Central Vietnam – Da Nang

I arrived to Da Nang on a simple 1 hour flight from Saigon 4 days before Christmas.  Many of these cities in Vietnam are completely foreign to me before I research them.  Da Nang was hailed the “Chiang Mai” of Vietnam, this comparison caught my eye for obvious reasons.  Many expats in Chiang Mai actually leave during the smog season (Feb-Apr) and go to the Dry season in Da Nang, Vietnam.

This area of Central Vietnam has a ton of interesting history to it.  Da Nang was the site of a very important US military base and the most used airport during the Vietnam war, some ungodly amount of flights were being flown here every hour.  Hoi An, the city 40 minutes south is a UNESCO world heritage site, which is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century.  And we have the city of Hue 2 hours north, the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty (1800-1945) which has a very cool looking imperial city with surrounding moat.

I’d say that just scratches the surface of what’s on offer in this region.  Let’s not forget that I am a 2 block walk from the ocean, 30 minutes from the mountains, and surrounded by national parks.

Da Nang has a good mix for a high quality of life city.  This past week I have been apartment hunting and plan to stay in this region until around March 2017.  The beaches are quite beautiful, and I have never lived long-term in a beach city before.

Obviously there’s a lot of seafood on order, however I am a little too scared to order any of these living things.  Those crabs to the left looked like they were eyeing ME for dinner.

The interactions I have had in Da Nang so far really stand out for me.  Maybe it’s my own bias but it feels like I’m seeing a more authentic Vietnam.

For example, on day 1 I am walking to rent a motorbike, so I go up near a rental shop with the sign “bike for rent” and look inside but nobody is there.  After a minute of looking an older Vietnamese man pulls up and starts talking to me:

“How long your rent for?”

“Which bike do you like?  You want that bike?  Ok 150,000 per day”

We start some small negotiating and I counter “100,000 per day, good?”

He says “Ok”

I point to the bike I want and he denies me and says “No, not that bike.  We go to my shop it’s 1 minute away.  I drive you, it’s very close”

“Wait…what?”

I was confused, and a little stunned.  It took me a minute to connect the dots.  This clever guy just saw the opportunity and swiped me from his competitor!  I do have to respect that raw competition in the Far East.  And so I rented from him.

At his shop he asks me for identification, which is very standard procedure.  He wants my passport, but I say no thanks.  I give him my driver’s license and he puts it in his drawer.  I talk with his son who is fluent in English about this.

“You want me to drive your bike and you keep my license?”

“Yea, it’s no problem”

“What if the police pull me over?”

“Don’t worry, the police are too scared of you to pull you over!”

I felt pretty uneasy about it.  Especially because in Thailand I’ve been pulled too many times, and they certainly aren’t “afraid” to pull over a foreigner.  We decided on a compromise and I gave them my expired Thai license and kept my US one in my pocket for emergencies.