Home / Blog / Day 67 to 68 – Da Nang (or Danang in simplified English form)

Day 67 to 68 – Da Nang (or Danang in simplified English form)

Flew in to Da Nang from Siem Reap on an Air Cambodia flight that quite incredibly departed a good 20 mins early…that’s never happened to us before! And only a short 55 min trip.

We only had a couple of nights booked in Da Nang as a bit of a stopover before Hoi An where we are booked for Xmas so not too much time for exploring. In fact, the first night we only got as far as the bar for Happy Hour at the Four Points by Sheraton Da Nang who kindly gave us a free upgrade to a panorama room. What we didn’t know before we got to the bar was it actually has the biggest beer menu in Danang (if not Vietnam) with 100+ local craft and international beers…Nick found his happy place in the 9% IPA while I lined up the buy one get one free Cosmopolitan. Realising that food would probably be a good idea at this point, we ate in the bar and walked away a lot poorer than if we’d have gone out to a local restaurant…lesson learned!

Day 2 we didn’t get up to much at all, bit of a late brunch (thanks to the session the night before🫣) and a wander through the locality. In the evening we jumped onto a boat on the river to see the dragon bridge and watch the dragon breath fire (I’ll get Nick to upload the video and more pictures of that action). The tourist blurb promised “A spectacular Fire and Water Show featuring the dragon breathing fire (about 9 bursts) and then spraying water (about 3 times) for around 15 minutes, with traffic closed on the bridge for the “event”…sounds exciting right? Ermmmm no…To be honest, all a bit underwhelming but we did meet a chatty Canadian couple so spent a pleasant hour on board exchanging life stories.

Is there nothing more quintessential than eating Peking Duck in Beijing, or more precisely (but outdated) eating Peking Duck in Peking? (If you’re wondering, Peking was the capital of China until the capital was renamed in 1954, with mainstream Western media fully adopting the new name in the 1990’s.) This dish is synonymous with the...

What a welcome to Beijing!!! NOT!!! The announcement on the aircraft, to my ears, was along the lines of if you don’t record fingerprints when you arrive at Daxing International Airport (Beijing) you are likely to be deported; that didn’t feel like the welcome I was expecting!! Anyway, we are pretty much compliant with authorities...

Another of the ‘great things’ to see in China, the Terracotta Warriors close to Xi’an. These are one more of those man-made creations you can’t really grasp the size of, or understand the time taken to create these warriors, until you’re there to see it with your own eyes. The detail in each warrior is...

Set a short ride outside of Hua Hin is Rajabhakti Park, which has seven magnificent statues of soldiers through various eras. Each statue is 14 metres high, and the detail is incredible on each one of them. We sneaked around the back of the statues also, and the detail is continued on all sides. (So...

After a short 45 min taxi ride from Da Nang we entered Hoi An to a warm welcome at a delightful boutique hotel. The receptionist was super informative and provided a map of Hoi An Old Quarter and additional info like a good optician for new glasses/tailors/activities and what prices were fair for tours etc....

Today we headed north of Beijing to the Olympic Park, and to see the bird’s nest for real. Before we got that far though we spotted the Olympic Tower, it’s hugely tall. This is another attraction in Beijing/China where you need tickets to get in, and a passport. Passport not a problem, we carry them...