As I travelled from the North down the map, my next base happened to be DaNang, which belongs to Central Vietnam.

DaNang is a resort city on steroids. From one side edged by the endless beaches with golden sand and terraced rows of hotels and resorts, from the other - by the range of mountains. And a strip of residential high-risers in between with in-built colonial style private houses dotted among them randomly. All along the river Han. With the number of the bridges across it.

DaNang is also called "The City of Bridges". I doubt it is because there are lot of them, bridges, but mostly because each of the main 6 bridges in the city is very unique. A Swinging Bridge, a "Sails" Bridge, a very scenic pedestrian bridge built by Americans, btw, a Lover's Bridge, and, of course, the most famous of all of them - the Dragon Bridge.

Now, as I did my homework and knew exactly what I wanted to see in DaNang, I picked my hotel based on this, so that I will be near the action. And it turned out to be even better then I thought it would be.

My hotel was a few steps away from the Dragon Bridge and had a rooftop terrace from which I had a bespoke view of the Dragon Bridge coming alive...

Quite literally - on weekends this dragon-shaped bridge breathes fire and water for the amusement of the locals and tourists-a-like. I have to say - as tacky as it was, the Fire&Water show was impressive, as impressive was the crowd gathered right under the dragon head, in order to get hot&wet in the direct sense of these words...

It was magical to watch from the rooftop, safe from smoke and spray, and my hotel furnished in Japanese style, turned out to be amazing too, so my stay in DaNang left me with some fond memories, despite of being, perhaps, the least authentic place in my travels through this unique country.

Apart from the Dragon Bridge, there was not much more to the city as such. Took me couple of hours to walk around city centre and the embarkments, marvelled at the Pink Cathedral, visited local covered market for a taste of eastern haggling chaos and even made it to the beach for a brief sunburning session.

This city is famous as a sea side resort, with all the obligatory hospitality-oriented features, so didn't really rocked my boat much, being too "touristy" (I accept it that I was one of them). In my defence - I was spoilt by all the serene places I visited before getting here...

However, DaNang was a convenient base for a few visits in the neighbourhood that I had on my Vietnamese ToDo list. And for that it deserved to be a stop in my travels.

Apart from the bridge and the beach, there were other places to see in DaNang, recommended by every guidebook. Ever since I began my travels back in cantrememberwhen, I have a strong belief that if a place is famous, it is famous for a reason. So, you just have to accept that if you want to see something, everyone is talking about, you will always be a part of the crowd of others with the same intentions. I was lucky so far to avoid the worst of the crowd density. This is about to change, but before that - one more famous spot in DaNang to tick off my list.

Son Tra - Monkey Mountain. I made it there early morning, straight off the sleeper train I arrived on. I pre-booked a private taxi for that, so that my luggage can enjoy touring around as well. (Not really, but it was convenient as my train arrived too early before the time for check into my hotel)

Monkey Mountain is famous for two main things: Linh Ung Pagoda with the HUGE Lady Buddha statue and, as you can guess by the name - the monkeys.

Lady Buddha statue is really big. I mean - 67 meters high, it is the tallest Buddha statue in the country. Represents the Goddess of Compassion. Inside the statue, there are 17 floors, shrines with Buddha's altars, statues and all, She is truly of impressive scale, this lady. And standing at the top of a mountain, she is easily spotted from afar and the sea.

Around her, scattered within the pagoda complex on the mountain, there were also quite a few amazing temples, statues and shrines...like, for example, romantic Ling Ung Temple...

Monkeys...well...they are not just "any" monkeys, but a critically endangered red-shanked douc langur variety.

I am pretty sure they are fully aware of their status being endangered species and it made them cheeky as hell, totally spoilt by the tourists all too eager to feed them, pet them, take selfies with them...

It appeared also that the monkeys felt as if they are the supreme beings in the area and humans are coming only for a pleasure to provide them with food on demand. They had no shame in demonstrating this everywhere.

I think, I have to stop at this point and split DaNang Tale into two part - still more to tell, but my creative digital ink has dried out by now...(and my typing skills have withered)

To Be Continued...