Da Nang, Vietnam

6th June – 7th June 2018

After our nineteen-hour bus journey, we finally arrived in Da Nang just before 12. Fortunately, we had both been able to get a fair bit of sleep, so we weren’t feeling too bad. Luckily, we got chatting to one of the men that worked on the bus, and he spoke to the driver, who agreed to drop us at our hotel, since it was about an hour and a half away, walking. It cost us a little more, but it was cheaper than a taxi, so we were happy with that.

Once we arrived at our hostel, we checked in, and dropped our bags off. We did a little bit of research in the hostel of what to do with our afternoon; although I already had a good idea of what there was to do, as I had previously researched the area.

After regathering ourselves, we set off towards Marble Mountains. It was a bit of a walk (8km) and we knew it would take us a few hours to get there, but we weren’t in a rush, so it was fine. Even though our app said it would take us over two hours, we arrived at the first mountain in about an hour and a half. Along the way, we passed many beautiful beach resorts and fancy buildings, but they blocked our view of the beaches, unfortunately.

Marble Mountains consist of five mountains, each one representing one of the five elements that the Vietnamese believe to be sacred: water, earth, wood, fire and metal. The first mountain that we arrived at, was water. As it was the closest one to us, and it looked to be one of the biggest, we decided that it would be the only one we climbed, as we had walked quite a distance to get there, and still had to walk back.

After walking past the mountain’s pagoda, and around to the other side, we discovered that we had to pay to climb up the steps. We didn’t really want to pay out extra money that we didn’t need to, and after looking closely on the maps.me app, I found out that you can access the mountain for free, through the pagoda, so we went back that way.

The pagoda (being the place where the Vietnamese go to worship Buddha) was beautifully built into the mountain. Each mountain had its own pagoda, but we only visited this one. We climbed the steps, looking at the different levels of the pagoda, before making the very steep climb up the steps, to the viewpoint at the top. When we reached the top, the walk there, and the climb was all worth it. We had beautiful views of the other four mountains, with wood being the large one directly in front of us. We took some photos and enjoyed the views, before we began the steep descent.

Once we were at the bottom, we were both very hot and feeling a little tired. We made our way out of the pagoda and started walking back towards our hostel. We didn’t get very far, before we stopped for a drink and a little rest – we had earned it after all of the walking that we had already done.

After the drink, we were back on our feet, and heading down the very long, straight road back to the centre of Da Nang. We went back, down a different road, and it seemed to take forever, despite it being the same distance. Before going back to the hostel, we decided to detour to see some restaurants for dinner, that I had researched. It was too early to eat, but we wanted to check out some menus and get an idea on prices, but a couple of them were still shut.

When we made it back to the hostel, we were both desperate to get in the shower and freshen up! It was a great way to cool off, before sitting in the air-conditioned room, while we waited for the air outside to cool down.

As we hadn’t really eaten properly all day, we didn’t leave it too late, before we went out for dinner. We wandered back to the street where the restaurants were shut, to have a look at those, and stumbled across a night market. I was immediately drawn in by the beautiful lanterns and colourful lights.

It seemed like we were the first customers of the night, and we were offered lots of free samples to try, from different stalls. In the end, we both ended up going for a non-Vietnamese dish, which we both kind of regretted a little. I got a cheese steak sandwich and Joe got a burger, and we were told that they come with chips. When they arrived, there were no chips, so that obviously got lost in translation somewhere. The food was good, but not filling enough for dinner, so we ended up sharing ice cream afterwards too! As cute and nice as markets are, we always seem to spend more money when we visit them and are never quite full – maybe we will learn one day!

Once we had finished our ice cream, we made our way back to the hostel, as we had a few things we needed to organise before going to bed. We booked our final flight of the trip, and sorted some more places to stay, and some buses around Cambodia, and before we knew it, it was time for bed!

We had set an alarm really early for the next day, as there were still some things that we wanted to see in Da Nang and we were leaving that morning (giving us less than 24 hours altogether). We got ourselves up and ready and set off just after 6.30.

Our main aim was to head to the market (as I love a good market), but there were a few sights along the way to see. The market was a bit of a distance away (in the opposite direction to the mountains), and it took us just over an hour to get there – it was a hot and sweaty start to our day!

Along the way, we passed over Dragon Bridge, which was very impressive, and walked by the Cathedral, which was less impressive, and unusually pink. Da Nang itself didn’t have much going for it, and after walking all that way, the market proved that.

It was disappointing to see how sad and smelly the market was, especially as we had got up so early, and walked so far to see it. We had a quick walk around it, but we didn’t stay too long before making the long walk back to the hostel.

Although we had to be back by 10, to get to the bus station on time, we still had time to stop off at a café for a morning drink, before we made the mammoth walk. It looked like we had walked into a café that had just opened for the day, but they were happy enough to serve us. I ordered a mint chocolate milkshake and Joe ordered a banana chocolate (not knowing if it was a drink or a dessert). When they arrived, they were both drinks and both very tasty, but I liked the banana one a little more, so we ended up swapping.

Whilst we were sat there, we tried to find some energy to keep on going with our walk. We had a round of the game ‘odds’ where Joe put an odd on that he had to carry me! It was weird for him to do this to himself, but he did, and we both said the same number, meaning that he had lost and had to carry me. This entertained me for the metre he carried me, giving me some more energy to carry on.

Luckily, the journey back didn’t seem to take as long. When we arrived back, we had to decided how to get to the bus station, as it was so far away, and we didn’t have the nice bus worker to collect us. A Grab was much more expensive than the bus, but we didn’t know where the bus would take us, in relation to the other bus station.

While I was looking it up and enquiring at the reception desk, I discovered that we could take a public bus direct to Hoi An (our next destination, not much further down the road) for 20,000 dong each (66p). As this was cheaper than the Grab and easier than getting a bus to somewhere else in Da Nang, to then have to walk and then catch the sleeper bus, we decided the public bus was easier and a better option.

Once we had checked out, we walked up to the local bus stop, where it took us a few minutes to decide which side we needed to be on. It was a hot day and we were both struggling with the heat and our bags, so as soon as we could wait in the shade, we were happier. The bus arrived after about fifteen minutes of waiting, so we flagged it down, and hopped on (quite literally) and got on our way to Hoi An.

Da Nang was a whistle-stop trip, as we had less than 24 hours due to bus times. As we ended up getting the public bus in the end, we probably could have had a little bit longer in the day, as we were stuck to one particular time, but we had already squished the sights into the time we had. I think that the time we had was enough anyway, as Da Nang didn’t have too much to offer and from what I had seen online, Hoi An looks like a beautiful place, so I can’t wait to explore it!

To travel is to live, Katie x