OK, so it’s not the most impressive bridge that snorts fire and sprays water but it’s the only bridge I’ve ever seen that snorts fire and sprays water.

The last time we were in Da Nang we thought that the famous Dragon Bridge did it’s thing every night and so we missed it as it only happens on Saturday and Sunday nights. I think our expectations of a choreographed laser light, fireworks, fire and holograms bouncing off the water mist extravaganza of the bridge, were quietly usurped by a bridge that breathes fire and spurts water. The place was packed though for the show (which lasted about 5 minutes) It was OK.

Da Nang beach is a long and expansive golden sandy beach. It can be described as akin to Surfers Paradise (without the body builders). There is an Ibiza style dance party happening all night and in amongst it all 10 people send their traditional circular boat out with a massive net to retrieve about 2 kilos of fish total which they share amongst themselves. I think that this age old tradition probably yielded more fish back in the day but these guys keep going every night.
The sea water must be around 38 degrees or a 12 on the 1-10 Jen swimming scale. Too warm for even me to bother getting in.

It’s an area very popular with local tourists who come to swim in the sea and go to massive restaurants where you go and choose your fish or crab or lobster from huge tanks and they will cook it and shell it and basically almost feed it to you.
We didn’t get to sample any of the local seafood or local cuisine though because of a small salad and a sneezer in Cambodia.

Our fourth trip to ‘Nam didn’t go entirely to plan. We had intended on returning and spending a good amount of time in Hoi An. The cutest little Old Town in the world. You can do cooking classes and bicycle around the pedestrian and cycle only streets. There are beautiful restaurants lining the canal with amazing Vietnamese food. People come from all over Vietnam to have their photos taken as it’s one of the most picturesque places in the country. As it turned out Nigel couldn’t stray too far from the bathroom the whole time we were there and I had developed all of the covid symptoms while testing negative for covid five days in a row.

So we stayed put.

Venturing down to the pool and back to the room and back to the pool again. Thankfully our hotel had a nice pool and a really nice room with a balcony. Our plans to eat our way through the beautiful Vietnamese food had Nigel eating nothing but one bite of a croissant one day and one slice of pizza the next.

We did manage to walk to the Old Town on our last evening and it was as pretty as we remembered. We were lucky enough to arrive on the night of the lantern festival (long time readers will know from our last time that every night the locals will tell you how lucky you are that it’s lantern festival night in Hoi An). We took a million photos as the sun set. Had a really nice dinner (which Nigel later got to see all over again) watched the little ladies with their trays of fruit transform to selling paper lanterns that you light and place on the River crowded with boats taking a trip up and down with their lanterns glowing. It was a really nice evening.

It was a shame to be sick but happened at the right time for us and it didn’t really matter as we were able to laze away without having to move until we went 45 minutes by car up the road to Da Nang for a few nights.

Our last day in Vietnam Nigel was feeling a bit better and so we had some breakfast. We went for a walk down the beach, picked up our clean laundry $3 for a massive bag (I love Vietnam laundry services). Then we went and swam in the rooftop pool, lay in the shade and had $3.50 margaritas!

In sickness and in health, we choose our attitude everyday and as long as everyone remembers their smile and a good attitude, any travel day is a good day. It was a really nice way to spend our final day in Vietnam.