Downtown Da Nang

We went down to the beachfront for coffee and breakfast this morning, then took off on foot to explore the downtown area in daylight, as we’d only previously seen it at night. We walked from the hotel, stopping for a few photos along the way - found some huge king crabs in a tank at one of the restaurants, and their big brother outside! 😊. We walked over the Dragon Bridge and into the flurry of the downtown streets. One thing we have noticed here is that it seems all the same type of stores are in the same block of shops - for example, we saw a store selling small worship altars made from beautiful wood, and the next six or seven businesses after were selling the same items. Same with florist shops, jewelry stores, silk vendors - all concentrated in one area! 🤔 And sometimes right in between all of these would be a mechanic’s shop 🤷‍♀️. Interesting!

We continued on to find the huge market - the Cho Con market, which has over 2000 stalls where you can buy anything - clothes, lingerie, fruits, vegetables, dried fruits, candy, fish, meat, pigs feet, jewellery, hardware, dishes, ceramic ornaments, purses, backpacks - you name it, they have it! Some of the aisles are very narrow, so it can be a little claustrophobic, and some of the smells are not for the delicate nose 😳🤣🤣! After walking through for a while, we stopped for refreshments, where Dave had a coffee and croissant, and I had a delicious mango smoothie!

We saw lots of other interesting sights along the way - a car with Pikachu stickers on the side, Pikachu bike helmets, a government building where the guard told Dave “No pictures” (he did anyway), and a “delivery truck” disguised as a motorbike with the driver squished between all his wares!

We headed back across the bridge to our hotel, and snapped a few more interesting shots along the way. So many street food vendors selling amazing sandwiches and other Vietnamese standards, my favourite Buddha statue, lovely side streets, and a bunch of men pondering over a board game of Xiangqi (OK, I had to look that up, but it’s also known as Chinese Chess)!

Got back to the hotel in time to meet with An, the tailor from Hoi An yesterday, who was dropping off my dress and Dave’s suit and shirt. What amazing work they do - my dress is gorgeous, but a bit too small, so she took it back to alter and will return with it tomorrow. Dave’s suit and shirt fit him perfectly and looks amazing! So much so, he ordered another shirt, and An will bring some silk ties back with her tomorrow for him to choose from!

After all that excitement, we cleaned up and walked down to a sushi restaurant we had scoped out on our travels today. Had some delicious sushi, and another dish with rice, curry and tempura prawns - so good! Back to the hotel and ready for 😴 after another busy 15.5 km day! 😳😊Weiterlesen