Da Nang!

After 4 incredibly relaxing days in Hoi An, we headed an hour north to the city of Da Nang to stay at a hotel close to the airport for our flight out to Hanoi the following day. What we didn't expect to find was such a gorgeous place. What we quickly realized was that we were outside of Da Nang's downtown and in the area closest to the beach, which looked like a ghost town consisting of fancy beach homes, vacant lots, grungy old hotels, fenced off areas for future fancy hotels, and shanty homes. Outside of the main area is a nice residential Vietnamese community. The part of town we stayed in is quite certainly in the progress of changing rather drastically. And as of yet, it is caught in a power struggle between what it is now and what it wants to be, which made it quite an interesting place to roam around for a day.

After arriving to the beach, we quickly understood why developments were shooting up. It was absolutely gorgeous. We spent the rest of our afternoon sitting at a cafe and laying out on the beach.

On our walk to the beach. All of the homes are built in this style: skinny, three story beach homes.

Fresh pineapple juice.

Traditional Vietnamese iced coffee.

There were loads of fishermen out at sea. They use boats like this one to fish in.

For dinner we wanted to try out a more local restaurant, which was good because there weren't any other options around our hotel. Earlier in the day we were scoping out some of the street-side restaurants when we walked up to one to check out the menu (which was completely in Vietnamese). Our curiosity launched us into a gesturing game with the restaurant staff where Jen was able to say/act out that she just wanted to look at the menu while I found myself being pulled by the hand into their tiny, clean, yet shanty-esque kitchen. The woman  holding my hand pointed down at floor to show me the array of their seafood portion of the menu with my own two eyes; the mollusks and crustaceans were sorted out by shape, size, and color into large metal bowls, which were being chilled/cleaned before that night's dinner rush. In my best attempt at being cross-cultural, I managed to make a rather loud "mmmmmm" sound (universal, right?), give her a thumbs up (I need to do more research on this hand sign because it is offensive in some countries...), and said, "Looks great!" If only we knew a bit of Vietnamese! 

Later that day, after more gesture guided conversations with our hotel staff, they suggested we go down another road to the suburban area of town. The first place we went to turned out to only serve coffee and tea. After exhausting all the food words in Vietnamese I thought I knew how to pronounce, Jennifer said "noodle", and they instantly pointed down the street to a local neighborhood restaurant. Most Vietnamese dine at make shift food stalls set up along the side of streets, which are often times in front of shops that have closed up for the evening. The restaurant sets out plastic tables for eating at which are tiny! Jennifer and I looked like giants in our little seats. Needless to say, we got a lot of stares. Plus, we were the only Westerners in sight! The night was incredibly fun and we enjoyed some delicious pho. 

Really flattering...I know. 

Off to Ha Long Bay!