A continuation of Vietnam travels from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to 3 days in Da Nang, Vietnam 2017. The post covers where we stayed, what we ate, how much we spent, etc. Photos were taken with the Fujifilm X100F and maybe some iPhone 6 photos…
Early flight to Da Nang… restaurants in the domestic terminal in HCMC…
Instead of staying in HCMC the full 7 days, Law and I decided to explore the central-coastal city of Da Nang, Vietnam 2017. Khanh suggested it to us while we were hanging out because he just finished teaching a photography workshop there and said central Vietnam was a place we definitely had to visit. Next thing you know, we booked our tickets ($80USD round trip through Vietjet Air from HCMC) for 3 days and 2 nights to Da Nang. By changing the itinerary of our trip, we had to cancel our Airbnb early… the host didn’t like the idea but still refunded us for the canceled days. It was a dick move on our part and said we didn’t mind to just pay for the rest of the booked days… but the host said it was fine. We left them a positive review of course… not sure if we got a positive review though… lol. The new plan now was to spend two days in Da Nang and one day in Hoi An. Hoi An was a tourist city about 1 hr from Da Nang. Unfortunately, we got tired out and just spent time our time in Da Nang…
Out of all the places to eat, I chose to eat pho for breakfast… it wasn’t bad for $5.50 USD…
During our shuttle ride to the jet plane, I spotted a huge spider…. couldn’t take my eyes off of it…
The flight attendants had some european influenced uniforms on…
Even Law took photos…
One reason for visiting Da Nang was to eat Mi Quang….
lol…
Countryside views…
The size of Da Nang’s International Airport is probably the size of 1 terminal in the US…
Law and I didn’t have an itinerary to follow so we decided to walk the streets…
The true backpacker…
Law and I found a breakfast spot while walking around… they served banh mi with eggs and combination meats…
For some reason, I started drinking iced black coffee with sugar… I guess cafe sua da was just getting too sweet…
The small breakfast place was run by this really nice, sweet woman… We were drenched in sweat and offered us a place to wash up a little.. she even showed us photos of her daughter in the states… Vietnam hospitality was really comforting…
We walked a little further and had to stop by a cafe to cool off from the heat…
We decided to take an uber to the hostel and passed the dragon bridge…
Barney’s hostel was named after Barney from How I Met Your Mother’s TV show by an Italian and his vietnamese wife… check out the theme…
Our room and bunks… Just FYI, the AC is only turned on in the evenings and off during the day from what I remember lol.
For lunch, we went next door to try some mi quang…
I had the regular Tom Thit bowl…
Mi Quang is a popular dish in Da Nang with different variations from a bunch of restaurants… just walk down the street and ask a local where their favorite mi quang restaurant is and they’ll point you in the right direction….
Law and I decided to explore the beach afterwards… if you look closely you can see the Lady Buddha statue in the back…
After getting back from the beach, we asked the hostel for recommendations on what to eat next… they suggested Ba Duong Banh Xeo…
Late August 2017, it’s hot and humid in the evening…
Don’t expect great service because things move fast and if you’re not ready to order by the time you’re seated… you’re gonna be waiting for awhile…
Hot weather calls for cold drinks…
THE SAUCE. It’s called ‘nuoc leo’ and is made from pork liver and peanut sauce…
Sticks of nem nuong for days…
How banh xeo is made… times 10…
Decided to explore the streets a bit and got some tea…
Next morning…
Forgot exactly where this guy biked from but he’s a Chinese backpacker traveling by cycling through VN…
We decided to go on a tour to Ba Na because it was cheaper to purchase a ticket and take a shuttle bus…
Ok… should one go to Ba Na Hills? Yes and no…. Yes, for its beautiful scenery and photo ops and no, because its a super touristy spot and really random shit all over the place lol…
These were just photos of the entrance area before the cable cars…
Ba Na holds the world’s longest cable car system (~5k m long) and the longest gap from departure and arrival station (~1,291 m)…
Super European influence…
Catholic church in Ba Na Hills…
A place where you can rest…
Pale skins everywhere…
The ultimate tourist trap…
Some German entertainment?
Vietnamese BBQ chefs…
Sure why not…
Finally back at our hostel, decided to skip the trip to Hoi An, and just chilled on top of the hostel balcony area…
Once it got cooler, we decided to walk by the river…
I played around with the x100F long exposure…
Not bad…
We stumbled up on this street food cart along the river…
It’s called banh trang kep… reminded me of a crispy quesadilla without the cheese. For $0.50, definitely recommended!
Toppings…
Back to walking around…
Da Nang’s Dragon Bridge or Cau Rong…
Would I recommend checking out Da Nang? Yes! I probably would make a trip there while in Vietnam because the atmosphere is so chill and the people are nice, compared to HCMC.
Full album here: https://www.danhphan.com/Travel/Explore-Vietnam-Da-Nang-2017/
As always thanks for checking out the post and if you have any questions or comments, just email or reply in the comments section!
Danh Phan
http://www.dtphan.com
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