Danang Day 2
It was now the second day of our vacation to Vietnam. This had been a lazy start to a day, as we had decided to push back our visit to the ancient city of Hoi An, a place that we wanted to visit due to the night markets and the roadside food areas. Since we weren’t particularly rushing to get anywhere anytime soon, we decided to take the morning easy. We headed to the free all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast. There was an impressive spread of food there, with one section catering to Western Food, and the other to more Asian offerings, with both Vietnamese cuisine and other cultures such as Chinese making an appearance. What is perhaps the most impressive there was the fact that we could order some Vietnamese Coffee! One of the most standout parts of this vacation was the fact that I learnt that Vietnamese is perhaps the best coffee around, especially when Iced and given some condensed milk. The combination of tastes is not conflicting, but complementing, and the taste is just superb. Combined with the fact that we could get an unlimited number of cups was insane.
We got our fill during breakfast and headed to the area outside the lobby, where we found a table tennis table as well as a table soccer table there. We had some fun playing around there, and we decided that it was soon time to head back to the room before deciding what to do for the rest of the day.
After heading back to the room, we decided to change into our swimwear and head to the beach. This wasn’t difficult as the beach was simply a few steps outside our room, and we were soon swimming in the sea! This was such an uncanny experience as having a room so near the beach seemed like such a luxury that we simply could not have in Singapore, no matter how much money you do have. This was simply a jaw-dropping experience for us, and we loved every part of it. Ashley spent much of the time picking up sea shells that she fancied, and we just played in the waves. It was soon we realised we spent nearly 2 hours in the sea, and decided to go back up for some well-needed baths.
After some rest, we headed to the golf terrace, where we would get the opportunity to dine at the cafe right at the end of the golf course. Although it looks very tempting to play on, we quickly realised that playing on the golf course itself would be too expensive, so we decided to sit back and simply look on to the lush greens and smooth highways of this course. We then tucked into our lunch, where we ordered some Vietnamese Spring Rolls, two different bowls of Pho, as well as some Egg Noodles for me, as I wanted something a little lighter. We were soon tucking into our lunch, and we were extremely delighted with the quality of the food. Although much cheaper than the Watercourt, I can safely say that the food was of similar quality, which was excellent, and we ended up buying more Vietnamese Iced Coffee simply because it was that good and it quenched our thirst in the hot weather.
After lunch, we headed back to the Angsana, where we awaited our bus that would take us to Hoi An, the Ancient City. This bus would take a grueling two hours, where we would cut through Danang City, and backtrack all the way to Hoi An. After the two hours, we were dropped off at a bus dropping area that we were not familiar with, and the map wasn’t helping. After about 30 minutes of discussion, and consultation with the maps that we had scrambled to download the day before, we finally found our orientation and the way around Hoi An.We also had a short break at a Baskin Robbins to recharge after the two hour bus trip. We soon found our way to the night market, where Ashley quickly found a bracelet that she liked, and some other interesting gizmos as well, such as a toy that could fly high into the sky, before slowly falling back down to the earth. We also bought some chopsticks to use at home, due to my constant noise complaints due to the metallic materials of the current chopsticks that we are using.
Afterwards, we headed to dinner at the also Laguna run Seedlings restaurant. This was a place that was similar to concept to our very own EighteenChefs in Singapore, in the same way they help local NGOs and the less fortunate youth find jobs in the cafe, where they would find better working conditions. There, we ordered some White Rose Dumplings, Spring Rolls, Vietnamese Crispy Pancake, Fried Rice with Chicken Drumstick, Pasta as well as some noodles. The food was okay, but by now I think we have all come to the conclusion that we were not huge fans of the Vietnamese Cuisine as it was much safer and blander than other asian flavours like Thai food. However, we found the food good nevertheless, and we were soon heading back to the bus. We also stocked up some drinks at a nearby mini mart, as well as dropped a floating lantern into the river through Hoi An, and we were back for the two hour bus ride back to Angsana.
Soon we were back at the hotel, and rearing for some rest. We realised that there have been cookies laid out for us on the bedside tables and we had some delicious snacks before going to bed that night.
