A month in Vietnam: Part 5 - Danang & Hoi An

Hoi An

The next stop as we continued north through Vietnam was the coastal city of Danang, which neighbors a popular tourist destination, Hoi An. I'd heard a lot about Hoi An from other travelers and wasn't really sure which city would be better to stay in; in the end, I'm glad we chose the quieter option of Danang.

The bus from Dalat to Danang was easily the worst one of the entire trip, for two reasons: one, it was very close to Tet, the lunar new year; and two, the bus company was hugely disorganized and unprofessional. Unfortunately it was arranged by my hostel in Dalat, so I can't share the name as a warning; just keep in mind that if you travel around Tet, and if you get the cheapest option, it's probably going to be unpleasant experience.

Some of the problems we encountered included: no actual receipts or paper tickets given to us after exchanging money; some people who had paid for a seat ended up with just a blanket on the floor of the sleeper bus; the bus continually picked up extra people in the countryside and dropped them off at random places, which involved a lot of shouting and stomping around loudly all night long; the bus driver didn't stop at any restrooms, so a few desperate people made him stop in the middle of the countryside, where they ran out to pee in the rice fields, and then he nearly ABANDONED one of them because he didn't bother doing a headcount; and he didn't actually take us to Danang as promised, but rather just dropped us off at a local bus stop near Hoi An to get the rest of the way on our own.

So, those are some of the wacky hi-jinks to mentally prepare yourself for if you travel during the Tet season, or with the cheapest bus companies (which were our only option during the Tet season).

Danang beach

Ok, I am also guilty of selfies...

As stressful as getting to Danang was, the city itself and our hostel there were fantastic. We were located in a quiet neighborhood with a very friendly host, and just a few blocks away from the beach. Danang is a pretty big city, but if you stay in the neighborhood along the beach you really don't feel like you're in a big city at all. There was a lot of good food and some nightlife along the beachfront, and everything seemed pretty clean. Although it was a great place to swim, the majority of tourists we encountered were Chinese and Koreans, so few people were actually swimming (instead, be prepared to walk around a lot of selfie sticks).

Tet happened to fall during the days we were in Danang, and the host of my hostel was kind enough to offer us traditional homemade red sticky rice that is meant to be eaten on new year's day. It was very tasty! I also discovered one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes while we were in Danang. It's a very simple bowl of noodles called My Quang served with toasted rice paper, hard-boiled quail eggs (one of my favorite things) and fresh herbs and peanuts.

My Quang

Traditional new year's sticky rice

In between a few days of relaxing on the beach, we had one more adventurous day in which we rented bicycles and visited Marble Mountain and Hoi An. Although the Vietnamese family we stayed with insisted it was very far, it was actually quite a nice, flat bike ride to both the mountain and Hoi An. 

Marble Mountain was definitely worth seeing. It's hosts a temple complex with a lot of really beautiful mosaics and statues, and some of the temples are in large caves. It gets pretty crowded, but otherwise it's a really nice place to wander around for a few hours. The locals sell a lot of marble souvenirs and there were some places to eat near the entrance. 

The lovely streets of Hoi An

Tourists getting a rickshaw tour of Hoi An

The old Japanese bridge

Inside the old Japanese bridge

We cycled into Hoi An after that and ate lunch there. It was extremely hot, so we divided our time between wandering the streets as much as we could and then finding somewhere with shade or air-conditioning to cool off. There were tons of tourists, especially westerners, so the prices were much higher in Hoi An than normal. The old buildings, bridges and boats were really charming, and there were some quiet areas to sit and enjoy a Vietnamese style iced coffee. At night Hoi An is lit up with lanterns, which unfortunately means that the already crowded streets get completely insane. We didn't stay after dusk, since we still had to cycle back to Danang, but already the bus loads of tourists were filing in.

It was a relief to get back to the quiet beaches of Danang!