Three Cities For the Price of One: A Week in Central Vietnam

In the week since the last update to this blog, my mom and I have found ourselves in Da Nang, Hoi An, Nha Trang (extremely briefly), and now Dalat. Four (okay, really three) cities in about eight days. And boy, if that wasn’t enough, the world has thrown some interesting moments our way. But that’s what travel is about, isn’t it? As much as what you see and do, it’s about how you respond to the times when things don’t go the way you intended.

Here’s what we’ve been up to.

Da Nang

Da Nang isn’t the most interesting place we found ourselves in, but it has charm. A quaint beach-side city, Da Nang has three things going for it.

First up is, of course, the ocean. All reports say that Da Nang has one of the most beautiful beaches in the country and although my mom and I haven’t been to many other sections of the Vietnam coast, I’m inclined to agree. Our hotel was a short five minute walk to the surf and standing at its edge, you’re met with clean sands, glistening waves, and waving palm trees. And if that wasn’t gorgeous enough, off to the left, perched on the mountains that curve into the water to form Da Nang’s bay, you can make out the gleaming white silhouette of the Lady Buddha. Towering over the city at two hundred and twenty feet, the tallest Buddha statue in all of Vietnam can be seen from just about anywhere in the city. So yeah, pretty beautiful.

The second mark in Da Nang’s favor is the food. Two of my favorite meals we’ve had on this trip we had in Da Nang, but I’ll admit that that list of favorites is incredibly long. Would I recommend a trip to this city just for the eats? No, no more than anywhere else. But if you happen to find yourself here, you won’t go hungry.

We had one particularly great street food experience that started out less than ideal (think long, dark road and a Google Maps route that one hundred percent did not lead to the right location) but turned out to be one of the best noodle soups we’ve had, a seafood stew sort of dish that blew our minds, and delicious coffee in a cafe that can only be described as Communist chic.

Finally, there are number of day trips out of Da Nang that win praise from far and wide. My mom and I made it to one such location, the Marble Mountains, and were met with exquisite caves, pagodas, and statues. It was a lovely morning.

Hoi An

After Da Nang (and, actually, before it, but I’ll get to that in a minute), Mom and I spent a few days in Hoi An. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Hoi An is a UNESCO site, an ancient town persevered for the modern tourist, and that’s what it feels like. Although pretty to look at and nice to walk through, there was about four times as many Westerners here than anywhere else we’d been and prices were raised to match. It felt staged, sort of. As my mom put it, the Carmel-By-the-Sea of Vietnam. I could see it, with a few more Mickey Mouse ears and small children, as a section of Epcot. It was…nice.

Adding insult to injury, my mom unfortunately got a little sick one of the days and after a brief stint on the beach, we spent most of the day in our slightly musty hotel room. However, there were some highlights:

In order to get to Hoi An, we took a forty-five minute bus ride that felt like being a living piece in a Tetris game. Throughout the ride – but especially at stops – a worker on the bus gestured and barked orders in Vietnamese in order to shuffle people and boxes around the vehicle, trying to fit everything in an impossibly small space. It was wild.

I had my first ever motorbike ride, which was thrilling.

Mom and I found not one but two great cafes, the first being a cute little coffee shop hidden away down an alley and the second a social enterprise tea house that employs deaf and otherwise disabled people and serves fantastic tea (in near complete silence, I might add, which was almost as wonderful as the drinks).

And finally, on our last morning in Hoi An, we got our debit card gobbled up by an ATM machine and, since it was midnight in Asheville, were unable to reach anyone who might be able to help (read: my dad) until much later in the day. Now, admittedly, this was far from a highlight at the time, and I’m still not over the moon it happened. The good part, though, was what it taught me. Over the course of this trip I have learned so many valuable lessons about patience, problem solving, and trusting my gut. The best part is I know what I’ll ultimately take away from this adventure has only begun to settle and make itself clear, and I am valuing this mishap as one more piece of all that these five weeks are teaching me.

Da Nang (again) and Nha Trang

In order to make it to our final stop in Vietnam (Dalat), Mom and I had to catch a bus back to Da Nang from Hoi An, an overnight train from Da Nang to Nha Trang, and finally a bus from Nha Trang to Dalat. Since we spent so much time on public transportation, I don’t have a ton to report from these last couple of places. There were a couple issues with buses not running (thanks, Lunar New Year) and missing stations, but overall pretty easy. I am also happy to report that our train ride went much smoother than the first overnight bus and although the sleeping wasn’t great, it was a positive experience overall. And it was my first train ride!

Amazingly, the bus was even better. It was a three hour ride from Nha Trang to Dalat and once we found the bus station (turns out the address on Google is completely inaccurate, which led to several minutes of confused frustration), it was smooth sailing. And it was breathtaking. My iPhone camera could never even hope to capture the scenes we drove through. Three hours of winding mountain passes overlooking emerald green valleys, shimmering creeks, and blue skies. I would go back to Nha Trang and immediately turn around just to get to ride that bus twice more.

And now we’re here, in Dalat. This is our final city in Vietnam before we fly up to Northern Thailand, and only two and a half days in and it’s already been quite a time. Check back in a couple days for all that! Until then, thanks for sticking around.

In love and adventure,

E