The transition from night to day was fluid this time and not quite definable. We did everything to prepare ourselves as best as possible for the time in Da Nang and the upcoming adventure. The most important thing was to pack properly, without forgetting anything, but also not to pack too much to make our lives hard with our luggage. After some back and forth, we both decided to take our laptops with us. Malte was unsure because his backup was already a bit old, and a lot could happen on such a trip. Our taxi was practically on its way, and we still had to prepare the apartment for the 3 weeks without us. 15 minutes early, we received the message from our Grab driver: He has arrived, and the road is blocked. Incredulous, we made our way down to the taxi, as we couldn’t imagine that the completely clear street from the evening before was now blocked at 3 a.m. But the taxi driver was right, and we timed it perfectly. That night, there was a night run in Ha Noi – luckily, we had planned a few hours of buffer, as the flight was set to depart at 5:25 a.m.
Upon arriving at the airport, we realized that the flight would actually leave at 5:45 a.m. So everything was manageable and without rush. Due to our last airport experience, we felt a bit uneasy. However, the check-in and security check went smoothly, and we had plenty of time. So we rested a bit on the airport benches and had a Banh Mi for breakfast at the airport restaurant. There was a Banh Mi with beef and fried vegetables. What looked delicious turned out to be a bitter disappointment, especially compared to previous Banh Mi. Without the addition of large amounts of sauce, the sandwich was really not particularly tasty, but at least it was breakfast. During our breakfast time, we observed a large portion of our flight’s passengers boarding, so we were almost the last ones, even though there were still about 30 minutes until departure. So people were still standing in the gangway before the plane – we hadn’t missed anything.
Once we were on the plane, things moved quickly, and we even took off 5 minutes earlier than planned. Without asking or any fee, we snagged the best seats – those directly at the emergency exit with plenty of legroom. Malte was so tired that he practically fell asleep as soon as we took off and only woke up shortly before landing, wondering where Leon had gone, as his adjacent seat was empty.
Leon, who wanted to watch the sunrise, had found a premium window seat with a perfect view while Malte slept. After it had been dark at first, the plane broke through the cloud layer, and Leon experienced one of the most beautiful sunrises of his life. In general, the flight against the rising sun was extremely beautiful.
We landed safely and cannot confirm the rather poor reputation of VietJet Airlines in Vietnam. Upon exiting, we were met with very humid air – it had rained heavily.
Malte would have preferred to lay down and continue sleeping at the baggage claim. Leon insisted that he shouldn’t do that, and a compromise was found to sit down briefly at the nearby Highlands Coffee. Leon’s phone was dead, and there was no concrete plan yet for accommodation in Da Nang. So we looked online at some hostels and got a bit of a feel for the prices, but we couldn’t find anything suitable to book for the upcoming night online. It was around 7 a.m., and we would have liked a hotel with early check-in to rest for a bit. Overall, we were both tired, without coffee and a proper breakfast, and therefore very easily irritable. Something needed to happen to keep our spirits from dropping entirely.
So we ordered a Grab and headed into the city center with the plan to inquire at a few hostels in person. It quickly became clear that the prices listed online were significantly lower than what we could book in person at hotels last minute. We thought it would be the other way around but were proven wrong. After three tries, we finally wound up at City Hostel, where the prices were bearable, and we were simply welcomed very warmly. The price for early check-in at 60,000 VND was reasonable. We booked two beds in a dorm, and at least Malte lay down to rest.
Leon quickly treated himself to a Pho at the restaurant next door. He got teased a bit by the owner; at least everyone laughed without him understanding why. At his table sat a Vietnamese Californian who advised him on the topic of mopeds and ultimately explained that the plan could turn out to be significantly more complicated than we thought. He seemed experienced, as he traveled to Vietnam for three months every year and used to run a hotel in Da Nang. It was a very nice conversation, but eventually, Leon had to pull himself away and shortly after fell into bed completely exhausted. Both of us got a few hours of sleep, which were necessary but not really refreshing. At some point, Leon woke up, saw that Malte was still asleep, and went to find a café. Malte woke up a few minutes later and looked for something to eat in a restaurant around the corner. There were fried noodles with vegetables and beef.
Leon had taken the Californian’s warning to heart and began searching online for mopeds to rent and gathering experiences from others. Various entries on Reddit led Leon to almost lose faith in the original plan. It was explained by different users what wouldn’t work and why one shouldn’t/couldn’t do the whole thing…way too dangerous/expensive/senseless. Consequently, disappointed, he joined Malte, who had bought a t-shirt after lunch (8 €). Malte was a bit puzzled by the multitude of information Leon had found regarding mopeds in Vietnam. Malte had rented a moped the previous year to travel from Da Nang to Hoi An and had done that relatively smoothly. We agreed on the motto, “let’s just try it out first.”
After a boost in energy in the form of a coconut coffee and a Bac Xiu with grass jelly and some roasted sunflower seeds as a snack (which you can find in almost every café here), we considered our next steps. Malte first called the rental place from back then, but they had closed down permanently. He had compared prices previously and knew there must be some streets in Da Nang with several rentals. Even back then, there were significant price differences depending on how new the mopeds were and whether the rentals were more aimed at European or Vietnamese tourists. We spent the next two hours ringing the door bells in various stores. We were very honest and openly shared our plan to ride mopeds towards or possibly even to Ho Chi Minh. This led many store owners to not want to rent to us from the outset. Others quoted very high prices around 400 € for 21 days. Our options were shrinking until we found ourselves a bit discouraged in front of a rental place where the whole family was already having dinner inside. We asked again, and by this time we had optimized and practiced our pitch, and to our great surprise, there was laughter from the entire family at the mention of Ho Chi Minh, but we were still shown suitable mopeds. The price of 60 €/21 days per moped was absolutely reasonable and, in comparison, so cheap that we could hardly believe it initially.
However, it wasn’t quite that simple, as Leon didn’t have an international driver’s license with him. Long story short, Malte was able to rent a moped, but Leon couldn’t – at least not at first. After a lot of back and forth, chuckling, and some jokes, we found a solution that everyone agreed upon, even if it didn’t initially sound optimal to us. Leon had to leave 15 million VND or about 600 € as a deposit. After he got used to this solution while sitting on the back of Malte’s moped, the next challenge awaited us. Three ATMs from our fee-free favorite bank “TPBank” couldn’t dispense those amounts, or better said, couldn’t dispense any money at all. After some research, we found out that different limits for withdrawals apply at ATMs for all banks in Vietnam. Usually, these are between 2 and 5 million VND. Several ATMs later, we finally got the money together. Quite a hefty amount, indeed.
We drove back to the rental shop, and Leon could finally rent a moped with joy. With our newfound freedom and a proper adrenaline rush, we first went to try a typical specialty of Da Nang—noodle soup. Delicious and easy on our strained stomachs. After eating, we rode around a bit and checked out the Dragon Bridge, which can breathe fire… it’s true, check it out! We also made a detour to the night market, admired the offerings of seafood, but did not consume anything this time to avoid any issues with our digestion.
Since we had to get up early the next day, we even managed to get to bed quite early.
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