April 28, 2023
It's interesting being back on my own. I've been taking time alone to recharge my social battery since the past month was so full on every day. I woke up earlier than usual and just laid around watching some Netflix, not quite ready to take on the world. Eventually I headed downstairs to the common area to work on some stuff on my computer. I started chatting with someone who had been there a few days and was headed out. He recommended the best coconut coffee and an excellent place for breakfast. I decided on poutine breakfast fries because I needed a break from local breakfast food and a western breakfast sounded incredible. After eating, I wandered down and checked out the beaches of Da Nang. They're gorgeous and in a lot of ways this city reminds me of San Diego. It has the beaches, some nightlife, and a great little city all in the same area. After a fresh coconut and some chill time I decided to make my way back to the hostel.
I'm still pretty low energy and the fact is I can finally do what I want without anyone else's opinion. And you know what I wanted when I'm 2 months into traveling? A nap. I want to lay in a bed in an AC room and not talk to anyone. Just take some time to sleep and recharge so I can really enjoy these next couple weeks. I've found with traveling it is so necessary to take those moments to do nothing. If you're non stop the whole time you burn out and lose the joy of travel. So I napped. And I relaxed. And when I was ready I went back down to the common area to socialize. I ended up meeting another American and we chatted over a few beers about our adventures thus far and next plans. Neither of us had people to explore with yet so we decided to go to the night market and dragon bridge together.
The night market was incredible. The food and shops were insane. We ended up splitting a seafood BBQ plate with 2 lobsters, 6 shrimp, 2 squid, 8 calamari, and 2 clams. This in total cost 300k. About $12. Afterwards, we grabbed some rolled ice cream and went to the dragon bridge. On the weekends here the bridge will spit out fire and water in a really cool show. My favorite part was the unsuspecting people who didn't realize they were in the splash zone who got absolutely clobbered when the water started. They scattered like little ants. When the show ended we came back to the hostel, chatted with some new friends at the bar over beers and I took my happy self to bed. It was a good day. A solid mix of relaxing while also getting fulfilling moments so it didn't feel like a waste. Tomorrow I'm off to hoi an which I am massively excited for.
