After several busy days exploring Hong Kong, it’s time to exchange harbour skylines, trams, ferries and MTR journeys for beaches, scooters and the promise of Vietnamese street food.

Our next destination, Da Nang.

In the words of the immortal Robin Williams, Good morning, Vietnam! Hey, this is not a test. This is rock and roll. Time to rock it from the delta to the DMZ! Is that me, or does that sound like an Elvis Presley movie? Viva Da Nang. Oh, viva, Da Nang. Da Nang me, Da Nang me. Why don’t they get a rope and hang me? Hey, is it a little too early for being that loud? Hey, too late. It’s 0600 What’s the “0” stand for? Oh, my God, it’s early

The plan for our first two days was deliberately sensible: arrive, settle in and recover before beginning our Vietnamese adventures at a relaxed pace.

Naturally, the plan for the second evening involved climbing onto the back of scooters and being carried through city traffic in search of food.

Relaxation is clearly a flexible concept.

Day One: Goodbye Hong Kong, Hello Da Nang

Our journey began with one final departure from our base for the past week, the relaxing Regal Hotel in bustling Kowloon. The hotels shuttle was free and dropped us at T1 with ease. Next step was to transfer to T2.

The airport experience was fairly simple, although all check in was via self serve kiosk. Fine until our bags were rejected for being overweight, how is 12kg too heavy. Cathay Pacific gave us 2 bags each at 23kg… it seems that with this flight being a codeshare with HKExpress that we had automatically dropped to their baggage system. Luckily a few helpful staff got us sorted and away went our bags.

We used our remaining time at Hong Kong Airport to grab a feed and pickup some duty free for Da Nang. While eating we discovered our seats weren’t together for the next flight. As we were now airside there were no HKExpress staff to try to reassign seats with. Staff at the boarding gate not able to help either.

Leaving Hong Kong felt a little sad. We’ve seen a lot and walked for ages. Over the last week we’ve experienced ferry rides, taken more trains than we have in the last year and become quite good at navigating the MTR network. We’ve also consumed our body weight in noodles, dumplings and wontons and taken approximately literally 100’s of photographs of the skyline.

Now it was time for a new country, a new city and an entirely new menu. Okay maybe not completely new, we’ve been to Vietnam before, so maybe it’s like greeting an old friend.

Leaving Hong Kong with full cameras, tired feet and luggage that appeared to have gained weight.

Flying to Da Nang

The change from Hong Kong’s dense urban landscape to the coastline and surrounding countryside of central Vietnam was immediately relaxing.

We landed in Da Nang in early evening after our delay ready to begin the next stage of the trip. Outside it was still a balmy high 30s and the humidity smacked us in the head, but in a gentle way.

New country, new city and the usual quiet hope that the luggage had travelled with us.

From the Airport to Le Sands

After clearing immigration eventually, (it seems that 2 gates is enough for customs with several incoming flights) and collecting our bags, we found a taxi for the journey to our new home, the Le Sands Oceanfront Danang Hotel. The taxi ride took about 15 minutes, giving us our first look at Da Nang by night with its riot of neon lights and cacophony of blaring horns.

The traffic was typically Vietnam, and the number of scooters dodging and weaving in and around the buses and taxis provided an early preview of the following evening’s adventure.

At this stage, we were safely enclosed inside a taxi.

That seemed worth appreciating.

Arriving at Le Sands

We arrived at Le Sands at around 8pm, later than we hoped due to our flight delay. Check-in was effortless, everything was in place, and our first impression of the hotel was one of amazement. It towered up over the beach like a beacon.

Our room was bigger than some peoples apartments, with a sweeping view of the Da Nang beach and beyond. After our room in HK this felt like stepping into a palace. We have a one-bedroom oceanfront residence with a separate lounge and a kitchenette.

After several days of sightseeing and the flight from Hong Kong, we had no intention of launching immediately into a major programme of exploration.

The evening was devoted to the highly demanding activities of unpacking, looking at the view and sitting down.

Dinner was up at the rooftop pool bar where we had a super fresh mango salad with rice paper rolls, Vietnam we’ve missed the food!

Day one in Da Nang: arrive, unpack, eat and avoid making any decisions more complicated than choosing a drink.

Day Two: Beginning at Street Level

After a good night’s sleep—or at least a better sleep than the slab in HK allowed—we began our first full day in Da Nang.

Breakfast at the hotel included the usual favourites starting with a great omelette, followed by dumplings and some pastries. Oh and don’t forget the Vietnamese Coffee.

Our daytime plan was intentionally loose.

We wanted to wander, observe the city and allow our first impressions of Da Nang to develop naturally.

This is travel language for walking without a detailed plan and hoping that lunch eventually presents itself. It wasn’t lunch we found first but a foot massage, is 10am too early? No photos from the actual massage as we both had a hot compress over our eyes, I almost drifted back to sleep.

Fuel for a demanding morning of wandering vaguely in the direction of something interesting.

Compared with Hong Kong, Da Nang felt slower and more relaxed, especially on the foot region. The pace was gentle, although it was still early, the scooter traffic remained impressively committed to being everywhere at once.

Crossing the road required skilled forgotten but honed well on previous visits to Vietnam. You pick your moment and start to cross, don’t deviate or change pace, the traffic will flow around you. Hopefully!

This sounded sensible in theory.

Our introduction to the delicate local art of crossing the road without making any sudden life choices.

The Important Matter of Lunch and a tailor…

We then hit upon the idea of finding a tailor to get a few things made. A google search showed many options in Danang, we’ve also had things made in HoiAn before. We asked at our hotel for a recommendation and Lily, one of the desk staff told us about her friend in HoiAn. So off we went to the Corner Tailor, a Grab Cab was cheap, driver now seems to be our personal chauffeur here in town. He drive us down, waited to take us home and has somehow managed to be taking us back on Wednesday to collect our order. At about $10 a ride, why not.

Getting our clothing ideas sorted was simple, Helen had some pants and a top she wanted copying so just fabric to choose. Okay, sounds simple, there are so many options, but we got there. I wanted pants for work, nothing to copy but many options to choose from, again fabric the hardest choice. Wednesday we get to see the results.

By around 1pm, our gentle morning exploration and shopping had developed into a search for lunch.

We chose because Madam Kanh, the Banh Mi Queen. Why, well thanks Lily, again and a great option too, cheap and tasty. Might go back on Wednesday. We both had bbq pork banh mi.

The food was, quick, cheap and so tasty! The total cost was less than $10 for rolls and drinks.

It was our first proper daytime meal in Da Nang and an encouraging sign of what the next few days might bring.

Lunch: the point at which wandering becomes a carefully planned culinary research project.

Pool Time and Tactical Recovery

After lunch, we returned to Le Sands for some pool time.

This was partly about enjoying the hotel and partly about conserving energy for the evening. We spent the afternoon chilling by the pool. The pool area was or would be relaxing if the families with kids were elsewhere! However the remains of a tropical storm also kept everyone one alert

This restful period was important because our evening activity required balance, courage and a degree of trust in someone we had not yet met.

We had booked a Street Food Tour by Scooter through GetYourGuide.

An afternoon of rest before voluntarily entering Da Nang traffic on the back of a scooter.

Our first impressions were are these guys old enough to have a licence? They both looked so young, but then again so did we once. After introductions and a brief explanation of the evening, we were given helmets and the adventure commenced. Then came the moment of truth. We climbed onto the scooters.

Da Nang by Scooter

Seeing Da Nang from the back of a scooter was completely different from exploring on foot. We travelled along main roads and side streets passing people going about their daily lives.

The traffic initially appeared calm, which was reassuring but gradually revealed its own rhythm and as the evening progressed picked up the intensity and became the chaos we’ve seen previously.

Our guides navigated it with complete confidence.

Da Nang after dark: bright lights, busy roads and two passengers developing impressive grip strength.

The food at each stop was sensational and our guides explained each dish and it’s place in the culture of Vietnam and specifically Danang.

The tour gave us far more than a meal. It introduced us to parts of Da Nang that we would probably never have found on our own.

The last stop was a craft beer bar, our first taste of the local brews.