Day 266, Da Nang

Had a glorious night’s sleep in our luxury accommodation before hopping on the bikes and going in search of Hoa’s place, a guest-house complex recommended as the backpacker hang out. We were looking for this place yesterday though gave up on it, though we found it after the help of some locals. Hoa himself, as well as his wife, is a proper dude. Da Nang is going through a huge development process with ostensibly sized resorts springing up which is just obscene, though Hoa’s place is squeezed in-between two sprouting complexes, has a bit of a run down feel to it, the rooms are basic but it’s great. They have a tab system where you just help yourself or order something and you write it down on a notepad, we had lunch and a pineapple yoghurt shake which was excellent, then walked the fifteen seconds to the beach. While not the nicest beach in the world, China Beach was cool, it’s fucking huge, stretching for about 30kms or something silly like that, and it was almost deserted. We played a bit of football with a Norwegian bloke, went for a swim in the waves and laid down reading. It was another grand day which was brilliant. Hunger struck so me and Michael got on Martha and went off in search of Mi Quan. After filling with petrol (I was dangerously low) we found a spot recommended and got two bowls of Mi Quaun tom thit, a pork noodle dish, though different to Pho, different noodles and also a spicy tomato sauce thing and it was brilliant. Still peckish we went off in search of a bakery for a cheeky snack, then back to Hoa’s to chill for  a bit. At seven every evening they have ‘family dinner’, where everyone goes to the common area which had dining tables and chairs and has dinner together. There’s no menu, Hoa’s wife just brings out food and everyone shares, I had a really nice time. It’s really nice to have communal dinners where everything is in the middle and people are talking away, it’s how dinners should be. Once that was done, naturally our table was the last to finish eating, had another shake then me and Michael went for a walk along the beach, stopping to sit and lie down looking at the stars (as you could see them(!)) then heading back for an early night.

to my left...

to my right