Da Nang, Vietnam

On 22 November Douglas and I left for Da Nang, Vietnam. It was an hour and ten minute flight, non-stop. We arrived around 10:30 am. Da Nang is located on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. Unlike Hanoi, its air is fresh, the sky is clear, and the streets are not overly crowded. We flew into Da Nang International Airport which was of a decent size and impressively clean. During the Vietnam War, the airport was known as Da Nang Air Base. It was a major United States military base. It was a bit surreal to know we were at such a place.

We caught a taxi to our hotel. The taxis in Da Nang are slightly more expensive than those in Hanoi, but still much cheaper than most in the United States. Our twenty minute ride was just around $10. As always, we saw a few interesting sights along the way. 

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa. This five-star resort was fabulous in every way. While checking in at the front desk, staff members brought out glasses of ice-cold ginger lemon tea. I had something similar in Hanoi, but this one tasted like nothing I’d had before. It was so refreshing. It was so good, in fact, that we asked the staff for two more glasses during our checkout. 

This bridge pictured, called Dragon Bridge, has been open to traffic for only eight months!

This is the back of the bridge. The head is a half mile or so down the other end. It can breathe fire and shoot water!

I can see falling asleep while riding in the car...but on the back of a motorbike? Now that is what you call tired!

We assume the thigh highs were on to protect her skin from the sun. Many of the locals cover their skin, regardless of the heat, to avoid getting darker. Wearing sunscreen is as far as I will go for protection!

Bikes parked on the sidewalk are very common. Some people even drive on the sidewalk in Hanoi.

Ginger lemon tea...yum!

The hotel sits directly on Nuoc Non Beach. We had a beautiful ocean view room that came with a balcony furnished with a table, chairs, and a cozy round sofa chair. The room was fairly large with a walk-in closet for our luggage. Personally, I feel the best part of the room was the king-sized bed that was superbly comfortable.

Smartest idea ever...all hotels should incorporate a walk-in closet in the room.

As nice as this setup was, I did not lay outside. I have never enjoyed laying out in the sun.

Within an hour of our arrival, I changed into my swimsuit and Douglas changed into his golf clothes. He scheduled a round of golf at Montgomerie Links Golf Course up the road and I planned to lounge and play in the pool while he was gone. At first I volunteered to go since I know Douglas enjoys teaching me to play golf and seeing me watch him. But shortly after I was informed that there were no golf carts and we would have to walk the entire 18 holes. That was all I needed to hear to quickly let him know that I was out!

Just returned from golf...apparently he didn't do well, but had a blast regardless.

I did laps through the entire pool...so much fun. I love swimming!

This area of the resort was nice for relaxing since it was shaded by the trees.

While Douglas was golfing I stopped by the spa to try and set up an appointment. We have never done a couples massage and I thought it would be a nice treat and perfect time to do it. I asked the woman working at the front desk about packages we could do as a couple. There was a special promotion that weekend which included a body wrap, scrub, facial, massage and bath in a private villa for four hours. The cost was $245. Although that is a lot of money, I knew it was a great deal for two people to receive those treatments over four hours. I scheduled our appointment for the next day and began to give the woman our room information. Then she said, “Okay, that will be $245 per person.” Clearly I misunderstood something during our transaction. As great as that price was, there was no way I was going to put out nearly $500 towards spa treatments. That was more than both our plane tickets and a one night stay at the resort! I thought to myself, no thank you kind lady, we will just scrub and massage one another in this beautiful hotel room we are already paying for. Thanks though.

The resort has three restaurants; Pool House, Beach House, and Green House. Each served wonderful dishes that were reasonably priced. My favorite meal was a toss-up between the seafood spring rolls with fish sauce I had at Pool House for lunch and the roasted chicken breast I had at Beach House for dinner. The spring rolls were so good, I ordered them two more times before we checked-out. And that roasted chicken had to be the most flavorful and juiciest pieces of chicken breast I have ever eaten.

Pool House Restaurant

View from our table at the restaurant

Douglas' lunch

My lunch

Seafood spring rolls with fish sauce....best spring rolls and fish sauce I've ever eaten!

Beach House Restaurant

Nearly every Vietnamese soup dish I have eaten thus far has been delicious. I love Vietnamese food!

Roasted chicken served on a bed of rock salt to keep the food warm. I thought it was rice and immediately wondered who was eating all those carbs!

Douglas got caramelized pork

Across from the resort are the historic Marble Mountains. From my research I learned the mountains are a cluster of five marble and limestone hills. The five hills / mountains are named after the five elements: metal, water, wood, fire, and earth. As we drove along Truong Sa Street, where our resort was located, there were several stores selling stone sculptures and crafts. The sculptures are enormous and weigh tons. We did not have enough time this trip to make it to the mountains, but that will certainly be our first stop during our next visit. 

Marble Mountains

Marble sculptures

The following is a true story:  One thing Da Nang has very few of are African Americans. Douglas and I are very accustomed to people gawking at us while roaming the streets in Hanoi, but people here were a little more excited to see us. While eating breakfast at a cozy round table outside overlooking the water, a few Asian ladies approached. Without as much as a Hello, one of the ladies slid herself into our booth and scooted my way as she put her arms around me for her friends to take a picture. I would like to say these ladies were very young, but they were probably closer to 50. Needless to say, completely inappropriate no matter how much of an once-in-a-lifetime sighting this may be. At first I kindly dismissed the ladies because we were eating. After we finished eating I called the ladies over and stood up so they could take a picture with us. Actions like theirs can be very frustrating, but I tried to put myself in their shoes and feel the excitement of seeing something or someone I’ve probably never seen before, no matter how rude I thought it was. I guess this is a tiny taste of what celebrities must feel like!

Green House Restaurant

Best part of the buffet

Lychee - tropical fruit

Passion Fruit - very sour!

My favorite beverage now is passion juice.

After breakfast Douglas and I took a stroll on the beach to breathe in our last bit of fresh air before leaving the city. We stayed on the beach until the very last minute before our check-out time. It was absolutely beautiful out there. This part of the trip was incredibly relaxing. We were pampered the entire time and enjoyed every minute of our stay. There is no doubt that if we should make it back to Da Nang in the future, The Hyatt Regency Danang Resort and Spa is where we will stay.

The next stop was Da Nang Train Station. We were headed to the city of Hue. What a memorable trip it would turn out to be...