On the first trip to danang vietnam , we worked out a plan from scratch, an extremely detailed plan outlining beaches to spend our time in the sun, home-stays, and last but not least, the must-try foods.
- things to do in vietnam _ Vietnam must see attraction
That plan we always feel grateful later that had us a fulfilled and memorable trip. Young people travel on tight budget. We were no exception and made a lot of online register and reservation in advance. Thanks to that we saved 25% of the expenses in comparison with that of a tour service provided by a tourism agency plus we were free and flexible to go where the crowds are and where the food is strongly recommended. If you go on a tour in which you have a tour guide and accompanied by a bunch of middle-aged people, you know you are going to have your lunch and dinner at “random” restaurants, who pays the travel agency a commission for customer introduction. At those restaurants, you can barely enjoy the genuine taste of local dishes or, more unfortunately, the meal you are being served is not much different from that is served in a restaurant in your home town. That would be a huge disappointment since Da Nang can offer you more than just spectacular city views, stunning, blue-watered beaches. Da Nang cuisines are plentiful in number, abundant and plays a significant, special role in Vietnamese cuisines. It cuisine was heavily influenced by Hue and Quang Nam cuisines, which has the royal impacts and somehow delicate, hard to execute by home cooks.
Different types of cake in Da nang
Different types of cake in Da nang
We got off the plane late at night and decided. Somebody was talking about quickly reaching our homestay, satisfying our stomach with couples of instant noodle packs then go straight to bed. “Are you kidding? We are not wasting any chance to taste the food here!”. I am quite sure others share the same feelings of excitement to explore with me. We got rid of the suitcases, left them in our rooms and went searching for the very first food experience in the food paradise of Da Nang. 10pm, some big restaurants had already closed but foodstalls were crowded with late-night eaters. 5 of us request 5 different types of rice with chicken so we could give all 5 dishes a try in a circle. The food never tasted that good. We were so hungry but later agree that the best rice with chicken was found in “Com ga Ba Buoi” restaurant, which went into business in 1950s.
We had our first day ended with full and happy stomach. 5 days later spent in Da Nang were a real treat to our bulimia. Every popular seafood restaurant, specialties food in the city and suburbs area, you name it we tried it! Quang noodles, Banh trang cuon thit heo, Ba Duong pancako, Banh Beo, Banh Bot Loc, mussel rice… We struggled to sneak dishes in our trips to Hoi An Old Quarter, Son Tra peninsula, Han river bridge. We had our third breakfast as all vegetarians with meat-free Quang noodle since that day was a traditional vegetarian day.
The food was amazing, yet we had other activities that I wish I have second chances to experience again.
We spent about one hour on a ship to reach Cu Lao Cham. Put on the neon life-vest and goggles, we jumped into the green and cool water with the warning of being stung by some jellyfish. The little pet hate was totally outweighed when we laid our equipped eyes on the dark green enormous coral reef under us. The swimming session stole a huge amount of calories and made us absolutely dig in our meal awaiting on the tables near the sunny beach.
If you want to taste the best seafood, I recommend you go to Lang Co Province in Hue. We had a beautiful meal loaded with fresh crabs, fried shrimps and seafood hot pots there.
In order to obtain the real freedom of genuine travellers, we hired a couple of motorbikes and explore the land within our ability to read the map. Sometimes we got lost and went up a real steep mountain pass. The way down scared us but the adventurous feeling had us overwhelmed.
The trip leaves beautiful memories in our mind. Some places were missed from the agenda, but we made a promise to come back the beautiful city again to fulfil every highlighted destination. No wonder Da Nang is one of the cities that worth living and visiting in Vietnam.
The second time going to Da Nang with my family, I had the opportunity to cover Bana Hills destination since we spent 6 days there with a group of other tourists. Bana Hill is definitely a destination worth visiting for ones who love to experience the high quality and modern entertainment.