Rock-Awn 3.0 begins in Da Nang, Vietnam. Having been successful with my flights, I actually arrive before DawnO and have a day to explore before we meet up. It’s the first time in awhile that I’ve arrived to a new place and as soon as I land, I’m overwhelmed with figuring out logistics – getting money, finding the way to my accommodation, language, what and how to order food, etc. But like always I make my way through, get over my nerves and the exploration begins.
It’s great to see DawnO and catch up with her adventures thus far and I look forward to experiencing this new place together. Da Nang is the third largest city in Vietnam, but it doesn’t feel like a big, overwhelming Asian city. For one thing I can actually cross the street on my own without fearing for my life every time! Da Nang is a beach city where American troops used to go for rest during the Vietnam war. The first thing I do both on my own and with DawnO is to visit the beach. It’s great to be here after the many weeks of “minus a million degrees” at home. It’s cool to see the vacationers mixed with the fisherman and all the activity happening down here. The small boats they use for fishing are also plentiful along the beach and are fascinating to all of us touristas.
Watching over the beach is Lady Buddha Da Nang. She’s the tallest Buddha statue in Vietnam and stands about 67m. She’s located on Son Tra Peninsula which is about 14km from the city centre. Did we go visit her? Of course we did!! We tracked down and negotiated two Grab (equivalent to Uber) motorbikes, hopped on the back and headed on our way (that in itself was an adventure!!)
Da Nang does not seem to be an overly touristy city. It seems to be the place that people fly into and then head elsewhere and we haven’t seen a lot of other English speaking tourists, but sometimes that is part of the appeal of a place. There are still tourist attractions and things to do however. We were here on the weekend, so we had the opportunity to see the Dragon Bridge come to life with the dragon spitting out fire and then water.
We took bikes from the hotel and biked out to The Marble Mountains which are limestone hills located south of the city. There are five marble hills named after the five elements. We’re pretty sure it was the water element that we visited which seemed to be the one that was set up for us touristas. The bike there was beautiful, but in the heat of day going against the wind, we’ll just say the way back was a different sort of adventure. For me The Marble Mountains were a highlight and we not only got to see Buddhas, pagodas and the “good things,” but we also got creeped out by the section that told us what happens if you go to hell. Can you tell which is which?!
We’ve also spent a lot of time simply wandering, navigating alleyways and taking in the different sights.
This blog wouldn’t be complete without mention of food . . . . DELICIOUS!!
THE best meal so far (and we’ve already gone twice) is Banh Xeo. There is a whole process and method to eating it and I did actually shoot a video, but not being completely tech savvy I don’t know how to compress it to make it fit on here without my computer, so for more detailed instructions head over to DawnO’s blog at http://robodawno.com or head over to my instagram (rocky8bee) to see the video clip.
Sometimes when travelling (even after only a couple days) I get into somewhat of a groove and fall into a “new normal” Sometimes I have to stop myself and think . . . . . “holy sh#%, I’m in ________!!” Today as I was riding on the back of a motorcycle with the beach to one side of me, the forest to the other side and heading up to a pagoda and Buddha statue I stopped and had this very thought. “Holy sh#%!! I’m in Vietnam!!” How amazing and how unbelievably grateful am I?!
