Our trip to Da Nang started early in the morning. We had an early headstart today as our flight is scheduled at 9.30 a.m. To beat the morning rush hour, we reached the airport at 6.30 a.m. to give us some buffer for our flight. Due to our early start today, I deliberately kept our first day in Da Nang rather empty. The plan was to relax in the resort and walk around the area of My Khe beach outside the resort if we were bored.

Arrival at Da Nang

We touched down at Da Nang a little after 11 a.m. The immigration process at Da Nang International Airport was rather slow, with only four immigration counters open at our arrival to process the four flights arriving around the same time. We spend the next 45 minutes clearing immigration. After collecting our luggage, our pre-arranged airport transfer was already outside the airport terminal waiting for us. It took us about 20 minutes to reach our resort from the airport. Along the way, we passed by the edge of Da Nang City. Compared to the busy Hanoi I visited several years ago, Da Nang was a lot quieter. There weren’t hordes of motorcycles or packs of cars making their way into the city, nor were loud honking sounds on the street. I am begining to like Da Nang.

Checking into our Resort

We arrived at the resort, which we called home for five days, around noon. Our villa would not be ready until 1.30 p.m. Our host suggested we relax around the lobby or head to the main pool bar area for a small bite while waiting for our villa to be ready. At first, we just wanted to wait at the resort’s reception until our villa was ready; after all, our host had arranged a private area for us to sit around. However, we got a little bored after sitting around for 15 minutes and started to explore the resort a little.

We wandered to the main pool at the resort, which our host told us was just a mere minute’s walk from the reception. We originally just wanted to hang around at the pool area and peep at our location next to the main pool area). Since there is nothing we can do here besides people-watching, we ordered some things to share. As our food was being served, we got a call from our host, who informed us that our villa was ready, and she was on the way to the pool bar to meet us. We were escorted to our villa, and our host took us on a tour around the villa. We fell in love with the villa assigned to us for its functionality and how it was designed for communal living. We were excited to see the swimming pool and the close proximity to the famous My Khe Beach, the most beautiful beach in Vietnam. As we were getting bored and everyone seemed still energic, we headed outside the resort to get some drinks at the nearby minimart.

Exploring the My Khe Beach Area

After a buggy ride later, we were outside the resort. Instead of just heading opposite the villa, we explored the My Khe beachfront area. We walked along the street directly in front of the My Khe beach and spotted numerous eateries along the beachfront area and the countless hotels across the road facing the beach. As it was still early, the beachfront seemed sleepy. We spotted a handful of tourists suntanning on the beach while the eateries were preparing for the evening crowd. The beach seemed quiet at this time. Looking across the road from where we were, we saw some restaurants and minimarts dotted along the roadside. After walking about 30 mins from our resort, we made a U-turn and returned to the minimart in front of our resort.

BBQ in the Villa

After getting our drinks, we returned to our villa to laze around. We organised a birthday BBQ dinner for our friend at our villa at 6 p.m. The resort staff came to set up around 4 p.m., and the BBQ dinner started promptly at 6 p.m. We were not required to do the BBQ ourselves. Instead, the staff would cook the food, and we just sat around in the dining room of our villa while another staff served us food fresh from the BBQ pit. The staff treated us like VIPs and constantly filled our plates with food.

As we were very well fed by the staff from the BBQ session, we wanted to walk around the resort to digest. But we ended up strolling along My Khe Beach. We discovered a shorter way to the beachfront area we were at a few hours ago. Strolling along the My Khe beach at night, we were treated to the bright neon lights from the hotels lined the beachfront. Despite being at night, the beach was still dotted with locals enjoying the beach, kids playing on the beach and numerous others who came out to enjoy the sea breeze on My Khe Beach like us. The eateries along the beach were as quiet as earlier in the day. I guess this period is the tourism off-peak session. After about 1 hour of walking along the beach, we returned to our villa the same way we came to rest for the night. We will have another early start tomorrow when we visit Ba Na Hills.