Da Nang, Hoi An, Hué and Nha Trang

From Hanoi, we flew to Da Nang, from where we took several smaller day trips with a rented motorbike. At least that's what the locals call it. It was more like a 125ccm moped with brakes that didn't work very well, but no one has real motorcycles here, so we were well equipped. The most important tool on our vehicle, however, was the horn, since there are no traffic rules - except for the law of the jungle, the stronger one has priority. It worked reliably well even in the densest traffic chaos.

Da Nang itself is not a particularly interesting city. Lots of traffic, lots of noise, lots of dirt, and lots of industry. However, the city is a good starting point for smaller trips, and we discovered a great restaurant on the first evening. It had a proper kitchen in a small house, but tables and chairs in street food style, everything outside and at local prices. From seafood hot pot (soup simmering at the table) to table grills with charcoal and all kinds of delicious vegetables, salads, side dishes, and drinks for less than a euro, there was really a great selection which we almost completely tried during our days there. We quickly became friends with the restaurant's owner, a young woman, probably around 30 years old, named Phuong. She spoke excellent English, and we had really fascinating conversations with her and learned a lot about Vietnam and, of course, Vietnamese food. She also helped us with planning our trips and our onward journey. A great acquaintance.

On the first day in Da Nang, we drove to the beautiful town of Hoi An. It is a small port town that has been almost entirely preserved and is even listed as a World Heritage Site. Lanterns hang everywhere, and it's nice to stroll through the streets. What's also very pleasant there: cars and motorbikes are not allowed in the old town. At least the ban keeps the tourists on mopeds and cars away.

Hoi An is known for its cheap tailoring, so we couldn't resist getting something tailored there. We tried with leather boots for motorbike riding. After initial disinterest in a few small shops, we met a lady who wanted to make the shoes for us. We tried to explain what we wanted with hand signals and through cellphone pictures. After we had found a nice and especially robust leather and agreed on a price of $65 - which in hindsight was way too much - and the lady had laughed at us several times (perhaps because she had tricked us out of so much money), we continued to stroll through the streets and were supposed to come back the next day to pick up the shoes. When we wanted to return to our hotel in Da Nang, we realized that we both didn't remember where we had parked our motorbike... We wandered the streets for an hour, even felt like going through some of them three times, until we finally found it. NOTE: Always take a photo of the location and take a screenshot of the GPS when parking your motorbike.

In general, in Hoi An, you unfortunately don't get top-quality tailored clothing at bargain prices, as the legend suggests and as the vendors want you to believe. You get clothing of average quality, more or less tailor-made to fit for comparatively little money or cheap junk tailored even worse for really little money.

You shouldn't expect high-quality materials and good tailors here, even if you would be willing to invest more. If you see it as a holiday adventure like any other daily program, you won't be disappointed. It was really funny and the city center was really beautiful.

The following day, we spent exploring the sights of Da Nang. A female Buddha statue on a hill, a wooded peninsula that is largely occupied by the luxury Intercontinental hotel, and a marble mountain with a multitude of temples and caves to explore. Here we could fully take advantage of the freedom our motorbike gives us. The temperatures were a little over 20 degrees during the day, mostly cloudy, with occasional showers.

After we were able to use our pool in the (thanks to hotel points, free) luxury hotel for half a day (finally sun), we set off with the motorbike over the Hai Van Pass, a picturesque mountain pass road along the coast, to Hué, 100 km to the north. We were able to leave our backpacks at the hotel, so our moped was only loaded with light backpacks for one night. The pass roads were even fun with the small motorbike, and we could somewhat dynamically overtake the many pig trucks that were fighting the steep incline to bring their living cargo, stacked in grid boxes under cruel conditions, to the north.

In Hué, the former imperial city, there is a lot of tourism, which is very understandable due to the truly impressive, if not particularly old, imperial citadel. This separate village within the city is the most impressive and beautiful complex of our Vietnam trip so far. In general, we really liked Hué, as a small river flows through the city and there are many smaller green areas that enhance the entire cityscape. Additionally, we found a very delicious restaurant where the service spoke very good English for Vietnamese standards and told us a bit about the different religions in Vietnam. She also explained to us during the meal how to eat the dishes correctly. This is sometimes not so easy when you are presented with a variety of small bowls and dips and don't know what goes together. In the afternoon, we started the return journey and drove back to Da Nang via the Hai Van Pass with pleasant temperatures. We had dinner at Phuong's for the last time.

From there, we continued our journey to Nha Trang with some minor obstacles such as an already fully booked night train. Here, the temperatures were significantly higher than before, at just under 30 degrees during the day. According to the travel guide, Nha Trang is the beach capital of Vietnam. We had a really nice hostel with a French emigrant family in the university district, which was very authentic, as there were no tourists here, and no one spoke even a minimal amount of English. On the other hand, prices were even cheaper than usual. 3 large mangoes for 80 cents, fried chicken leg with vegetable rice for 1 euro.

However, the beaches of Nha Trang are nothing special, and the water is, above all, dirty. The city center is very touristy and predominantly Russian. The times when Nha Trang was really worth seeing are probably over.

Therefore, after a full day there, we decided to continue our journey and are now on our way further south to the beautiful beaches of Mui Ne by bus.