Day 51 - Bridges

Hoi An was not quite as cute under daylight as it had been the previous evening, but even so the bicycle trip that took us to the Cua Dai beach was pleasant and not as life-threatening as we had feared. The beach itself, on the other hand, was a bit disappointing as the line of sand bags spread along the coast and the large pipes heading into the Ocean, covered in a black rubber mat and unlikely to be carrying purified water, spoil what would have otherwise been a nice spot. While I went for a quick swim, Ben was approached by a beach vendor who stuck  around despite his evident lack of interest and told him how grateful she was to the Brits for their support during the typhoons that regularly affect the region, the most recent only a couple of weeks ago.

After grabbing some lunch (many deep-fried spring rolls were consumed) and a shower, we headed to the bus stop that we hoped would get us to Da Nang, a good 25-minute walk from our hotel. To help us withstand the extreme heat, which made the shower we had just had feel like a pointless exercise, we stopped at Espresso Station, a coffee house conveniently tucked away along a side street halfway down our route. Every now and then I walk into a place and get a sudden urge to open my own coffee house - this place was the first to cause those symptoms during this trip due to the adorable decor and staff and absolutely delicious coconut coffees (which I feel deserve a post for themselves).

The bus to Da Nang was not the crazy experience other tourists had described on the interwebs, but rather a fairly quick and bearable trip despite the lack of AC - open doors and windows were more than enough to keep things cool. We got dropped off at the bottom of one of the five Marble Mountains, a cluster of marble and limestone peaks tearing through the otherwise flat landscape in the south of Da Nang, home to an American air base  during the War and later celebrated by the TV show “China Beach”. As stone extraction from the mountains was banned recently they are now peaceful spots covered in Buddhist temples and marble statues, as well as caves and tunnels that we unfortunately did not have enough time to explore. Even so, it was the perfect way to end our afternoon, at least until the mosquitoes started feasting upon every inch of uncovered skin in our bodies.

Once the sun came down and we devoured some more deep fried deliciousness, the early ours of our night were spent admiring and photographing Da Nang’s colourful bridges, including the Cau Rong Dragon-shaped, colour-changing and fire-spitting bridge. If that sounds too epic to be true, rest assured that it is not and the time we spent taking pictures of its different colours at various angles (yet crucially failing to capture the fire-spitting) is a testament to that.

Eventually we did get bored of taking pictures of bridges and headed to a bar called “On The Radio”, which we saw described as a “live music club”. Even though that description undersells this place somewhat, nothing could have prepared us for the rollercoaster of emotions that ensued over the next few hours. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was being played by the band as we walked in, which reassured us that this was a good choice of venue. Three songs later, they had moved on to Bryan Adams’ “I Do It For You”.

The slide continued after a group teenagers was replaced on stage by a band headlined by a guy who looked like a Vietnamese soap opera actor, and whose guitarist sported the epic military cap/ ponytail combo that is shockingly under-utilised in the musical industry. They opened with three ballads in (I presume) Vietnamese, which above anything else left us absolutely stunned by the levels of excitement around us. People were not just singing along - they led the way, most of the time forcing the singer to lower his microphone and let the crowd do his job for him. Bizarrely, he was then subbed off by a lady with an extremely fake American accent, who covered five Adele songs on the trot.

The highlight of the evening was the moment, after the aforementioned lady was replaced by a kid in an Iron Maiden t-shirt, when Ben said the words “if they cover a Metallica song now I will *express my excitement through a physiological reaction that is seldom associated with music and will require me to change trousers*” (using the short, less family-friendly version of that expression). As soon as that sentence was over, the band started playing “Enter Sandman”. That moment alone is, to me, enough proof of God’s existence.

Sadly that was the last live song of the night, as the band was replaced on stage by a DJ that despite trying her best to get people going (and doing a perfectly respectable job) had her work cut out as the staff did not clear the tables spread around the room, effectively leading people to either leave or just dance at their tables, rather than on a makeshift dance floor. Having done our best to get things going, with enthusiastic dancing and the occasional slut-dropping (which did wonders for the split down the inseam of my trousers I had just tried to repair hours earlier), we decided to leave when we were literally the only ones still moving. On The Radio, you have been everything we had hoped for and a whole lot more. If you ever find yourselves with a spare evening in Da Nang, I thoroughly recommend it.

Cheers,
J-Wowww