{"id":1753,"date":"2012-11-29T01:07:43","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T01:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/?p=1753"},"modified":"2012-11-29T01:07:43","modified_gmt":"2012-11-29T01:07:43","slug":"da-nang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/?p=1753","title":{"rendered":"Da Nang"},"content":{"rendered":"

Da Nang is a beach city. \u00a0The waves steadily roll to the coast and the lazy ambiance rolls along as well. \u00a0Our first night in Da Nang we went for a walk along the beach. \u00a0Locals smiled and waved, and were excited to practice their English by saying, “hello”. \u00a0The feel of the area was instantly different from the moment we set foot in the airport. \u00a0Even driving from the airport to the hotel, we noticed the change in cleanliness. \u00a0The streets were clean, and the restaurants set forth an appearance of good hygene. Eventually we decided that dinner was in order. \u00a0There was an enticing entry in our guidebook with mention of house brewed Czech style beer and local cuisine. \u00a0How could we resist? \u00a0So, we hopped in a cab and made our way to the Tulip Brewery and Restaurant. \u00a0The golden steins of cold, frothy beer were exactly what we desired after a long, hot beach walk. \u00a0We were, also, able to sample local cuisine. \u00a0We ordered plates like a seafood salad that you eat on shrimp rice crackers, a whole seasoned chicken that you dunk into a spice mixture with lime and green glutinous rice, and a seafood and mushroom dish with noodles. \u00a0All were fairly tasty, but went well with our giant mugs of beer, unless you are Sandra and I’d say giant mug of beer. \u00a0After our long day of travel, heat, dinner, and beer we called it a night, and took advantage of our satellite TV and cushy beds.<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

Our next day, we began with a trip to the Marble Mountains, which holds caves and temples. \u00a0There are shrines set to the budda set within the mountain and the light that came through on our cloudy day proved to create an eerie light and a marvelous sight. \u00a0This cave was way more amazing than Amazing Cave on Halong Bay. \u00a0And there were barely any tourists to obscure the view, mainly locals with offerings.<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

We, then, hopped in a car to spend the day in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hoi An Old Town. \u00a0The streets that radiate out from the central market are filled with handicraft shops, boutiques, and cafes. \u00a0The architecture is inspired by the Chinese and Japanese who used to frequent this once bustling port town. \u00a0Now it booms with the assistance of a steady tourist crowd, but there is a healthy mix of locals to remind you that you are still in Vietnam. \u00a0It is a quaint little town that lit up in the evening. \u00a0Situated along a river, Hoi An made a perfect place to experience our first full moon festival of our trip. \u00a0Children and old women sold paper lanterns that you could lower into the water for a small price. \u00a0The evening was lit up by the large, bright moon, the colorful lanterns in storefronts, and the flames of lanterns illuminating the river way. \u00a0Outside shops you could find offerings of rice, fake money, fruit, alcohol, cigarrettes and anything else that may please the gods. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

While in Hoi An we tried the local dish of Cao Lao, thick noodles of yellow color said to get their flavor from the ash and water from the local well. \u00a0Served with pork, veggies, and a bit of broth, these noodles are best when accompanied by some chili sauce. \u00a0It was a step up from some of the other Vietnamese food we’ve had. We were happy to have some new flavors, but are still not too impressed by the Vietnamese food. \u00a0There were, also, some wontons and crab, but the best food of the day occurred i the evening. \u00a0We were searching for bahn my only to find that it only means sandwich, and weren’t impressed with our options, when we came across a line of food stalls that looked intriguing. \u00a0A man approached us and explained to us as we walked that the food stalls were all the same. \u00a0A group of 35 families work together in this line of stalls. \u00a0They all have the same menu and take turns pulling in customers. \u00a0It sounded like a really neat idea, and fell into the category of what we’d expect from a socialist nation, so we pulled up a bench and dug in. \u00a0We all ordered what he had recommended. \u00a0We began with a seafood, tomato, mango, and onion salad atop a crispy, rice cracker (think ceviche or nachos). \u00a0For our main we ordered shrimp, lemongrass, and onion mixture, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed, served with the spice and lime mixture and rice. \u00a0All washed down with some good local beer and it was the best meal we’d had, yet. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

We had a successful day in Hoi An of local cuisine, shopping and even a festival. \u00a0Now we’re on our way to the modern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Da Nang is a beach city. \u00a0The waves steadily roll to the coast and the lazy ambiance rolls along as well. \u00a0Our first night in Da Nang we went for a walk along the beach. \u00a0Locals smiled and waved, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[355],"tags":[372,369,367,373,371,368,370,424],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vietnam","tag-da-nang","tag-full-moon-festival","tag-hoi-an","tag-old-garden-restaurant","tag-old-town","tag-tulip-brewery","tag-unesco-world-heritage","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1754,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}