Duh it's Da Nang

Da Nang is a port city 30 minutes north of Hoi An. It's often overlooked by tourists as it's so close to Hoi An which is a tourist magnet. We were interested in checking out a city that isn't commonly frequented by tourists and it fitted the bill nicely.

While we were hanging out in the city we made friends with a student called Thang (Tongue). We arranged to meet Thang and his girlfriend My (Me) for dinner. It was great hanging out with locals who weren't after money and who just wanted to find out more about you and practice some English in the process.

Up and about early the next day we visited the cities greatest claim to fame - the Museum of Cham Sculpture. Set up in the French colonial era to preserve the relics of the ancient Champa kingdom it's the only museum in the world dedicated to this fascinating subject.

Danang isn't frequented by tourists. The buses stop to let people off at the Cham Museum before taking them away again. As a result the city doesn't really cater for people like us. Hardly anyone speaks the English and it's a bit more of a challenge to find out info. This was good and bad as it was harder to find things out, but nice to be away from the general travel hubs.


For the afternoon we had arranged to meet Thang and My who had offered to take us to the marble mountains. The marble mountains are famous for stone sculpture making - the finished product is on sale everywhere. The mountains are also home to some buddhist sanctuaries and some surprisingly cool caves. The mountains are quite impressive and definitely exceeded our expectations.


Clint tested the claim that his camera can withstand a 1 metre drop (on to concrete) by unwittingly letting it fall down the steps above. It bounced and rolled it's way right down to the bottom with the shutter open and loved it.


Later that night Thang and My took us to a fantastic local restaurant. They thought we were the first foreigners to visit the place and considering there are no signs and that it's down a long and dark alleyway we believe them. The food we had was for special occassions and was the nicest meal we've had in Vietnam. We're both surprised that the type of food the restaurant serves up isn't commonly available in tourist friendly locations. Whoever initiates that would be on to a winner.


During the Vietnam war American GI's took R&R at China Beach which is a short moto ride from Da Nang. If you've seen the movie Apocalypse Now parts of China Beach feature as do the quotes "You either surf or you fight" and "Charlie don't surf". With that in mind we set out to go surfing.

We hired boards from the local surf shop and it wasn't long before we were being pummeled by the waves. Winter meant that we had the place to ourselves and didn't have to worry about any traditional surfing etiquette. The surf was quite large and patchy as the wind was up but it was great fun and we both managed to do alright. When we'd finished we were both happy to be back on the shore as the swell was getting big for rookies such as ourselves.

Feeling like we'd been through a washing machine it was time to track down a bus and scarper out of town.

Random Fact: In Vietnam the twin that is born second is considered the eldest. This means that temporarily Clint is the big brother - turning the social dynamic between us on it's head.

Highlights
- Hanging out with locals and being treated like people. No alterior motives or sales pitch just mutual interests
- Inpersonating Kelly Slater at China Beach

Lessons Learned
- It's hard to leave Da Nang.. the transport out of the city is limited and takes a bit of work to find
- Da Nang is a city of the future. There is a lot of development going on and there are high hopes for the place going ahead. Time will tell but alot of multinationals have setup shop.
- Stone museums lose their shine a little after visiting Angkor Wat