Da Nang Aftermath

Our trip to Da Nang was awesome!  I would definitely say that this was the best two days I have had throughout this whole trip, and I wouldn't be surprised if this trips stay atop the leaderboards for the remainder of our stay.  So at 5pm on Friday afternoon, 12 of us boarded a packed and sweaty van/bus Da Nang bound.  After about 3 hours of napping, Mafia, and Contact, we were greeted with bursts of thunder and lightning as we arrived in downtown Da Nang and made our way to the surprisingly luxurious guest house which, for only a few bucks per person, we were able to pack 12 people into two rooms for two nights.  You just can't get deals like that in the States.  Plus, sharing a bed with Andy Tran felt like more of an honor than a burden.  Waking up on Saturday, our awesome buddy Vu already had a action filled day planned for us, and oh did it live up to the expectations.  Breakfast consisted of a beautiful noodle (typical) dish across the street from the guest house which we all devoured and some of the boys (myself included) inhaled two like my sister with a jar of peanut butter.  Afterwards, Vu's amazingly accomodating uncle treated us all two a ca phe sua da (iced coffee) morning pick-me-up.  Vu's uncle, aunt, and cousins lived only a few houses down from our guesthouse, so we visited them regularly and used their house a sort of base camp for our various excursions.  To thank Vu's family, we purchased them a wonderful assortment of various fruit such as dragon fruit, apples, grapes, and mangos (sorry Eli, no chum chum).  Then, it was pagoda time! We all hopped into two taxis and drove up along the coast a few miles to the largest pagoda in Da Nang and probably one of the largest statues in the world!  This pagoda was quite a sight to be seen; nestled above a shore side cliff and overlooking the breathtaking Da Nang.  Outside of the pagoda was a huge, and I mean HUGE, statue of Buddha which is roughly the same height as the Duke Chapel!  Pretty awesome trip, thanks Vu.  Next, we made like Nicki Minaj and headed to the beach!  Vu picked out a local beach resort with perfect sand, clear water, and awesome thatch cabanas that we could rent out for the day.  With jars of peanut butter, bananas, bread, baguettes, cucumbers, chips, and a case of the local beer Biere Larue, we were set for the afternoon. We all showed our toughness by swimming out to various rocks and exploring the deep, but no one was a tough as Vu's little cousin Bien who dropped his trousers and peed right out on the sand for all to see.  That little boss practically owned the place.  I think I speak for everyone when  I say the beach hit the spot like MJ Dodds' "Special Waffles" on a Saturday morning.

After some quick showers, it was time to head to the internationally famous Hoi An.  This popular tourist destination has been preserved since colonial times and even before, making it a beautiful place to spend the day.  On the narrow streets of Hoi An, one can easily spot the mixture of Asian and French architecture in almost every building.  The sheer beauty of the city has attracted tourists from all over the world, so for the first time in a month, we saw foreigners! Many Australians, Germans, French, and of course, the Kiwis!   A quick side note about what it felt like to encounter tourists:  For some reason, and I think my fellow Duke Engagers can attest to this, seeing these tourists didn't arise any sense of patriotism, camaraderie, or any type of connection that I thought it might.  In fact, it kind of made me a little bit upset, the type of upset that one feels when a new kid joins your tightly knit sports team, pretending to be "in" with the group.  Not to say that I by any means am a local or even anything close to that, but I do feel that we have seen Vietnam in a way that tourists do not, and we have this sense of understanding of the substracture of people, culture, and personality that the touristy superstructure overshadows.  So to these tourists who probably won't speak a word of Vietnamese or leave these touristy areas while they are here, I just want to think how sad it is how limited their impressions of the country will be whereas we will have an unparalleled understanding of this place.  It was a strange feeling to view these people as outsiders, but also amazing to see how deeply we have been immersed in this country.  Alright, back to the story.  While some of us walked around and enjoyed the sites, others took advantage of the huge market and whipped out our Vietnamese bargaining skills.  I was particularly succesful in my ventures, getting  a 120,000 dong tank down to 70,000 and getting a 300,000 dong back pack down to 120,000 with a mixture of English and some canned Vietnamese phrases.  In a particuarly impressive example of ruthless bargaining, Divya bargained a piece of pineapple she had no interest in buying from 20,000 to 15,000, at which point she decided to instead buy a banana for 5,000.  A master at work.  After an overpriced, but good dinner, the sun set and the famous lanterns of Hoi An illuminated the street.  Along the river, the night was picture perfect with floating lanterns completing the scene.  After a little more shopping and some debating on whether or not to buy a lantern for my mom (which I ultimately didnt... sorry mama, it was a lot to carry), we headed back to Da Nang to get ready for our night on the town.

After some quick food, it was time to start getting ready for the night.  Vu and his cousin Tao planned for us to hit up a new and very popular club along the water.  When we got there it was already packed but Tao, being one of the coolest people ever, got us in no sweat.  The club was nuts.  The bass immediately hit me in the chest like Remy Orans's legendary quad kick.  We all had a great time chilling, dancing, and watching helplessly as creepy old men hit on the waitresses, but after paying a ridiculous bill, we followed Tao to her favorite bar, the Golden Pine Pub.  Once we got there the mood immediately changed as the lady friends in our group made their ways onto the bar top as "Call Me Maybe" came on.  I met a fat German engineer, two Kiwis, and lost in a game of pool, so obviously I was having a great night.  The bar was still packed when we headed out around 2am.

Although I was too tired the next morning, the others took a bus ride out to Marble Mountain, a huge mountain outcrop right outside the city.  Although I cannot say from first had experience, I heard that these mountains looked like the floating mountains in Avatar, but not floating of course.   Wish I had the energy to go.

For lunch, Corinne, Chandra, Divya and I returned to the bar to see if we could get some bar food, aka burgers, and for about 5 bucks, I had a huge double cheeseburger.  Oh My God was it good.  Vietnamese food is great, but sometimes a burger can just hit the spot.  At around 2pm, we hopped back on the bus and returned to Quang Tri, refreshed, regenerated, and (another "re" word) for another week of work.

In the aftermath of Da Nang, we had a few losses, tragic losses.  First, my supposedly waterproof to 14 ft camera is apparently only waterproof to don't-get-this-thing-anywhere-near-water-or-it-will-break ft.  Pretty stupid.  I am going to have a word with Samsung when I get back to the States and have nothing better to do.  So I buried it in a bowl of dry rice to see if the phone cure all also applies to cameras.  So I'm crossing my fingers (but not actually because crossing your fingers in Vietnam = middle finger in the US).  So I hope y'all understand why this post is devoid of photos.

The other loss was the our very own baby Diego has been stolen!  Apparently some "friends" of the guesthouse owner came and loved Diego so much, just like everyone who encounters him, that they took him against her will!  Although stealing Diego is totally something I would have done, I cannot stand for someone else doing it so the Vietnamese and American students are rallying our respective governments in a joint full scale military operation to return Diego to his proper owners, us.

Thats all for this weekend, and we have another hard week ahead of us so I should definitely get some sleep.  Feels good that we are taking advantage of our time in Vietnam by doing all we can do.  Loving the experiences.