It’s our first morning waking up in Da Nang, and we wake up hoping to catch a glimpse of sunrise out of our East facing balcony window, but the clouds meet the ground and it’s pouring down rain. That was a very good rest in a very good bed, and so Maylin is up, Joe is up and I am up. I roll over and whisper “breakfast breakfast breakfast” in Téa’s ear, because breakfast buffets are one of Téa’s (and mine) favourite things.
We take the elevator down to the 4th floor and step into the breakfast restaurant. There’s a window for eggs to order, there are bowls of noodles, veggies and meat (they only pour the soup over as people ask for it), there are platters of raw salad veggies, and a potato salad that Téa grabs a bunch of, only to realize it doesn’t taste like Mom’s potato salad, at all. There are breads, desserts, white rice, sticky rice, fried rice, congee, soup, curry, steamed bacon, hot dogs and pasta. There are steamed frozen veggies, stir fried vegan options, cereals, juices and super strong Vietnamese coffee.
After a long and tasty breakfast, we head back up to our room. The outlook is no brighter than this morning, this is what we see. The ocean is out there, somewhere!
We need to get out and see something, but most sights in Da Nang are outdoor venues, so we head back to yesterday’s mall. The top floor had lots of restaurants that we passed by because I wasn’t eating, so we want to go back for a second look today.
The Hong Kong portion of our trip is coming up so soon we can practically taste it, and this entire journey we’ve passed on dim sum and other Chinese options for food, because “we’ll have better in Hong Kong”. We’ve focused on trying local more than other countries’ food, with an exception here and there. But today, we can’t help it any longer, we head for dim sum.
It’s a Hong Kong restaurant with lots of options on the menu, but we are craving some of our usual favourites. We order BBQ steamed buns (Téa’s choice) and har gow (Maylin’s choice), and Joe and I shared a large plate of stir fried beef noodles. When all plates were licked clean, I remembered that no photos were taken. Have I completely lost my touch?? What blogger doesn’t take a million photos before stuffing their face full of food?
After lunch, we head down to explore the 3rd floor of the mall. It has a large portion dedicated to kids, one entertainment area, and another area where you “deposit” your children for a fee, with staff to look after them. I remember loving those types of places as a kid, but we haven’t used them for our kids – yet.
We go back to the grocery store today, and it’s a different world than yesterday, it’s so quiet here today! No big tour groups, just us, a few others, and a couple of sales ladies trying to get us to buy their coconut coffee mixes, and trust me, I’m tempted! Vietnamese coconut coffee is delicious, and we have to try to find a way to recreate them when we get home. Obviously, when travelling for this lenght of time, we don’t have enough luggage to bring all the souvenirs we would want from each destination!
After the mall, we head back to the hotel. It’s getting windier outside, and we notice that our balocony door has a large gap at the top, and the wind howls. We call down to the front desk, and they promise to send someone at 4pm. At 5pm, we call back, and the technician will come shortly. When he arrives, he adjusts some screws near the handle of the door, and proudly steps back to admire his work. It is marginally better.
Now that the balcony door is “fixed”, the big question is – where do we go for dinner? How far are we willing to walk in the rain, or do we want to get another taxi to another destination?
We end up settling for the restaurant on the 25th floor. It’s windy like crazy, and I watch the rain drizzle down the stairs from the rooftop garden.
There were a couple of other tables in the restaurant this evening, nobody really wanted to brave the weather to go elsewhere. One lady uses the restaurant as an office, which makes sense. If it wasn’t for the weather, she’d probably be alone up here. I hope not to eat here again, there are no real Vietnamese options, there are so many more exciting options out and about.
It was a wet and dreary day, but a day to relax after the restless night on the train and the hectic day that Joe and the girls had yesterday. Hopefully we’ll be able to see some sun and get more in tomorrow!