2022 Summer Vacation: Da Nang, Hoi An, Hanoi

*Make sure you’ve read 2022 Summer Vacation: Rollercoaster first!

I arrived in Da Nang around 1PM on Tuesday. Customs was easy, as I had applied for my visa a month prior. The hotel I booked was sending a car to pick me up, for only ₫200,000…about $9.

My room and bathroom, 2 nights: ₫1,000,000 (~$50).

The driver offered to drive me around during my stay in Da Nang, which is a popular beach city located in central Vietnam. As I wasn’t sure how the taxis and scooters services worked (They have a system called “Grab” similar to Uber) with only cash, I took him up on his offer. We exchanged numbers for Whatsapp.

After checking in to my hotel room, and showering, I sent him a Whatsapp message, and asked him to take me to Old Town Hoi An. He suggested I also ride a “coconut” basket boat as well. The round trip drive, as well as the coconut basket excursion would cost me ₫1,000,000: ₫600,000 for the round trip + ₫400,000 excursion. Approximately $50. *I did confirm the price he offered was cheaper than the hotel’s tour offerings, and equvalent to a Grab taxi.

The “Coconut” basket boats:

Hoi An

Hoi An is a port city 30 minutes south of Da Nang. It boasts “Old Town” filled with beautifully colored buildings, representing the weaving of Eastern and Western historical architecture. Admittedly, this area has become quite the tourist attraction. Beautiful lanterns hang across streets, cafes and restaurants surround you, and there are souvenir shops and markets to walk through. Additionally, in the evenings one can hire a lantern-lit boat, and set a small paper lantern on the water to represent a wish or prayer. As much as I do not enjoy being in tourist traps, I really liked the feel of this place.

As I walked along the streets, the sun set, and lanterns burning bright, I stumbled upon a beautiful plaza. There was a shallow wading pool in front of a beautiful, ancient temple gate: CỔNG CHÙA BÀ MỤ (or Tam Quan Ba Mu Pagoda). I stopped and took pictures, and then noticed a bar to the right, playing American music from the 70’s. I looked at my phone’s clock, thinking it must be near time for me to head to the meeting point to go home at 9:00, but I still had two hours to spare. I decided to park myself at the bar, and try some beers.

The bar’s manager, N, was very friendly, and spoke very good English. When he wasn’t busy with other customers, we would make suggestions for things I should do, or foods I should try. The time passed quickly, and soon I was paying my bill and getting ready to walk back to the main entrance of Old Town. We exchanged numbers for Whatsapp, and I headed on my way. I returned safely to my hotel, showered off the pounds of sweat (thanks to the lovely humidity), and got into a gigantic, comfortable bed.

The following morning, I was awake at 5:30am, and walked out to the beach to watch the last colors from the morning sunrise along the water. I then walked back to the hotel for breakfast. The breakfast was a mixture of some Vietnamese and Western dishes, as well as fresh fruits. There were no signs, so I don’t know what each item was. Breakfast would have been pleasant, if it weren’t for the rude British guy who reminded me a lot of Gordon Ramsay. He was upset that they didn’t make his omelet immediately, when he was requesting it 5 minutes before the breakfast technically was meant to open. I heard many aggravated sighs from his table as he ate his meal, and witnessed many frustrated facial expressions whenever I walked past him. Finally, he left, and I could finish my meal in silence.

I reached out to the driver, requesting to go to My Son Sanctuary that same morning. He also suggested we go to Hai Van Pass. As the driving time would total 3.5-4 hours, he was charging me ₫2,000,000 (roughly $85). . We left at 8am, and drove about an hour west of Da Nang. I asked him how his family was doing, to which he replied “Yes”. So, our drive was very quiet.

My Son Sanctuary

My Son Sanctuary was built during the Champa Kingdom between the 4^th and 13^th Centuries, with strong influence from Hinduism. The carvings of Hindu gods are still visible on many walls. There were also Sanscrit tablets found. According to UNESCO’s website, the compound has “…8 groups of 71 standing monuments..”. It is considered one of Southeast Asia’s most unique, preserved archeological sites. If you’d like more information, follow this link to UNESCO’s page: My Son Sanctuary  

After about 2 hours exploring My Son, and meeting a fellow solo traveler from Spain, my driver and I drove another hour northeast to Hai Van Pass.

Hai Van Pass Hai Van Pass is a road, winding up a mountain with beautiful views of the ocean to the east. I found out, as we were driving, this was quite a popular path for motorbikes to take. There were many motorbikers winding up and down the mountain. Even the roadside cafes had signs that they had petrol. As much as I would have enjoyed attempting the beautiful pass with riding a motorbike, I enjoyed being able to observe all the views from the safety of the car.

Although I had planned to continue exploring Da Nang upon arriving to the hotel, I decided to take a nap. The traveler, J, I had met at My Son that morning, had suggested meeting in Hoi An for dinner and drinks that evening.

I decided to attempt using the Grab phone app to hire a taxi to Hoi An. After eating some chicken soup and drinking a few cocktails, we walked around Hoi An’s Old Town, admiring the bright lanterns and sharing our travel experiences. Turned out, J had spent a year teaching Spanish in a public school in Maine, only a few years before. We went to a hookah café he had come across earlier that week, but they were closing. We decided to return to the louder side of the river, where we joined a larger group of Spaniards. It ended up being a great evening, and I was definitely in my element, speaking Spanish after 2.5 years.  

Eventually, after hours of dancing and singing, I decided it was time to make my way back to my hotel in Da Nang. J kindly walked with me to where there were taxis and scooters begging to make money. We bargained a scooter to take me for ₫300,000 (~$12), as the taxis were all asking ₫450,00-500,000. I hopped on the back of the scooter and we started the journey back to Da Nang. After maybe 10 minutes, the scooter driver pointed to his gas tank meter (empty), and then called out to the car next to us at the red light. Luckily the neighboring car was a taxi. He agreed to take me to the hotel for the same price of ₫300,000. As I was getting off the scooter, I lost my balance and fell on the street. Not a big surprise, if you know me! I am quite clumsy. The men kindly helped me up and I was back on the road to Da Nang. I made it safely to the hotel, and went to bed.

The next morning, I finished packing my bags, enjoyed breakfast, sans Gordon Ramsay wannabe, and grabbed a taxi to the airport. I had a 1.5 hour flight to Ha Noi.

Ha Noi

Ha Noi is the capital city of Vietnam, located in the north of the country.

My hotel was near the French Quarter. I had been excited, planning to venture around and see all the historical sites in one afternoon. However, as I set foot outside the hotel, and started walking, the busyness of the streets was overwhelming.

I was admittedly tired from the late night before, and I was hungry. I really wanted something familiar, specifically a banh mi sandwich. All the shops I stopped at were “out of banh mi”. I eventually stopped at a restaurant and ordered spring rolls. I took a deep breath after eating, and attempted to conquer the loud city streets again. I found myself wandering around Hoan Kiem Lake.

Hoan Kiem Lake

The sun was setting, and the rain started pouring. I bought an umbrella, and walked across the red bridge, leading to Jade Island, where the Temple of Jade Mountain stands. Like a handful of other unprepared tourists, I decided to sit under the shelter of the wooden pagoda. After a while, I walked into the Buddhist temple, which, contrary to Korean temples, was decorated with lots of red and gold.  

Within the temple there were two very large turtles in glass casings. These turtles were a symbol of an ancient tale regarding a giant turtle in Hoan Kiem Lake reclaiming a sword from the enemy, a Chinese emperor, who was rowing his boat on the lake.

After the rain stopped, I continued back across the bridge, enjoying the glow of street lights in the darkness, as well as the quieter sounds of the city.

I came to a plaza where children were playing and laughing in a puddle of water. They would sit at the edge of the puddle, and then throw their shoes as far as they could to the other side. Then, when they were all out of shoes, one child would slide across, into the puddle, to gather the shoes and return them. They would then play again. I was finally feeling calm and comfortable. It was time to return to the hotel, however, as I still needed to officially check in.

That afternoon, arriving from the airport, the hotel concierge was not at the desk and had laid my room key on the front desk. There was a sign saying to call them, so when I called them via Whatsapp, they said “Take your key and enter your room. We have CCTV. We’ll check you in when we return.” I wanted to return to the hotel early enough to check in, and also speak with them about the possibility of taking an excursion out of the city. I was accepting that Hanoi wasn’t a city I was going to really enjoy.

At the hotel, the young lady was kind and helpful. She set me up with a Halong Bay overnight cruise for the following night, cancelling my second night at the hotel without complaint. We were all ready for the payment, but her system was not accepting my credit card. She tried a few times, to no avail. I called my credit card company, just in case the card had been blocked. After 45 minutes on the phone with two very kind, professional customer service representatives, it was clear that the issue was with the payment system, not with my card. I had accepted that I may need to just stay in Ha Noi for 2 nights, and cancel the cruise. I had enough cash to pay 2 nights for the hotel, but not enough to pay for the cruise.

The concierge explained that we would try again in the morning, before 7:30am, by going to their second office. She was not worried about me not paying for a night at the hotel. I went upstairs, packed my bags for the hopeful trip in the morning, and went to bed. The following morning, as it was pouring rain, she asked someone to drive me via scooter to the second office. They loaded me on the bike, bag and all, donned me with a big rain coat poncho thing meant for bikers, and we drove through the crazy streets. The second office payment system was successful!! We hopped on the bike once more, and he drove me to where the cruise bus was to pick me up.

The bus arrived, I hopped on, joining 10 other travelers, and we made our 2.5 hour drive to Ha Long Bay.

Next up, Ha Long Bay, Cat Ba Island, and my second time in Ha Noi!