Da Nang

mistakes and marble mountains

We ended up spending a little more time than planned in Da Nang due to our flight schedules. Turns out, it was a great place to hang out. Da Nang is sometimes known as “Vietnam’s most liveable city” and has a population of about 1 million.

As we had heard, aside from some expensive beach resorts, there isn’t a whole lot for budget travelers to do. It may have been just circumstance, but to us it felt like the least touristy city of all of our stops. Given it’s reputation for being more of a location for living than visiting, it makes sense we had a few unique encounters:

• I had lost my single pair of workout shorts somewhere along the trip and hoped to replace them. After wandering through downtown on our first day, we stumbled across a family-owned swimsuit/workout apparel store. Thanks to my gesturing/sign langage with the owner, we determined she didn’t have what I wanted and she offered to make something for me. After hearing over and over that travelers to Vietnam need to barter and be wary of over-charging, I tried to negotiate the price of my shorts. After some awkward exchanges, I realized that this store operated under fixed-prices only. Whoops! Anyways, a few quick measurements later, I left excited to be getting more custom-made clothing (a sports bra and shorts for less than $7!). When I returned the next day to pick them up, it turns out something was lost-in-translation and I ended up with super tight and short shorts! Not the best for running around countries where it is recommended for women to dress more conservatively. Oh well.

• One of our criteria for choosing a restaurant on a whim is looking for somewhere that it appears there are lots of locals. One night, we wandered by this large restaurant on a lively street that had many tale of locals eating. Many of the waiters scampered away at the sight of us, and finally one waitress came up to us and hesitantly handed us a menu. After realizing it wasn’t translated into English, we tried to ask her about a few common dishes we were familiar with. She looked confused, and typed something into Google Translate in her phone — which translated to “Here comes the goat butcher” (!!!) I nearly burst out laughing while Matt better maintained his composure but we both decided against eating there. Walking home, we were both amused and perplexed by what she really was trying to say — but we also realized that we haven’t gotten very far off the tourist-trail since confusions like this haven’t really happened more. It’s pretty crazy that we can get by only knowing a few words of the local language since most people speak English and the menus are all translated into English and sometimes other languages. A good reminder to try and push ourselves out of our comfort zone, as we shouldn’t need be catered to all of the time. Maybe we should have eaten at that restaurant…

She looked confused, and typed something into Google Translate in her phone — which translated to “Here comes the goat butcher”

• One evening while trying to buy street food outside of a bar, a young Vietnamese guy came up and offered to help us talk with the street vendor. Turns out he studied/teaches English and loves to talk with travelers. He invited us to join his group of friends that were playing guitar and singing. A moment later, this middle aged South Korean hippy man (who was quite intoxicated) stole the show with an excellent rendition of La Bamba. In a “had to be there” sort of way, we all had a great singalong.

• The young guy also had a friend who teaches English in Da Nang and she invited us to spend the next afternoon with her students, they would drive us to Monkey Mountain on their motorbikes and practice English with us! Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and so we couldn’t make the trip, but we appreciated the offer, and were surprised how friendly/welcoming everyone was.
• The hotel owner where we stayed was SO hospitable. After returning one afternoon, she offered us some wine — when she couldn’t find any, instead she poured us glasses of whiskey and some sweet and spicy smoked salmon. We chatted about her daughter who lives in California. She even woke up to see us off for our early flight and packed us bagged breakfast and coffee to go!

• On a random note, we saw this same toad at least 7 times in the exact same place while walking back and forth to our hotel! We came to expect and look for him each time we passed by.

Since the weather continued to be cool and cloudy in Da Nang, we didn’t get to enjoy the huge My Khe beach too much. But, we did explore some caves and pagodas at the Marble Mountains and numerous corner coffee shops! All in all, Da Nang was more than we were promised — we found a cheap and awesome place to stay and had some fun random adventures.