On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Uncle Ebeneezer
Our contest prize included stays in two major Vietnamese cities. The first was Saigon/HCMC and the second was Da Nang. When a friend of ours who had visited Vietnam had allowed us to pick his brain about our trip he knew very little about Da Nang but highly recommended that we visit Hoi An and/or Hue which are both fairly close to Da Nang. So our main plan was to use our luxury hotel in Da Nang as a jumping off point to Hoi An. This was a great move on our part. The hotel that was part of our prize was SUPER fancy and not really our cup of tea. One visit to Hoi An and we quickly decided to ditch the beach-front hotel and get a cheap motel in Hoi An (next two posts). But here are the pictures.
While the Fusion Maia hotel was way too modern and fancy for our taste, it did have some cool pools and beachfront access. Unfortunately it was much too chilly for swimming.
Here is a reception lobby/room with some fancy lanterns.
I do love an infinity pool. Especially when they sit by the ocean.
This was our first view of the South Pacific Ocean. My Khe (aka China Beach) was made famous by American troops during the Vietnam War, who found it to be an excellent spot for surfing. It is a gorgeous beach, but in February it was too cold and the undertow too strong for us to jump in.
This would be a skim-boarding dream!!
Looking at the Pacific Ocean from the other side, was kind of neat for us California residents. I’m pretty sure I waved to California.
It must be nice to lay on one of these beach chairs during Summer.
Here is China Beach a couple days later as we drove back to the airport from Hoi An. A winter storm had come in and it had been raining all morning. Even when it’s raining, Vietnam is quite pretty. Perhaps some day we will give Da Nang proper more of a chance, but I doubt it. Just way too many other places (even just in Vietnam) we’d much rather explore.
Sebastian
I want to know everything please
SiubhanDuinne
I am very fond of seascapes. These are lovely.
SiubhanDuinne
@Sebastian:
Forty-two.
Sebastian
@SiubhanDuinne:
❤️
raven
I never got there but I have a buddy who moved to Hoi An about 10 years ago.
WaterGirl
Not surprisingly, someone whose nym is WaterGirl loves all the beach / water photos!
Yutsano
I never tire of looking at the Pacific Ocean. Although I haven’t seen it from the east just yet!
HinTN
@raven: A guy who was married to a local girl here moved to Vietnam when they got divorced. He married a Vietnamese woman and they have a wood-fired pizza joint there. He seems very happy.
UncleEbeneezer
@raven: Very cool. It’s a lovely city (though very touristy).
UncleEbeneezer
@WaterGirl: Glad you like them!
eclare
Beautiful photos, and your descriptions are wonderful. Traveling on my couch….
Chat Noir
China Beach! I loved the ABC series “China Beach” in the late ’80s about the 510 Evac Hospital. Pictures above are lovely.
UncleEbeneezer
@Chat Noir: I remember it, though I was in high school and it wasn’t really my sort of show, at the time. That said, had we run into Dana Delaney on the beach I definitely would have asked to get a selfie with her!
J R in WV
I love to travel, everywhere seems exotic to me.
The Basque country, The French Dordogne Valley, Baja California Sud, Chianti in Italy.
Amazing how many places in Europe are named the same as wines are named. Even Champagne… which I would love to visit for a year some day… French country food, Italian country food, Mexican country food, German country food.
I don’t mind luxo hotels for a few days. We spent a couple of days in one in Toulouse, was tre delux. Even in Florence, the hotel was a doorway wide on the street, with a small sign, but inside, a great bar with seafood, was really big, inside.
Thanks for sharing these pictures with us.
UncleEbeneezer
@J R in WV: We don’t mind luxurious hotels if the style is cool. We spent a Valentine’s weekend at the Biltmore a couple years before this and really loved it. We just didn’t really care for the style much of this one, especially coming right after some very traditional charm in Siem Reap. Also, my wife got a stomach bug the night we arrived and the food was very unimpressive and the service was meh, so those definitely contributed to our negativity about the hotel.