Vietnam - June 2014 [Da Nang & Hoi An]

Da Nang

Day 10

We took the 10am'ish flight to Da Nang from HCMC. The flight was delayed for 40 minutes. I was of course a little annoyed. But seeing other flights being delayed for more than 3 - 4 hours, I was grateful ours was only 40 mins...

The moment we arrived in Da Nang, our thoughts were, is this still Vietnam? Lol. Every city that we've been to have been 'old' in a way. With small roads, and many motor bikes. Da Nang gave us a very different feeling.

We had booked 3 nights at Hyatt Regency Danang. As soon as we stepped into our room, we were wowed away. The pictures speak for themselves.

 So.damn.awesome.

 White sandy beach

 Their beach pool

The view from our balcony

I loved the place and I really would not mind going back again. The sand was soft, and there wasn't a lot of crowd. Though there is still something missing that's missing in terms of Hyatt's service, I would still return for the overall experience. In my opinion, it's worth it to pay a little extra for their Club services. Free flow during happy hour, private pool, separate check in/out area, the whole package was worth it.

Lunch was at one of their restaurants and we were satisfied.

 Shrimp Salad

Hue's local pork noodle - this was yummy

The rest of the day was spent swimming, lazing around, exploring the hotel. It was awesome...

Day 11

Day of my birthday~! I told Kevin I didn't want to do much for the whole day. I just wanted to chill, read, and pamper myself. Hehehe...

Lunch was back at the same restaurant from the day before.

 Sugarcane juice - I love it how Vietnamese add lime to their sugarcane juice. This however did not have any lime in it. We asked for extra lime...

 Fried springroll

 Vietnamese bread roll is also one of my favourite Vietnamese food. No other country makes their bread roll quite like them... Crunchy on the outside, so soft on the inside...

Hyatt provided complimentary face massage for staying in their Club rooms so we booked a full body massage together for the afternoon. After the massage, it was almost time for dinner. Kevin booked dinner at The Intercontinental. The ride there took almost half an hour. It was worth it though. Intercontinental was very grand. They even have a tram inside their hotel!

 View from Intercontinental - It's very different from Hyatt

I would like to try their afternoon tea here the next time I return...

Where we had dinner

Dinner was good. The manager even asked one of the waitress to show us around the other parts of the restaurant :). Price wise, it's worth it comparing to what you'd get in HK for the same price.

Day 12

My Son & Hoi An

The day before, I noticed that we could see sunrise from the hotel. Kevin wasn't very happy that I didn't wake him up to see the sun rise. So we woke up early this day to catch the sun rise. I loved it.

After breakfast, our taxi picked us up and headed to Hoi An, stopping by My Son on the way.

My Son is listed on the World Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO. It's not as well known by people like Combodia's Angkor Wat. It's still worth a visit if you have time. Bring an umbrella if you are worried about the heat. There was practically no shade when we went... Entrance fee was VND100,000.

After visiting My Son, we headed to Hoi An. Hoi An was also another town that Kevin and I really liked. It's a nice quiet little town where it felt like it's a different part of Vietnam.

We had lunch at Mango Mango. Though it's pretty good, it's slightly more expensive than the other normal Vietnamese meals we have had during the trip.

 Grilled pork - the texture was pretty hard. I didn't finish it.

The prawn with tangerine & chocolate sauce was pretty good though

The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting small little shops, and Chinese temples. A point to note is that some of the points of interest in Hoi An require to buy tickets. You can buy tickets to five sightseeing places for VND120,000. Not all points of interest requires a ticket. You can choose not to buy the tickets if there isn't a sight that you are interested in that requires you to pay. We bought the tickets because there were a few sights that I was interested in.

We headed back to the hotel after. If we were to come back again, we would probably spend a night in Hoi An to see what it's like here after dark.

Our last dinner was spent at Hyatt. We managed to try all the restaurants Hyatt had to offer. We were quite happy with all of them.

Day 13

Time to head back to HK =(. It was a very good holiday and both of us enjoyed it. We will be back!