We woke up VERY early to catch a 5:40am plane ride to Da Nang…and trust us, we did not plan for this. We originally booked a 7:45am flight from Hanoi to Da Nang, but it was changed…twice. We booked through an airline called VietJet (because we only had two options and VietJet was the lesser of two evils). This was also the first airline that made us check our backpacks…so we DO NOT recommend them whatsoever (even though each ticket was only $30 USD, bag check was $15!). Anyway, because of the time of this flight, we decided to arrange a car service from our hotel for $10 USD…not terrible, but a fortune compared to our airport minibus option that got us from the airport for 60,000 dong (about $2 USD).
The flight was only about an hour long, so we arrived in Da Nang by 7am and were ready to start our day! We caught a metered taxi from the Da Nang airport to our hotel, which cost us about 150,000 dong ($6 USD). We planned to rent a scooter from a nearby shop, but we found out our hotel rents them! We ate a quick breakfast, rented a scooter, and we were off to explore this beautiful little beach city.
Da Nang is actually split in two sections (not sure if other people consider it to be, but we do) that are divided by the Han River. It sort of reminds us of the intercostal waterway in Florida, as there is an inland area and a beachfront peninsula. This peninsula area is often called the Son Tra Peninsula, and this is the region we are staying in (which is absolutely beautiful) and plan to explore today!
We began our cruise north towards Monkey Mountain (appropriately named for all the monkeys that inhabit it). It is now a protected natural reserve and has hundreds of unique flora and fauna that make up the beautiful landscape. Buildings and resorts remain absent, with the exception of the two that were built before the area was protected, so it’s a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of Da Nang.
The first major turn off once on the mountain is Chua Linh Ung and Son Tra Quan Yin otherwise known as the Goddess of Mercy or Lady Buddha (it has a striking design resemblance to the Jesus Christ statue in Rio). The main statue of this temple features a 220-foot female Buddha statue (not including the 110+ foot wide lotus flower she is standing on) and is the largest in all of Vietnam. It is said to be equivalent to a 30-story building! Finished in 2010, one hand is exorcising (no, not exercising) and the other is grasping holy water said to be for the incoming and outgoing fishermen after the Ketsana typhoon in 2009. If you look closely, you might be able to see the tiny Buddha statue on her hat! The image is actually over 6-feet tall, but from that high up it looks tiny! The statue has 17 stories inside and each floor has 21 Buddha statues.
We continued up Monkey Mountain to find spectacular viewpoints along the way, most of which we were the only visitors present. We made a stop along the way at Ban Co Peak to play chess with Confucius and contemplate a bit as he often did.
The views here were stunning, but we continued further up the mountain and to a strip of road call Monkey Pass. As we left this overlook, we spotted the rare and endangered red-shanked douc run across the road right in front of our scooter! It was a quick encounter, so we didn’t get a picture, but what a beautiful monkey!
We arrived at the main viewpoint with looks all the way up towards beautiful Hue and then headed down the other side of the mountain. By this time it was around noon and we were starting to get hungry. We stopped back at our hotel to pack our daypack with beach and snorkel gear because we planned to head to one of the many beaches here in Da Nang to enjoy this hot weather!
We first went to a beach on Son Tra called Bai Rang. This beach was said to be beautiful and relaxing, but we found that the locals here were just trying to do anything and everything in their power to get an extra dollar. We didn’t feel incredibly comfortable leaving our few belongings out while we went snorkeling, so we had a bite to eat, watched where one of the overpriced dive boats went, and challenged ourselves to find an accessible beach to that very spot! We scootered along the coastline just past the Son Tra Resort and Spa to find a couple of locals hanging out and asked if we could park there. They smiled, probably not understanding a word we said, and we headed down to the beach. When we got down to the coast, we saw that very same dive boat anchored about 30 feet off the beach we were now standing on! We strapped on our masks and off we went to enjoy beautiful coral reefs and some fish we didn’t recognize back in our own Atlantic ocean.
After a quick rest at our hotel after a nice snorkel, we searched for some food outside of what we had been used to for the past few days. We found a local Indian restaurant titled Family Indian Restaurant and it was delicious! We ordered vegetable samosas, chicken tikka masala and a tasty naan to go along with the masala. We couldn’t finish it all, but it was so good, Joey asked for a to-go container and finished it as soon as we got back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we plan to visit the famous Marble Mountains and spend some time visiting the beautiful bridges that connect the central city of Da Nang to the peninsula over the Han River that we mentioned earlier, so stay posted!