Da Nang

We left our hotel in Hanoi at 8:30 am by private driver organized by the hotel staff, we arrived in plenty of time for our 11:30 am flight only to find out our flight had been delayed until 3:30 pm. Our assumption is that they didn’t have enough passengers for the morning flight and combined this with the afternoon flight.
We were advised to download the Grab App; this is similar to Uber and Didi. Once we arrived in Da Nang, we utilized this app to arrange a ride to where Ken & Nat (we met them in Progreso last winter, they arrived here two weeks prior)where we would be staying, as they had graciously offered to put us up for a few days until we found our own accommodation rather than staying in a hotel.

First order of business the next day was to organize some personal transport. While in Hanoi we had been given contact info for a guy who rents scooters in Da Nang and we had been in-touch with him, he had a scooter saved for us to pick-up, we also purchased helmets as the helmets provided were well used and did not fit very well.

We ventured out to the beach for a beach walk.

We arranged to view some accommodation through a local real estate agent. After viewing five or six potential apartments we settled on a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom for the length of our intended stay. The only problem was it was not available for another three weeks, the good news was they allowed us to stay in the Penthouse Suite for that time which was a 5-bedroom, 3-bathroom with huge dining and living rooms.
There were things we need to buy, groceries, condiment and some utensils, it was off to the local mall.

Once we settled in it was time to sample some of the local and international cuisine. First up was breakfast.

Bo Ne is the Vietnamese version of steak & eggs, all for VND 50,000 or just under $3CND.
We also sampled PHO, Vietnamese Subs called Binh Mi, and other local items.
On the international side of things, we’ve had Singaporean, Thai, Indian and Chinese dishes.

We heard of a Canadian who owns a Smokehouse and American Barbecue restaurant called Poomba’s, as it had been a few weeks since we has any western food we thought we would give it a try one afternoon.

Another evening it was decided to find a nice steak and settled on the Butchers Shop where we found what we had been looking for.

Both were delicious and cured our craving for a steak.
When Obama was President of the US, he visited Vietnam, and he took a real liking to Bun Cha, while out walking in Da Nang we came across this restaurant, seems the locals have jumped onto this fact.

While out on one of our exploratory Scooter rides we came across what we would call a tourist attraction with some famous landmarks from around the world on display.

Da Nang is located on the east coast of Vietnam and has a Peninsula that protrudes into the South China Sea. On this Peninsula there is a Buddhist Temple with a giant Buddha which we visited one afternoon.

When we returned to where we parked our motorcycle we came upon this guy.

Next: Day Trips