Bamboo Green Harbourside Hotel Da Nang

... the main man greets us, tells us to dump our bags and relax. Hoa a blend of Vietnamese and American hippy, friendly, helpful, full of a story and likes to use the word 'f**k' in context.....<br><br>2 night's spent, group dinners at night, famous spring rolls or burgers for lunch, a big sandy beach although the water is a bit brown, warm sun, a noisy police training centre across the road, the usual roaming cow's dogs and chickens, 80p bottle of rum (quiet good as it turns out) and ...

... at Da Nang station at 14:02 (the Vietnamese trains are surprisingly punctual.<br><br>I couldn't be bothered with the whole bus faff so I got a taxi which turned out to be the single most expensive venture of my whole trip so far ($23 for 30km- what a rip off)!<br><br>However I arrived at what is my most luxurious hotel to date. I got a welcoming fruit cocktail on arrival and got shown up to my air conditioned room with a flat screen TV and ...

... it is a lot more difficult to get rid of the mud and the smell. They had certainly done a great job, for which we were extremely grateful. They even took away Russell&#8217;s suitcase, and ours, which had all been in the mud, to wash them. <br><br>It was Typhoon Ketsana that did the damage. One hears varying reports, but it seems that it was close to the worst in 45 years, with much damage, over 100 dead, many houses destroyed. Most of Lifestart&#8217;s families lost nearly ...

... but I somehow made it to tell the tale!!! Or at least today I did...tomorrow is another 70 K with a sore ass I am sure...and just so that I have something to dream of tonight....we were just informed that we start with a 10 km uphill!!<br><br>But still....no regrets so far :)!!! Enjoy the pictures...I'm off to bed!!<br><br>Oh yes...there was a reward at the end...we arrived at our luxurious beach resort by 2.30 pm and spent the afternoon by the pool :)!!!!

... br>World Heritage Site is a tourist town &#8211; now what makes a town a<br>tourist town? That description is used a lot &#8211; especially in a<br>negative context. To us it is a town whose fortune is tied to the<br>tourist dollar. Hoi An, with its ancient assembly halls and cheap<br>tailor shops is set up for the foreigner. And for the day and a half<br>that we are here we've decided to take it easy &#8211 ...

... they had been to the workshop. Now she wanted to donate some money, which was very generous. It is amazing how all these interactions work.<br><br>Mark saw three things the other day. On Cua Dai Road, the main street, in the pouring rain, there were two cows jogging down the street tethered behind a motorbike, with a man on a second motorbike tapping them with a long, thin bamboo rod; there were lots of people fishing on the little bridge close to our home, a couple of them with ...

... cool, but dang every time we walked outside, beads of sweat just poured out of my body like everyone else's. ahaha. It was gross, but funny to see soo many sweaty people in on place. <br>As we descended down to the bass, we met up with some people who were workers. They actually worked for one of our student's Dad's. He owned the bottom of the mountain it felt like, inappropriate statues ...

We took the night/sleeper bus down the coast, skipping Hue because we'd heard there wasn't much happening there, and arrived in the blaring heat after a reasonably comfortable night's sleep.<br>We had booked a hotel room online in advance (for our first night, where I received a small electric shock turning on a light), but soon found touts lining the streets offering us cheaper rooms, of which we took note for later in the week. <br><br>We soon found out why Hoi An is such a ...

... out that the breaker had been turned off!? That sucked, but eveyrthing is alright now. We have lights and fans going for sures. That's one thing that you need here, fans. They help soo soo much. As I'm writing this now, I find myself to be feeling a little under the weather because of the heat. My body is freaken out a bit, but I'm trying to stay positive in hoping that it will pass soon. Anyways........<br ...

... some travelers I met did. After meeting friendly Vietnamese after friendly Vietnamese, I might have a biased opinion, but now I understand their culture and have never felt more welcomed in a country. In fact, I didn't know that so many Vietnamese actually love Americans... With the help of a young Vietnamese girl on the bus from Hue, who spoke English very well, I found myself in Da Nang and knew that I was somewhere near China Beach, where I ...