Da Nang Days

Our Vietnam adventure begins in Da Nang, Vietnam's third biggest city (behind Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi), located on the central part of the coast. While it is pretty big, it's pretty calm and quiet right now, although it appears they are trying to rapidly change that by turning it into a resort destination to take advantage of the beautiful beach it abuts.

Back during the Vietnam War (or the American War, as they call it in Vietnam), Da Nang served as the main U.S. and South Vietnamese air base and also the R&R locale for thousands of American soldiers because of the beautiful beach that they called China Beach (the Vietnamese have different names for each section of the 30 km long stretch of white sand beach, including My Khe, My An, Non Nuoc, etc.).  The area was many soldier's first point of entry into Vietnam, and because of the evacuation hospital there (which you might remember from the late '80s show "China Beach") meant that many wounded soldiers were airlifted there, Tim's boss being one of them.

Now the beach is pretty quiet (at least until high tourist season), with tourists relaxing on the beach by day, locals hitting it up to swim in the early evening, and fishermen cruising by at all times of the day.   This crew of fisherdudes puttered down the coastline each morning with the Cham Islands in the distance and Son Tra peninsula and giant Buddha statue behind them.

Tim actually had meetings the first few days we were in Da Nang, so he didn't get to enjoy the beach quite as much as me.  Wa waaaa.

Welcome to Da Nang

Hey kiddos! Sorry for the lengthy delay in getting a post up... Tim and I are back in the Big Durian after living it up in Vietnam for the past few weeks, busy eating and drinking our hearts out, overindulging in all of the things that are hard to find and/or expensive in Jakarta: wine, cheap beer, pork, mounds of fresh herbs, crispy baguettes and flaky croissants, more pork, more wine, more baguettes, etc., etc. 

The mountains to the west of Da Nang from the airport.

I'm planning to post a bunch of stuff about of trip, including places visited, things eaten, things observed, feelings felt... In the meantime, please check out the beautiful sunset above and the bizarre but cute welcome drink that greeted me upon arrival:

Dragon fruit drinks served in tiny bamboo lounge chairs.

Jakarta Street Art

On the way home from lunch and a trip to the pet store today, I saw this funny and cool street art on the roadside in Jakarta.  

This is a fisherman luring in a mermaid with some rupiah:

A scary bear/cactus?:

"Save your brain": 

Tim Hangs in Hanoi, Part 3

Tim was pho crazy on his trip to Hanoi.  He got some more pho at this chain restaurant that he discovered also has an outlet in Jakarta near our house... we're definitely going to give it a try!

He also drank a ton of Vietnamese iced coffee... this one was at Cafe Nang, which is over 60 years old and which Travel & Leisure calls "the bohemian soul of Hanoi's cafe scene." 

Tim captured these banners celebrating the anniversary of Vietnam's reunification after the war:

While walking around, Tim snapped a shot of this old Catholic church, St. Joseph Cathedral, which was built circa 1886:

Aaaaand, finally, Tim was able to get a photo of some Hanoi's thousands of motorbikes, all lined up perfectly.  I think this is what those kids were going for:

That's it for Tim's trip to Hanoi, but we'll posting more photos and stories from Vietnam in a few weeks, as we're heading to Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City!!

Tim Hangs in Hanoi, Part 2

More photos from Tim's time in Hanoi.

 

Unlike Ho Cho Minh City, Hanoi is not really known for its nightlife.  However, Tim said that this ice cream joint was hoppin' later in the evening.  While other streets in the area were relatively deserted, this street was jam packed with people riding motorbikes up to the storefront and them walking them inside.  Random.

This guy was making sugarcane juice on the street- running pieces of sugarcane through a press (in the second photo the sugarcane solids are shooting out the back):

Tim said these kids were all sitting around on tiny plastic stools, not drinking beer or playing cards, but drinking tea and eating sunflower seeds:  

These kids were staging a photo shoot with their motorbikes, lining them all up artfully in a row:

Tim ate a lot of pho while he was in Hanoi;  he hit up this popular spot, made famous by a visit from Anthony Bourdain.  The line was literally out the door:

Tim says this version was the northern style pho, with richer, more meaty flavor and a ton of green onion:

Tim says you could order smoked brisket to be sliced off these big slabs hanging in the middle of the restaurant (in addition to the regular raw beef that gets cooked in the broth).  He also said this guy with the long hair was drunkenly cutting in line and yelling at the store owners:

Tim Hangs in Hanoi

After pursuing excitement through unforgettable moments in Singapore, Tim headed to Ha Noi, Vietnam for some meetings.  Luckily, in between meetings, he had a little bit of time to bump around town, sample some of the local cuisine and see the sights.  He took some photos with the trusty iPhone, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much, mostly of food and random streets scenes:

The above photo is the view from Tim's hotel balcony of the Ha Noi Opera House, one of the major pieces of French colonial architecture in Ha Noi.   Tim's great view was courtesy of the Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel, which should not be confused with the Hanoi Hilton...

He saw the cars below outside the French colonial Metropole Hotel:

Tim and his coworkers went out to dinner and ordered the spring roll appetizer.  What arrived at the table was not what they expected.  A mango topped with a pineapple cut into the shape of a turkey with spring roll wings and a carrot head, surrounded by heaps of fresh herbs.  Awesome.

While eating, they watched the waiter bring a live lobster to the table next to them and proceed to poke the lobster's underbelly with a stick, extract the lobster's blood and mix it in a glass with rice wine for the restaurant patron to drink.  Apparently this is fairly common in Vietnam!  We found this video of the live lobster blood extraction for your viewing pleasure.

Tim got the chance to go hawker food court and try some food traditionally from the central Vietnam town of Hue (which we'll be visiting later this month!), bun bo Hue (see above).  It's a noodle soup made with pork knuckles, beef shank, oxtail, lemongrass, and sometimes congealed pig's blood (when we looked it up online and Tim saw that congealed pig's blood was an ingredient, he said "Oooooh, that's what that was!").  

Unfortunately the above photo is pretty blurry (I promise to try to capture a better photo when we head back in a few weeks), but Tim said it's pretty common to see streetside barbers in Ha Noi.

Tim saw lots of sports being played streetside, too, mostly badminton and a badminton-esque game called đá cầu that involves kicking a shuttlecock over a net.  Crazy.   Apparently it's Vietnam's national sport.

 Ok, more photos from Tim to come later!

Mr. Ben and Mr. Tim Go Mountain Biking

Mr. Ben and Mr. Ben's wife (aka Erin) are moving to Bangkok this week and Tim and I are quite sad to see our Jakarta besties go.... we are excited to visit them in Bangkok soon, though!

On a lighter note, Mr. Ben and Mr. Tim took one last wild ride (a la Mr. Toad) a few weeks ago down Gunung Pancar near Sentul City, a suburb of Jakarta (it's the same place we went hiking last fall).  As they traversed the mountain and kampung, Mr. Ben took a ton of video with his trusty head-cam and got some great footage:

Please take note of Mr. Tim slow-mo leapfrogging over the handlebars of his bike at minute mark 00:55 and Mr. Ben biting it soon after.  At around 6 minutes you can see the transition from the kampung into the pine forest.  To me it looks more like the Pacific Northwest U.S. than Indonesia!