Danang

After a few days in Hoi An we jumped on the bike for our final journey; a 30km ride up the coast to Danang. Our bags were bulging with some last minute shopping and the straps to tie on our luggage were past their used by date. After 1,500km, and no 3rd gear our bike was struggling as well. Us, the bags and the bike made the short trip up to Danang in one piece.


Danang is a big town. It is very clean and I would say quite modern. That said, the city itself is not very attractive. The city runs alongside the Han River. There are mountains on one side of Danang and the South China sea on the other. The best things to see are outside the city. We rode up towards Monkey mountain to visit the big Buddha (apparently 68m) which looks down on Danang. The views and setting were amazing. There were a number of Buddhas situated around the main one. In the pagoda monks sung. It was 7am and the place was virtually empty. It was incredibly peaceful and very beautiful.

We then rode 10km to Marble Mountain, took a look from afar at some of the pagodas and checked out statue street (street alongside the entrance to the mountain where all the statues e.g. Buddhas are sold).


After that we stopped at China Beach and went for a swim. The sea was unbelievably calm; all the way out to the horizon. The water was great and we had most of the beach to ourselves. We also came across a rooster fight (as in the gambling type), on the side of the busy highway. A group of Vietnamese men were squatting on a patch of grass watching intently as the two roosters fought. I had never seen this before and was surprised that the roosters seemed to know what they were doing; prancing around each other before making an aggressive attack. It wasn't a fight to the death and the spurs were taped.


At around lunch time I put our bike on the train; sending it back to Hanoi. Celine and I found a bar that was showing the AFL grand final and we chilled there for a few hours. We had a flight back to Hanoi at 5.30pm bringing our trip to an end. The past few weeks have been amazing; both of us spoilt with some beautiful landscapes, wonderful people and delicious food. That being said, we are happy to get back to Hanoi.