My alarm is set to 5.15am, and I’m so ready to get off this train. All I want is a proper bed and some rest! I brush teeth and am back before the others even wake up. By 5.45am, we’re all ready, and we roll into Da Nang at 6am. We taxi to our hotel and are asked to store our bags (fair enough, it’s not even 7am), and we take another taxi to a place for breakfast.
The restaurant is so tiny, the washroom is actually the owners’ private bathroom. The sink is full of toothbrushes and old toothpaste tubes. The pho was good, it did us wonders, but it’s still only 7.30am when we finish breakfast. How do we spend the rest of our time while we wait for our room? Joe wants a coffee, and I discover that the coffee shop directly next door is a good choice. Not only is it supposed to have good coffee, it’s also super cute!
Joe and I both have Vietnamese coffee, and Téa has a hot chocolate. We spend some time at the café, and then we decide to go for a walk. The skies are grey, and it just stopped raining, good thing we have our rain jackets!
As we were walking north along the beach, suddenly Joe gets the message we’ve been waiting for – our room is ready! We head back to the hotel, and check in to our balcony room on the 20th floor. We have a great view of the city, but also of the ocean in the distance.
Speaking of sink, I sink right onto the bed. I need to close my eyes for a bit. Joe takes the girls out for a walk in the neighbourhood, he needs a sim card top up for his phone. (I’m using Ubigi, so everything is a simple tap of a button on my phone, no hunting for phone stores, just convenient. It’s one app and one travel sim setup, and it’s been three countries, so far!) They leave, I try to nap.
When they come back, it’s almost time for lunch. But first, we explore the hotel. On the 24th floor there’s a spa, but it’s also the last floor that the elevator goes to. The 25th and 26th floors are up some very tall stairs, as in each step on the stairs is a tall one. My thighs ache, and I’m only just walking stairs! On the 25th floor, there’s a bar/restaurant and an infinity pool, unfortunately not heated, but the girls think it feels ok anyways. We may test it out later. On the 26th floor, there’s the garden dining room, attached to the bar/restaurant below. The 26th floor has no roof. When it rains, the rain goes down the stairs into the 25th floor, and the bottom step has a grate to drain the water away.
Once satisfied that the rooftop is not close enough for us to properly enjoy the fire and water show on the dragon bridge, we head down to the lobby. We take a taxi over to a mall to escape the rain, and hopefully find some food. I am feeling horrible still, and do not want anything to eat. Joe lets the girls choose the restaurant, so we end up at an Italian place with pasta and pizza. The girls share a small pizza, and Joe has a seafood spaghetti.
We manage to stop at the grocery store for a couple of minutes, but it is PACKED. Might be a tour bus, because it seems like “everybody” is buying large quantities of the souvenir packaged items (coffee, tea, dried fruits and nuts). We get some water and snacks for the room, I grab some salty crackers, and then we head back to the hotel. We all shower off the train dust, and while they get ready to head back outside, I crawl into bed.
I wake up at 6pm, it’s already dark outside. I’m getting hungry, but don’t want to crawl out of the covers just yet. The plan is for me to walk over to the dragon bridge and meet the others for the fire and water show later, but first I have a phone date with my sisters.
At 8pm, I head outside. The walk is only about 20 minutes, and it feels good to move after my long nap.
The road and sidewalks on both sides of the dragon bridge, as well as the bridge itself, are full of people. So many drinks vendors make instant restaurants by setting up little plastic tables and chairs, all lined up for the best possible view of the show. The crowd is just holding its breath waiting for the show to start, and we are all here for the very same thing.
At 9pm, I’m filming. I want to get at least the beginning of the show on film, but nothing happens. I film and I film, but there are no flames. Everyone’s confused.
The show starts a couple of minutes late. The dragon lets out a fiery puff, and everyone cheers. The fire portion of the show lasts maybe 2-3 minutes? It’s very underwhelming. I don’t really know what I was expecting?
To no one’s surprise, we all stumble straight into bed. The beds are large, soft, and we are all soon asleep.