into the hotel. But we were able to drop our bags there, and get an overview of what was in the area from the concierge. One of the things Hoi An is known for is its custom tailoring. You can have clothes made to order within a couple of days for relatively cheap. They also do leather goods, including shoes and bags. Pretty much any textile fabrication, they can do it. Justin & I were both intrigued by this, and decided we wanted to check it out. The hotel recommended a good tailor and shoe maker that we should try. Since we only had about 48 hours in Hoi An, if we wanted things made we had to order them on the first day. We walked around the old town, checked out a bunch of leather and clothing shops, and got some bahn mi along the way. Eventually, we decided to go with the tailor shop that was right near our hotel. It had very good reviews and was very close by for any alterations & pick up. The woman who ran the shop, Layna, was tiny but vibrant. She insisted that Justin looked just like David Beckham. At first we didn’t understand who she was talking about. Then she showed us a picture of David Beckham on her phone, to which both Justin & I burst out laughing. I’m not sure if it's because we were tourists and they were just trying to flatter us, but Vietnamese women love Justin. Layna was not the only one to comment on how handsome she thinks he is. 

We looked through the design books in the shop. I picked out two dresses: a work one and a casual one, while Justin found a shirt & a pair of pants he liked. Then it was as simple as pickout out our fabrics, getting measured and then we were good to go. They told us they would text the next day when they were ready for us to come in and try things on. Justin also decided to get a pair of shoes made. 

Once our clothing orders were in, we headed back to the hotel to check in and get things settled. Our room was lovely, with a little balcony overlooking the pool. Watching tv in other countries can be quite entertaining, so I decided to see if we got any local channels. The tv menu had a music section, and I ended up watching a bunch of strange Vietnamese pop music videos that had very melodramatic story lines. Eventually, Justin got bored of my music video colour commentary, and we headed out to check out the Hoi An night market & lanterns. 

The town of Hoi An is known for its lanterns. They are especially prevalent around the full moon, which Dec 26th happened to be. There is a river that runs through the middle of the old town, alongside the night market. During the full moon, all the boats on the river have little paper lanterns on them, as do all the surrounding shops. You can also buy little floating candles in paper boxes, and put them into the river. All the lanterns light up the street and river beautifully. It was one of those scenes that pictures just don’t seem to do justice to. We walked through the night market, and eventually found a little out of the way food stall to grab some dinner from. We wanted to try Cao lau, a noodle soup that is specific to Hoi An. The food cart was run by a middle aged lady, who laughed at Justin’s hair, gave us our noodles, and in a bossy but very welcome way, showed us what to add/how to eat them. The Cao Lau was great - less brothy than pho, with thicker chewier noodles and crunchy fried bits of wonton. I still like pho best, but Justin prefers Cao Lau. After dinner we wandered a bit more,  split what was essentially the Vietnamese version of a banana crepe, and grabbed a drink while watching all the lantern lit boats float down the river. Overall it was a good day.

Day 7: Chilling in Hoi An

Our first full day in Hoi An was the only day on the trip where we had absolutely nothing planned. No travel, no tours, no set itinerary. We decided the night before that we should take this day to enjoy some much needed downtime. Keep in mind that Justin & I both worked right up until the hours before we left, and then jumped into some intense traveling. Da Nang and Hoi An were relatively cool (probably 23 degrees on average), but HCMC was very hot and sweaty, which we both weren’t used to. The intense heat in the city combined with all the fun coffees meant that neither of us felt very hungry, despite all the walking we were doing. We ended up accidentally not eating very much in those first few days, and were definitely feeling the fatigue repercussions a few days later. 

Aside: apparently not feeling hungry when it's hot is the result of growing up in a relatively cool place. I asked some of my Australian friends if they experienced the same thing, and they all said no. I guess it's a Canadian thing? 

We spent our day in Hoi An relaxing by the beautiful hotel pool. There were english books at the hotel (no doubt left behind by other guests), so I found a nice romcom easy read that I ripped through over the course of the day. We used the grab app to have some bahn mi delivered to us for lunch, which we of course ate poolside. Later in the day, we did go out to try on the clothes we were having tailored. Nothing required any major alterations, so we would be told we could pick them up later in the evening. That night we had more cao lau, this time at a place that was recommended to us by a friend of Justin’s. We also tried something called a white rose dumpling: sort of a chewy, jelly-like wrapper around pork (I think) filling, topped with crunchy fried onions and chili sauce. They were good, if a bit weird. We walked around the old town for a bit, but headed back to the hotel as we had a tour booked for very early the next morning.