Just take the cab

I had a some morning meetings scheduled in Da Nang, so after a nice coffee at our waterfront cafe, I set off for the city. I usually take a cab both ways, which costs $10-15, depending on how hard I feel like negotiating. Either way, it's a pretty amazing deal for an intercity car ride. But it's a tough pill to swallow when the bus costs a little over a dollar. And since I only had things scheduled for the morning, I figured that it would be a good day to investigate the bus route home.

Being that this is Viet Nam in April, it was hot. I didn't feel like the half-mile walk to where the internet told me the bus station was. So I took a quick cab. The driver let me out exactly where I asked him to, but there were absolutely no busses to be found. That wasn't a huge surprise, since reliable public transportation doesn't seem to be a concept that the Vietnamese are super committed to. At least their food is amazing.

Bus station? Anybody know where I can find a bus station?

After walking around for 20 minutes under the midday sun (in work clothes, with no cell phone reception), I realized that this plan was not ideal. Dumb, even. So I kept walking around for another 20 minutes. And then, in my infinite wisdom, I thought that walking another 20 minutes to the airport might not be a bad idea. I figured that plenty of travelers would be going to Hoi An, and I could probably find a shared-ride van. But the 20 minute walk was just to the airport. I then had to walk through another 20 minutes of broken pavement and heavy machinery, since everything in Da Nang (including the airport) is under construction.

Every time a cab drove by, an increasingly loud voice in my head said, "Maybe you should just take a cab?" Vroom.  "Yep, you should probably take a cab." Vroom. "Take a cab." Vroom. "JUST TAKE THE GODDAMN CAB." But despite the hour long walk and my blossoming sunburn, I couldn't give up now. I was so close.

Actually, I wasn't. The Da Nang airport only receives flights every hour or two, and I happened to be there during a dry spell. No busses, no hotel shuttles. Just cabs. So I had plenty of time to reflent on my impromptu walking  tour of Da Nang as I sat in the back of an overpriced taxi back to Hoi An (I was in no condition to negotiate). Next time we just take the goddamn cab.

But do you know how we fix that? Beach time. We had been in Hoi An for almost two weeks, and had barely explored the beach. Today was a good day to start. The advice that I got from all of our new local friends was to go to the beach late in the afternoon. The tourists have gone home, the sun is shaded by the jungle behind us (the beach faces east here), and the water is calm. So even though I didn't get home until 3, there was still plenty of time to hit the water.

Mimi, protecting the coast.

We live here.

An Bang beach is universally considered one of the prettiest in the world, and for good reason.

Aimee is a pretty good photographer, eh? She actually went for a sunrise photo tour the next day to practice with a group of professionals. But I'll break that out into a separate post. So for now, we'll cap this at a bad walk and good beach. Net win.