What to do in Da Nang?

I have been in Da Nang a multiple of times, and I would still come back. There's a lot of thing to enjoy. Da Nang is pretty close to Hanoi, less than an hour flight, and the city has their own international airport. From Da Nang, it's easy access to Hue and Hoi An. Often included in a tour are Da Nang, Hoi An, Cham Island, My Son relic site.

We all know Da Nang is a beach city. More than the ocean, it has a huge Han river on which bases the city center, a lot of artistic bridges running through. It has some mountains, of course not Himalaya style, but you can have a fun ride or trekking still. So the city has a lot to offers!

What did I do beside beaching in Da Nang? A lot, but first of all, beware of rip currents. The Pacific Ocean is sometimes not pacific. I guess you better not take a sea bath at night? And pay attention to the warnings.

First of all, I go to Cham Museum. I have been there twice, it just fascinating. They display archeology relics that they found in different Champa relic sites along Viet Nam. I know something about Hinduism, therefore I know these characters and I can very relate to them. Champa people I believe have a deep connection with Hindu, in fact they used to have their own Kingdom many hundreds of years ago before Vietnam became one long country as it is now. Champa people are still around, they live in southern provinces like Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, which I really love to visit.

Photos: me visiting Cham Museum in 2014, me visiting Cham Museum in 2017 and my boyfriend standing with Ganesha statue infront of a huge banyan tree inside the Museum garden.

The Museum: http://chammuseum.vn/en

It's located by the Han river, right next to Dragon Bridge, so you can have a very nice walk back and forth.

Bridges of Hai Chau County :)))

Han river and the bridges: You can see here Dragon Bridge, which blow fire every Saturday and Sunday evening at 21.00 and on festive events. Behind, Tran Thi Ly bridge with the triangle shaped strings. I think string brides are very fashionable in the south of Vietnam. Travelling to the South, you will see a lot of them. And that circle thing is the Da Nang Eye, faraway brother of the London Eye :)) well it's just the name I give it, but it's inside Asia Park, an enormous recreational park newly established in Da Nang, and the ferris wheel itself is the biggest in South East Asia, I heard. I have been up there, I paid 200,000 VND to be inside and as far as I remember it included all the game. So cheap. But I am a pussy when it comes to dangerous roller coasters so I was just there for the wheel. It was in 2015, so you may expect it to be a little bit more expensive. It would still be so cheap anyway.

There's rotating bridge too, on the other side of the Dragon bridge. It rotates 90 degrees from 23-24h on weekends, so that big boats can get through.

Nowadays Da Nang is also famous for its international firework festival. It happens late April seems like, but for more info you can visit: http://www.diff.vn/en/

It's a very lovely walk along the river. The city, different to Hanoi, has huge pavement very friendly to pedestrians, and beggars are forbidden, so you can really enjoy a walk without kicking into trash or suspicious people following trying to sell :))) Don't get me wrong, I love Hanoi, I think kicking into trash while walking could be somewhat charming too. Sound like a fetish though :))

One last thing before I finish this article, don't want to keep it too long, is my absolutely most favorite coconut deserts shop by the Han river. On Bach Dang street, there are a lot of coconut deserts places next to each other, but my most loved one is 196 Bach Dang. The name is Dua Ben Tre, but it just doesn't mean much because Dua is Coconut and Ben Tre is the biggest coconut producer province in Viet Nam, so anyone can be Dua Ben Tre. They offer all kind of Dua: coconut jelly (thạch dừa), coconut ice cream (kem dừa), coconut as it is of course, coconut smoothie (sinh tố dừa), coconut yogurt (sữa chua dừa), etc. Anyway my most favorite there are not coconuts, but avocado cream (kem bơ) and durian flancakes (flan sầu riêng).

The green one is avocado cream, it's avocado smoothie with a scoop of coconut ice cream, topped with fresh coconut and dried coconut. IT WAS AMAZING. The white one is jackfruit in coconut yogurt. The empty plate was two durian flan cakes, but i finished them the moment I saw them.

The place opens until midnight, river view, free bike parking. It can't be anymore awesome. I don't remember specifically what they cost, but believe me, I'm cheaper than you.

(to be continued)