Day 10 - Da Nang

On our first full day in Da Nang, we did exactly what I did 10 years ago...we woke up at 4:30 in the morning to hit the beach (we actually woke up at 3am 10 years ago to go to the beach). Watching the sun rise over the Da Nang horizon was breathtaking. A lot of people are already up and about since midday in Da Nang is very hot, and the weather at that time is perfect for walking along the beach. The water itself is warm and shallow, so you can walk out quite far with the water only going up midway.

After a quick dip, we came back to the hotel to clean up and shower and got some mi quang for breakfast. I don't normally enjoy mi quang, but it was really good here! The only bad part was that the chili pepper I ate was so spicy that it caught me by surprise and gave me hiccups. During breakfast, I called my dad to say happy birthday and sent him my uncle's regards. After that, we did what most folks do when they get to Vietnam, they get clothes made. Jess's auntie knew a specific guy here in Da Nang who could provide tailored tailored Gucci and Versace suits for $100, so obviously, I got 3. I don't know how they look yet, but that fabric sure was pretty.

After that, we went to a temple that had just recently been built. It was high on top of a hill overlooking Da Nang and the ocean. The water was so blue that it didn't look real. We took a few pictures from my camera and paid a guy there to take our picture and print it on the spot, which came out so well that I even thought it had been photoshopped. This temple also had a 50-foot Quan The Am that faced the city and the ocean. It had to be one of the nicest temples I had ever seen. The marble floors of the main building made for a very cool place to sit, and with the ocean breeze blowing through on this very hot day, we almost didn't want to get up for lunch...but we did.

Lunch was at a local restaurant where we ordered caramelized fish, sweet and sour pork, boiled lemongrass and chicken, boiled tofu, soup, and veggies. Everything was pretty good, though I think my mom does the chicken better. I also thought the caramelized fish was better in Saigon.

After lunch, Jess ran some HKLT errands with her auntie, while I tried to study back at the hotel. Studying on this trip has not been an easy task, with the simplest reason being that I'm here on vacay and studying isn't exactly the thing that I want to do. However, I've made efforts to set aside time to get my work done. Today, however, was an attempt done completely in vain because the electricity went out right as we got back to the hotel. I tried to study, but the heat quickly swept back into my room and I soon fell asleep. The electricity still hadn't come back 4 hours later, which is when I went with my uncle to Big C mall, which was pretty crowded, but still had AC, so it was cool.

After coming back to pick up Jess, we went to pick up another auntie and my 3 cousins for a big seafood dinner. O.M.G. I'm being spoiled here by the seafood. The clams were fresh and had been cooked perfectly. It wasn't dried out or gritty at all. After that, the roasted shrimp came out, and they were HUGE. Each shrimp was about the size of a lobster portion you get at a fancy American restaurant, and we had 3 plates full of these things. Now I don't eat shrimp heads, but luckily, my 4-year-old cousin ONLY eats heads when she eats shrimp or fish, so we made a good team.

Just the shrimp was close to satisfying my hunger, but then came the crab covered in a tamarind sauce that was so good that after finishing the crab, we wiped all of the sauce off the plate with bread. That was the best crab platter I ever had, and it wasn't because of the crab; it was the sauce. To wrap up the meal, we had rice and fish porridge, which was GREAT. Normally, rice porridge is bland and needs something else to give it more flavor, but at this place, it was already good! I don't know what was in it, but I was very tempted to finish all of the rice porridge, even though I was about to burst.

We had such a great time at dinner that my cousins all came over to hang out in our room. For some reason, Tuyet, the 4-year old cousin who was quiet all throughout the day and dinner, went crazy in our room. She ran behind curtains and was screaming left and right, but Jess sat her down next to her to watch Disney clips from youtube and she was a quiet little angel again. While Jess hung out with Tuyet, I taught the rest of my cousins how to play speed, which they fell in love with and just wanted to play over and over and over.

Everyone is asleep now, since we're getting up at 5am again to go back to the beach, but after such a great time with family, I wanted to make sure I wrote it down so that I wouldn't forget.

Mr. Ricky Le, if I could upload pictures of your birthtown for you, I would. I'll get them to you the moment I get a chance to upload some pictures.