Kepfram & Ellie's Travel Journal

Wow - 4 weeks in Vietnam?! We've entered Central Vietnam (the Vietnameese/American War DMZ lies between Hue and Da Nang - though we didn't visit it...)

A lot of history here! Hue is the historic residence of Vietnam's last imperial family (the Nguyen Dynasty, built in the early 1800s. The compound, as well as being representative of Vietnamese architecture, has tons of French influence, but also Chinese and Japanese. As we were there for the National Day (Sept 2) holiday, all Vietnamese got free entry to the local historic sites, which may be the reason there were SO many people in traditional dress visiting for photo ops. Regardless of the reason, it was extra beautiful with all the costumes. 

As Hue is a larger city, that's not entirely focused on tourism, we were able to be around tons of locals - out for a walk at night, gathered with friends and family at local open air restaurants, passing time playing some board game we could not identify (apparently it's Cu tuong, aka Chinese chess), kids riding tiny light up go carts in the park...

We got up early on National Day and walked down to the river to join the local crowds watching the celebratory traditional boat races on the Perfume River. Similar to Dragon Boats, but shorter and with flatter (less stable) hulls paddled by some serious athletes! We watched both Men's and Women's races - the men were a little more aggressive, resulting in a capsized boat in 2 races (one seemed intentional, and the culprit boat seemed to get a time penalty) - it was HOT though, so we only lasted an hour...  

We also spent a lot of time in our hotel/B&B - a lovely family-run homestay in an older house - they included breakfast - and for 2 of our 3 nights we were also offered a delicious dinner - where we met some like-minded travelers of our generation - a couple from Bavaria and a solo traveler from Dresden - I hope we cross paths again!

We relatively quickly moved on to Central Vietnam's biggest city - Da Nang - a working port city with an extensive beachfront on the coast of the South China Sea. We are staying on the Son Tra Peninsula - a bit of Miami in the aesthetic, with palm trees along the endless (~9 km) My Khe Beach, party vibe at all the beachfront bars, and even some beach volleyball. One of the things I love is that all the highrise hotels (and there are MANY) seem to be along the city side (not the beach side) of the road, so the beach itself is less crowded. Here, there are a ton of restaurants and coffee shops (serving all the international tourists - more Russian & Indian visitors than we've seen elsewhere), including multiple Korean and Indian eateries, in addition to all the local food and Seafood! 

Da Nang nightlife seems to be centered on the Han River, which divides the city - especially lovely at night, with decorated bridges, one spanned by a giant dragon which spits fire and water at 9pm on weekend evenings, attracting a huge number of even more lit-up dinner cruises which come to watch along the equally lit riverfront. There's also a huge swing bridge which opens at 11pm on weekends.

Overall, the city hasn't invited us in (granted, we have been laying low during the day, staying out of the sun, hitting the beach at sunset, and exploring only after dark), we'll see if anything else grabs us before we head to our main stop in central Vietnam - Hoi An!!