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Compared to the spaghetti jumble of streets that is Hanoi, Da Nang has much more breathing space.
The CBD real estate is around 875 US dollars per square meter, making it the second most popular place for Chinese money in Vietnam.
My new Vietnamese friends said rich Hanoians are parking their money in ocean villas here by the truckload. What it lacks in French colonial buildings in romantic disrepair, Da Nang makes up for with vistas of mountains and sea, in this season wrapped in fluffy ribbons of clouds.
The upside to the monsoon season is the absence of the "Heat Beast," the omnipresence of which can make one feel like shellfish bursting open in the pan.
Scenery in Da Nang
Instead, all is enveloped in gray moisture. Where we are staying is on My Khe beach – now resembling a bolt of wrinkled grey silk, spewing up debris as if it were a disgruntled betel nut chewer.
As with any tourist district, the names of establishments and the cuisines reflect the patronage. On my early morning walk, I see signs for Roma casa, Manchester Hotel, K-bop BBQ. There appears to be a large South Korean influence here, thanks to Samsung’s huge investments.
At breakfast, there is passionfruit juice, banana blossom salad, the “white rose” specialty from Hoi An, and of course, rice noodles – from an inch wide and slurp-worthy, to thread-thin and web-like. I turn over the new vocabulary on my tongue, as exotic as the tropical flavors in my mouth – Banh Xeo for the local pancake, Thit for BBQ meat, Ca for fish, Trong for mix.
Food vendors in Da Nang
This is a country ideal for the vertically challenged and nowhere is that more apparent than street stalls. There are dates and meals had, beers downed (the local toast is: Mot Hai Ba, Yo!) and shishas puffed, entire businesses transacted 30cm off the ground. Walk enough streets and you would have had every type of food – three times, and then some. The maxim is “Have street, will do business.”
If squatting on the ground with your basket seems not pro-active enough, walk with it, proffer your produce and price according to a customer's nationality. No wonder unemployment is tiny.
One night for dinner, we were taken by the driver to Cua Do, a sprawling “choose your own seafood” joint where we promptly ran into our CCTV Chinese channel friends, who were brought there by their driver as well. In rip-off paranoia mode, we note the new “APEC” price tags on the seafood, the absence of menus, and have the sinking feeling foreigners sometimes do in China.
In the end, the 140-US-dollar bill for the eight of us including fresh grouper, two kilograms of prawns and two plates of clams, plus other dishes didn’t seem like we had been taken for a ride at all.
Coconut trees along the beach
Another evening, we celebrated the end of a grueling reporting day at a large open local restaurant called "Draft Beer" – where the music was retro ballads and the food was fresh and delicious. The baby octopus had just been caught a few hours ago and we couldn't get enough of its juicy tenderness. Fishermen set off at night and joggers often meet them upon return on the beaches in the mornings, to buy the daily catch.
Our interpreter Xiang Xiang – who has lived in Beijing for six years, tells us in excellent mandarin about the city’s rather utopian government mandate. The aim is for everyone to have housing, employment and “urban civilization.” The five things on the “undesired” list are: drugs, robberies, beggars, poverty, illiteracy.
For reporting beggars, residents get a reward and the beggars are taken to city shelters. On our family tour the day before, our host, Mr. Le, had also mentioned this governance ideal. We start to wonder about governments’ fine line between supporting those in real need and creating unhealthy welfare dependency. As far as we could see, Da Nang appears to have found a happy balance.
(CGTN)
