Da Nang

Our hotel in Da Nang was tall and narrow and had three rooms per floor. Our room here is the one with the wide open curtain. We were happy there was a lift. Note the mouldering old building next door. I'm sure it will be a hotel site soon.

It was raining when we arrived, and Geordie grabbed my camera and captured this scene outside the local market across the street. I love the composition of the first one.

The fruit, vegetables and meat are sold by vendors on the sidewalk. Inside the market are dry goods such as cloth for tailors and dress makers. The green fruit is unripe papaya used to make the spicy hot and delicious green papaya salad. The spiky thing is durian, the smelliest fruit in the world.

Dragon fruit grow in southern Vietnam in orchards. The cactus like plants are row on row supported by concrete posts. The fruit is white inside specked with tiny black seeds. The flavour is extremely bland.

The scaly fruit is custard apple. The spiky red ones rambutan which are a very refreshing fruit which we had as part of lunch today. The grapes are from Peru!

These woven contraptions are probably fish traps.

Da Nang is proud of the bridges which span the wide river. This dragon leaps across here.

Its head points east. 

It's dramatic in close up.

At night all the bridges put on a light show.

On Saturday and Sunday evenings at 9 pm the dragon breathes fire. We saw the show, but my camera didn't.

This bridge, the next one downstream is a blaze of changing colours. 

And the promenade along the river gets in on the act.

As does the street paralleling the river walk.

Life goes on, along the river.

And on the street, where these construction workers sit next to the remains of lunch.

And a welder plies his trade on the street. My brother Ches might want to consider work here if retirement gets boring.

We walked four kms to see China Beach, thinking we might want to stay here for a few days. It was empty and there were few restaurants so we decided we wouldn't. This beach was where American soldiers got their R and R during the war. It was also the site of the tv show of the same name.

We felt a little homesick for Vancouver here.

This penguin is for Penny. Penguin trash bins!

There is a museum in the city housing sculptures from the Cham culture which built many monuments here from the 4th to the 11th centuries. They were a Hindu culture hence the influence of India.

Fanciful elephants. 

And more realistic reoresentations. 

Across from our hotel was a plaza with lots of sculpture, some of it a little more than kitsch. The city is near an area called Marble Mountain where the stone is quarried. 

This Native North American in full regalia was a surprise. Another surprise is that the man in red, whom I spoke to after this shot, was from Dryden Ontario from whence hails our friend Laurie too. The tshirt had the Canadian flag on it.

We ate local. Here is a stoneware casserole with caramelized pork and hundred year old eggs which tasted better than expected. 

The chicken was all bone, not terribly appealing, although the sauce was flavoursome.

The required temple of religion. Here, a Roman Catholic church, locked tight.

One surprise in Da Nang was the active coffee shop culture. There were coffee shops everywhere, often side by side, with usually men sipping iced Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk. In the more local places each cup of coffee comes with a glass of hot Vietnamese tea too.

Eleven years ago when we were in Nha Trang we were impressed with the elegant young women wearing these Ao Dai, bicycling regally by, with erect posture. They wore elbow length gloves to protect their skin from the sun, and the conical Vietnamese hat. The women here are on a photo shoot.

Because this is today's reality. The bikes are gone, the elegance is gone and the face mask is required attire, for men and women.