The Vietnamese sleeper trains are a notch above the Thai ones in my book: they are divided in small compartments which you can close once full to shut out a lot of the noise, and the aircon is actually at a reasonable level so we’re not freezing in our top bunks. We boarded quite late last night (just before midnight), so we were hoping to sleep in as we don’t get off until 10am, and at first, it looks promising. We are sharing our compartment with a young couple and their baby - they are lovely, helping us figure out the somehow obscure door mechanism, and keep incredibly quiet (child included) throughout the night. Unfortunately, they alight a few stop before us, and are replaced by a very loud family who decide to cram four people in the two bunks and have a loud conversation from the minute they walk in at 6am…
We therefore arrive in Da Nang slightly sleep deprived, and it takes us a minute to get going. We spend our first morning zooming around town searching for a doctor to sort out yet another infection (travelling is taking its toll). The city is much bigger than we expected and we make good use of Grab, the prevailing taxi app here. After an absolutely fantastic medical experience - in and out with all checks done and the necessary medecine within just one hour of registering at the local hospital’s A&E - we leave for our hotel wishing we could just transfer the Vietnamese medical system home!
Chi House where we are staying is in one of Da Nang’s newer districts, close to My Khe beach, another of those glorious sandy bays facing the Vietnam sea. We take advantage of this with several strolls by the shore over the next couple of days - the temperatures are a bit lower here and walking is much more comfortable. Unfortunately, the sea is still choppy and the unrelenting swell coming in is creating myriads of tall rollers, discouraging us from dipping in. It looks like this would be a fantastic spot for surfing but we can’t see a single board - maybe the sport isn’t as well known here? It’s certainly not because the Vietnamese aren’t up for exercise: since arriving in the country we have seen public outdoors gyms everywhere, and they are always in use - sometimes even with a home-made soundtrack to boot.
What we do see is plenty of coracles: the traditional small round crafts used by individual fishermen to go out on the sea. It’s hard to imagine them staying afloat on the chaotic waves coming in, and to be fair quite a few are obviously part of art installations at this point rather than ready to head out. But we’ve definitely seen them in use before, and some are still fully kitted out with fishing gear.
Scared off by the waves, I take refuge in Chi House’s courtyard swimming pool - a lovely space surrounded by ornamental plants so healthy they seem ready to engulf the building. The pothos is trailing all the way into the water from three floors up! The whole of the hotel is an extremely pleasant, tranquil space, exquisitely decorated in MCM furniture that makes Ollie drool. It really does feel very feng-shui - living up to its name.
A few lengths (in shockingly cold water) and a short nap later, we’re ready for the long walk into the town centre. We’ll have to cross the Han River, which separates us from the bulk of Da Nang, and as the city is reputed for its bridges, we are quite looking forward to that. We aim for the most famous crossing: the fantastical Dragon Bridge, an engineering marvel made to look like the mythical beast, scales included! We are almost swept off by the strong wind but the views are incredible. We arrived just as the sun sets, and the city is lighting up all around us, every landmark sparkling, flashing and vying for our attention - not just the bridges but most of the tall buildings too. This feels even more modern than HCMC, and we spend some time admiring the many artful suspension bridges and marvelling at the light-show.
Ollie finally manages to drag me away from trying to capture all of the various on-going colour combinations on camera and towards dinner. We’re in the business district and nothing seems very well rated - expect, randomly, the neighbouring pizzeria. I was hoping for more local food but the reviews are gushing and we head towards Pizza4Ps just in time to snag their last table. Once in, it’s obvious that we’re in the right hands: two massive, sleek ovens stand in the middle of the room, with chefs all around preparing the pizzas from scratch. The menu is mouth-watering, with a combination of classic Italian dishes and inspired fusion twists. To top it all, the restaurant is also a sustainable and ethical enterprise focusing on sourcing ingredients locally and helping upskill local residents. After a difficult time choosing a single dish, my pizza (balsamic-glazed aubergines on a margarita base) is legitimately the best I’ve ever eaten, and Ollie’s one is so good he’s getting emotional.
After this unexpectedly delicious culinary detour, we head back towards the Dragon Bridge. At night, it lights up (like everything else around the harbour!), cycling through various colour combinations - the orange one is particularly realistic. We’ve been tipped off that there’s a show at 9pm, but we’re a bit early, so we cross again in search of a good viewpoint. Exactly as we are in the middle of the bridge, the rainclouds that have been lurking all evening finally decide to break, and it’s a mad race over to shore to look for some cover - like everyone else who was admiring the sights!
Ollie works some of his maps magic, sourcing a grassroots rooftop bar set up by enterprising residents on top of a neighbouring apartment building. It’s hard to find where to get in - and as a result when we get to the top we’re only sharing the perfect view of the bridge with one other couple. They are well into sampling the entire bar’s cocktail menu - and definitely have much more mettle than me on that matter, because a single one of the very strong drinks is quite enough for me! This is a lovely, cozy and quiet spot to wait out the rain and watch the show in peace. And as we get to 9pm, under dry skies again, the dragon’s mouth opens, and he starts spitting out fire!
It goes on for about five minutes, with several bursts of honest-to-goodness fire coming out of the huge metal beast’s mouth, far above a veritable crowd that has assembled to watch it. The bridge has been closed off to cars, and we are wondering why, as the flames are about twenty meters above the ground - but suddenly, the dragon switches to blowing out a powerful jet of water, soaking half the bridge and a large group of unlucky onlookers. Tourists scatter, and some of the braver ones take up prime spot for a very special shower as the jets continue coming for another five minutes.
That made for a very special evening indeed - and we’re glad we stayed here in the big city to catch it. Da Nang has been surprisingly lovely for us - even though we’ve gone through a string of cities in the past few weeks (ever since entering Cambodia on the first of February), it has definitely distinguished itself as the sleekest, most modern one. Although to be fair, it’s easy to stand out when one of your roads doubles as a legitimately fire-breathing dragon…
Comments