Life in Hong Kong became bit too suffocated while we are waiting to get the keys from our apartment so I decided to leave the new baby and my love's sisters more space and go have some training/relaxing time in Da Nang.
Beaches around Da Nang are amazing. Courtesy image: Google
It was quite a last minute decision and actually quite an adventure to go to Vietnam. The night before departure I realized that I need a visa to Vietnam, as almost all countries (if not all) need. So I applied online for 4hours rush visa. I got an email but nothing specific in it. The next day, about 6hours before boarding, I still did not get the visa, so I checked the status and it said "in payment", meaning that my card did not go through, although it did not mention anything like that at the checkout the day before. Now I got nervous. Of course I lost my simcard so I could not call the Vietnamese visa agency (government site only delivers visa in 3 days) and my buddy Kelvin in Vietnam could not reach them either. Thanks god that answered my email and said that my card did not go through, but the second one I tried in the morning did go though and that I will receive my visa in 4hours time.
View from my hotel room. Half a block from the beach.
Long story short, I received my visa 1h before checking it at that airport. Upon landing I learned that it was nothing but an "approval for applying for the visa upon arrival", not the actual visa itself. So I had to line up at the airport again and get the visa upon arrival, which cost me another $25 (on top of $38 that I paid for rush approval to the agency already).
This is how locals eat, right by the ocean while one of them sings karaoke on the top of his lungs:)
Nice restaurant next to my hotel
Cheaper restaurant. There's enough for everyone's budget!
super nice smoothie cafe. Large green smoothie cost me around $2,5
All the negativity poured out of me when I got in the cab on my way to to hotel though. I suddenly remembered how much I like Vietnam. Vietnamese people are actually very nice. Sometimes you have to be the first to smile, but they always smile back and to be honest I find Vietnamese more sincere than other Asian countries, particularly Thai, who appear to be super friendly, as far as money is in the game (no intention to generalize, there are genuinely awesome people in Thailand too, just saying my experience of 8 trips to Thailand over a decade). Vietnamese don't play games, they either like you or not and fake smiles are not really their style. Little bit like Brazilians:)
Before I rented my own bike this was my driver. He charged me around $0.25 per kilometer. Pretty good deal:)
Vietnam is super good place to eat great food for great value. As a matter of fact everything in Vietnam is cheap. Especially human labour and food. I got a haircut in a nice studio from a super cool dude (Bao is his name btw:) who owned the store and it cost me only $2. One of the best haircuts I got too!
Pho Bo, 30,000 VND
Street food is ridiculously cheap. I had a Pho Bo for 30k VND (Vietnamese Dong). One USD is around 23k VND so my dinner cost me less than $1,5 to give you one example.
Breakfast in the hotel (most hotels include breakfast), one of the tables only. Epic buffet style and coffee one of the best in the world!
Really fresh and high quality seafood in high end restaurant where you chose your dinner right from the tank will cost you between $20-$50USD, something that would cost you 4times more at least in the "west", not mentioning that you'd never get it as fresh as here.
Sad story I know...
Size of these animals! Look at my SLR next to it!
These were the hardest to see...:(((
Yes, I know the pictures of the trapped animals are super sad and as a matter of fact I could not eat there, because I could not look at the animal alive and then see it dead on my plate. I know it's bit hypocritical considering that I now eat meat again (after years of being vegetarian and vegan), but that's just too much for me. For those interested in the seafood prices, the price shown is per KG (not pound!) and you divide by 23,000 to get price in USD. Cooking is included in the price).
My new ride. Costs me around $4.5 per day to rent!
Da Nang has an amazing beach with really fine fluffy sand. I just wasn't lucky with the ocean so far. Been too wild and red flags all over the beach did not allow me to swim. I still went for a swim this morning though, to great dismay of lifeguards who were desperately trying to "whistle me out" of the water, which I blissfully ignored. I swam in worse waves than that, but yes I almost drowned around 8 times in my life now, so I have a massive respect for the ocean. It was fun this morning:)
I'm doing this trip today on my motorbike. I heard that the Lang Co beach is amazing! Traffic is dense in Vietnam and intersections are vastly unregulated, but people don't drive fast and they don't honk too much. It's all somehow driven organically:)
I'm getting back on track with my training, so run, do yoga and push ups and meditation every day. I feel that my body is getting hard again, as it's supposed to be!:) Ocean is a great motivation for me. It's just impossible not to be in shape when I have such an amazing place to train! Nothing beats the natural environment. Screw the gym rats :)
Mr Buo giving me an epic haircut:P
I hope you enjoyed reading about my Vietnam trip! I hope to post some great shots from Lang Co beach tomorrow!
Thank you for all your support,
Much Love,
