Danang - A Seaside City with a Mountain View

24 - 25 February 2015

We woke up bright and early and got in a taxi around 5:50 AM and boarded the train at 6:30 AM.  This trip should take only 2.5 hours but the scenery is supposed to be awesome...and it wound up that it did not disappoint:

After arriving in Danang we took a taxi to our hotel as was actually able to check-in even though it was still before noon...this is something that would NEVER be happen in the US.  There is no way a hotel would let you check-in before 4:00 PM, no less noon.  Anyway, the guidebook mentions a brewery in town which will be our first stop.  The brewery is about 3.5 miles from the hotel so we decided to take a taxi there and then walk our way back for the rest of the day.

Tulip Brewery did not disappoint.  They had BIG beers so we ordered a couple and really enjoyed the German lager.

After the brewery we walked over a really cool suspension bridge and to the left was the Dragon Bridge that was incredibly cool as well:

After the long walk across the bridge, the big beer was wearing off, so we stopped for another beer and was there just in time to witness the beer delivery motorbike showing up.  He had 9 cases of beer and a case of bottled water on board...WOW!

We continued headed east towards the South China Sea and wound up at My Khe Beach, AKA China Beach.  This is the where American troops took R&R during the Vietnam War.  I don't know if it is correct, but I read somewhere that Danang was the most protected city during the Vietnam War which makes sense to me since it was an R&R destination.

After a very early morning and the long walk today we decided to make it an early night, so had a bite to eat and were back in the hotel room by 7:00 PM.

The next day we rented a couple of motorbikes to see the sites outside of Danag.  We rode north along the coast and then started climbing Nui Son Tra (Monkey Mountain).  First stop was a 220 foot tall statue of what the locals call Linh Ung or Lady Buddha:

We then continued the ride up Monkey Mountain and stopped once in a while to take in the view:

The ultimate goal we were riding to was an observation point a the top of Monkey Mountain.  We arrived at an intersection with the point to the left, but there was a sign pointing to the right that said "Tree 6 KM".  What the heck...20 minutes later we arrived at an amazing Banyan tree.  The sign by the tree stated that it was 72 feet high, with a circumference of trunk and aerial prop roots is 280 feet, and is approximately 800 years old.  All I know is that it was quite impressive:

Onward to the summit.  Parts of this road were some of the steepest I have every been on.  Both of our scooters were struggling, but we made it:

From the observation point we noticed that the road continued so we decided to try to go back an alternate route.  We rode a couple of miles and came across a guy in a shack on the side of the road.  I was second guessing so stopped and asked the guy and he pointed down the road.  I know what you are thinking...these guys are going to take this road and wind up getting lost or having to double back...well...you are all wrong.  We actually didn't make it past this guy in his shack because Tim got a flat tire.

After all the days and miles we have spent on motorbikes I was quite surprised that this hasn't happened before, but this is not a great place to have a flat.  We are on the top of a mountain with no town anywhere close.  Luckily we had a guy to watch the bike, so we used hand signals telling him that we would be going down the mountain and we would return to get the bike.  Tim jumped on my back and we rode 4 miles down the mountain.  We were able to find a mechanic who loaded up his motorbike with a flat tire kit.  I decided to stay back when Tim and the mechanic took up off the mountain.  I hung out with the mechanics daughter who loved practicing talking English with me

The mechanic's daughter. I don't know who she is looking at.

View from the mechanic shop.

As we were hanging out I just realized that we screwed up.  Once the flat tire is fixed how is Tim going to ride my bike and his bike down the mountain...what were we thinking?!?  I jumped up from the table and watched the road for someone that might be able to take me up the mountain.  Finally I saw two Europeans and waved them down...it was a German couple on two bikes.  Of course they would ride me up...so I jumped on the back of the guy's bike.  

Remember how our bikes struggled to get up the hill...well..with two of us on the bike there was no way it was going to make every incline.  There was at least 5 times that I had to jump off the back of the bike and run up the hill before jumping back on.  After an exhausting run/ride we made it to Tim and the mechanic who was struggling with the tire.

The issue was that he could not get the wheel off so he decided to try to patch the tube instead of replacing it.  The next issue is that the rear wheel has been stuck on the bike for so long that the tube had at least 5 patches on it already.  As a matter of fact, it was determined that there wasn't a new hole....it was a patch that leaked.  This mechanic worked on the bike for at least an hour before finally determining that it was ready to ride down the hill.  He stuck with us making me feel like he was questioning if his new patches would hold.  I really do think he was surprised when we made it back to his shop where there were a bunch of new customers waiting so he got straight to work: 

I wish I can now say that we left the shop and rode back to the hotel and everything was OK...unfortunately this was not the case.  We rode about 4 more miles and Tim got another flat, but this time it was right near the giant Lady Buddha so there were plenty of people to help us...make that too many people.  Luckily a gentleman, who worked for tour companies in the past and spoke great English, stopped to help.  He called our hotel who told him to tell us to stay there and they would be here in 20 minutes.  They showed up, Tim took one of their bikes, and we returned to the hotel.  They apologized and apologized.  All was OK except we didn't get to see everything we wanted to, but oh well.  The good news is that we found a great place just down the street from the hotel that had great Indian food at a great price, so I was happy:

Tomorrow we go to Hoi An, one of the favorite towns for tourists to visit...and it is only a 45 minute drive south.