Da Nang 2

We had some hours to kill before our flight in the evening so after breakfast we headed out to see Da Nang. It was a little cooler today - only 44 so we were raring to go............. ahem. We took a cab to the Dragon Bridge, so named because it was made to look like a dragon, and walked across the bridge into the city centre area. We were sitting in the shade on the other side having a rest, enjoying the breeze when, unfortunately for Braeden, he had a bird shit on his head (that’s what you get for choosing not to wear a hat - I’m sure it’s a sign of good luck somewhere). A good laugh for the rest of us but if you know Braeden, you know how well bird crap on his head went over with him.

We found a Baskin Robins nearby and stopped for ice cream and a head wash. We then made our way to a nearby shopping centre for some a/c, and the purchase of a couple shirts for Keegan (no more running out of clothes for him). Sufficiently cooled, we made our way back across another bridge to another shopping centre. This one contained a grocery store that carried seemingly everything, a Superstore type of store but much much smaller. There was a lot of security at the entrance, exits, and roaming the store. I counted at least 7. I don’t know if the Vietnamese have a hot-fingered reputation or not but you weren’t going to get away with taking anything from there. I guess the store owners figure the cost of security out weighs the shrinkage from theft. There was some strange looking stuff in the store, I had a hard time identifying what was inside the packaging, and there was some really odd looking items in the produce section that I couldn’t even begin to guess what they were. I didn’t check the meat section too carefully for fear of seeing something I didn’t want to see. We bought some junk food (cookies and potato chip packaging is pretty universal) and continued walking about the mall. The top floor had a food court so I wanted to have a look at that, and saw something I didn’t expect to see, an ice rink with real ice. Lots of kids racing around on the ice, having fun and staying cool.

We took a cab back to our hotel to pick up our luggage and then we cabbed it to the airport. We were starving by the time we got there so after we cleared security we checked out our dinner options - Pho, Banh Mi with mystery meat of suspect origins, or Burger King. Guess what we chose. Ugh. Should have had the Banh Mi.

Our flight was pretty bumpy, our first one this trip with any kind of real turbulence. Our hotel neglected to send a pre-arranged car to pick us up, and now we are in our 3rd different room as the a/c wasn’t working in the previous 2. Not a good start. I blame it all on the bird shit.Read more