Life This Week in Da Nang, Vietnam: October 3-10, 2026

Saturday, October 3

My short trip to Da Nang from Hoi An was relatively uneventful. Some slight direction confusion, but we eventually made it. And I did not have an anxiety freak-out. Am I getting better? I might finally be getting a little better!

After two shiny, new, clean rooms in a row, I’m back to an old, somewhat dingey one. And not in a charming way. Just in a “we could use a good paint job, don’t you think…and how about we fix that broken molding and straighten those pictures and get that icky rustiness off the bathroom fixtures” way. Nothing I can’t survive, but…

OH WELL.

I headed out shortly after arriving to a market that was supposed to have a lot of western products, among them Equal sugar substitute. I’m almost out of the supply I brought from the US and it’s rare to see it here in Asia. I got a couple other random things, like a box of lemon blueberry poptarts, that will be a good room snack, and there’s just enough of them to have one a day. I got a can of soup that doesn’t require milk, if there’s a night I don’t want to go out to eat…and a couple other things. I’d hoped for some Crest toothpaste but they only sold them in boxes of multiples…and breakfast cereal, but same.

On the way back I had the driver drop me at the end of my street and I went into Little Hanoi Egg Coffee for dinner – a chicken pesto sandwich on toasted sourdough and the HOTTEST potato wedges ever – I burnt my tongue several times over cuz they were so good I couldn’t wait for them to cool off!

And early to bed. I’m always extra exhausted on travel days, even though I only “traveled” about 20 miles…but the packing and lugging and slight anxiety about New Place…and three flights of stairs, TWICE…

Sunday, October 4

Headed over to the coworking space I was excited to find very close to my room – within walking distance…but was disappointed to discover they’d swapped out all the good rolling, adjustable chairs (from recent pictures on GoogleMaps) for too-tall, plain cafeteria-looking chairs. Sigh. I stuck it out for an hour, but the chair back home is actually better (though home doesn’t have unlimited salted coffees) than this. So I’ll try someplace different next time. There are several pretty close to my room – just this one had no charge since it’s first and foremost a cafe.

When I left there, I hunted to the right and to the left for a meat shop/deli that was supposed to be like three doors away. I couldn’t find it anywhere! I hate when that happens. Later, on GoogleMaps, I did see someone comment recently that there was nothing at that address. Anyway, I had been dreaming of an actual salami sandwich on a sourdough baguette from there, so my stomach and I were quite disappointed.

After a relaxing rest of the afternoon, I went on an evening river cruise, with the highlight being the famous fire-breathing-dragon at Dragon Bridge here in Da Nang. This is a popular tourist attraction, and the fire breathing is a symbol of prosperity, power, and good fortune.

Monday, October 5

My many days in a row of activity finally caught up with me and today I just vegged. Scrolled, read, scrolled. Even knowing that it may well be the last non-rainy day before I leave Vietnam Saturday night. The forecast is not promising for the rest of the week, which will cross a lot of my plans off the list. It’s okay. There was not really anything here that felt like a MUST SEE MUST DO. In my mind I’m already in Korea, ha ha.

Tuesday, October 6

Since I didn’t eat anything yesterday except for the last Korean milk rice cookie (cracker? it’s sort of a nebulous creature) that I’d bought for my overnight bus trip from Hanoi to Hoi An, I needed to go out today, even if just to find food.

This room has several strikes against it when it comes to getting food.

• Being on the 3rd floor, I’m reluctant to go down anymore than necessary, because then I have to come back up. And I’m not a fan.
• Being above a nail/hair salon, the girls in the salon see everytime I come and go and always ask if I want to get my nails/hair/eyebrows/eyelashes/hairy legs, etc done. So whether I’m going out to the market and bringing food back myself, or getting food delivered, I have to go through the salon.
• It’s hot out there.
• It’s generally recommended that I get dressed before leaving the building.

So…no food yesterday.

But this morning I got up and out to a nearby bagel place. Da Nang is very geared towards foreigners as there’s a big digital nomad community here. So I actually had the closest thing to a New York Bacon Egg & Cheese since leaving NY in 2023. It’s still not IT, but it’s close.

Then I grabbed over to a new (to me) coworking space to have some pain-free computer time (I’m here right now!). It’s a short taxi ride away…and while there are closer ones, they’re in that range of “a little far to walk, but a little close to get a taxi.” I hate that range. I’m happier going just a little further (about a $1.27usd ride) and not feeling guilty about getting a taxi.

The space was nice, inexpensive, good coffee…but most importantly, I sat there for three hours and My Back Did Not Hurt!!! Too bad I only have a couple more days here 🙁

After doing some work, since it still wasn’t raining, I got a Grab to an “Instagram” cafe…well, really it’s a cafe with an Instagram CAT. I was really going for the cat. Sadly, the cat didn’t want to come out of its hole (six more weeks of summer), but I still enjoyed the shaded open air seating and a coffee.

Cafes here are So Relaxed. People just go and SIT. Sit and chat. Sit and read. Sit and do work. Sit and stare. But it’s such a part of the culture to just sit and ___ at a cafe. No one’s chasing you out. If it gets crowded they just pull out another chair or a tree stump or a block of wood or a cinder block or a bucket – and presto, more seating. It’s very casual. And I’m enjoying it very much. It suits my desire to read everywhere. In the shade, with a cold drink, with people to watch.

My next and final stop was KFC! Got a small bucket of chicken and some egg tarts to tide me over for a couple days.

While I was at the Invisible Cat cafe it had started to rain. Hard. I was fortunate to get Grabs quickly (which seems the norm here anywhere, I mean, 2-3 minutes. It’s like they know you’re coming).

Got home, ate chicken, lay in bed and read…going out on the balcony when there was a brief lull in the rain, just enough time to enjoy a rainbow.

Oh what a day.

Wednesday, October 7

I was going to get up early, but I’d been up since early, like 3am…so when the alarm went off at 7, I was like, perfect, time to go back to sleep. And woke up at 10. To the sound of rain rain rain.

I worked from home in 20-30 minute increments…piddled around with making sure all my documents were in order for my upcoming flight to Seoul, started digging through my luggage to see what I can live without for the 7-9 months so I could ship it to my niece’s before I leave here, because AirSeoul has the tightest baggage weight allowances I’ve seen so far. 33lbs for checked bag and 17lbs for carryon+personal item. When I flew here I was proud of myself cuz I’d gotten my checked bag down to 44lbs. And now I have to get rid of another 11! Or…just bite the bullet and pretend I’m bougie and just pay for the overage. The good news is international airlines have lower excess bag fees than the US does. But still, I’ll give it a go.

As much as I’ve been happy with this luggage I bought for my initial move to Korea back in 2023, it is heavy. The carry-on bag is 8lbs empty. Doesn’t take much to get it up to 17lbs, especially cuz that’s the electronics/camera/laptop bag – all the stuff you can’t check. All the heavy stuff. I don’t recall the empty weight of the carry-on, but…it’s more than 8. So when I’m back in the US in 2027 I may just have to give in and buy lighter luggage.

The rain stopped for a bit around 5:30 so I walked down the street for dinner. Went in a direction I hadn’t been yet, and it was hopping! Who knew?!? Also found a little market I wish I’d known about earlier…but now it seems too late to buy bread for PB&Js or cereal and milk, especially cuz I have neither a bowl or spoon. I’m just here three more days.

That did not stop me, however, from getting some airplane snacks…and some peanut M&Ms for later.

And maybe the airplane snacks are also for later.

Thursday, October 8

I ate all the airplane snacks.

It rained. A lot. I went to the coworking space and had another blissful pain-free afternoon.

Friday, October 9

FINALLY! A day with no rain. It was cloudy and oppressively humid, but…no rain.

I was awake from way too early obsessing about my baggage weights on my flight to Korea, so got up still in the dark and started moving stuff from bag to bag, weighing everything, starting over…made a bag of things to ship to my niece’s along with the lanterns…

Got it sorted as best I could – I just don’t know what else I can cut from my packing! I’m out of the US for like a year at a time now…this is not a “I travel only with a carry-on” situation. My electronics alone fill up the carry-on! Do people not take laptops with them when they travel? Chargers? Cameras? Tablets? External hard drives? Portable speakers? Card readers? Ha ha. I know I have a lot of electronics…and the electronics have a lot of accessories…but I live a pretty digital life.

Took my stuff-to-be-shipped to the shipping place. I fortunately found one that packs for you – I wasn’t shipping anything delicate or breakable, but I don’t have packing supplies with me. And the packing supply store was a 20-minute ride in each direction and I just didn’t feel like it. So I paid a little more to have them pack with their own supplies, and it’s done.

When I walked to the shipping place I realized it was just one street over from the beach! So I walked over and spent a little time sitting on a rental lounge chair, until a woman came up to me and said something in Vietnamese, which I’m assuming how much the chair costs to rent for the day. And while it’s only a dollar or two, I was in no way prepared for a beach day, so I just moved on. But it was fun to watch the surfers in the post-rain surf while I could!

Stopped for some breakfast on my way home – which…there was a little language confusion and what I got was not at all what I’d wanted, but it’s my fault for not being able to understand, so. I ate a bit then headed home.

And just spent the afternoon relaxing and cooling off. Finished a meh book. Looked at all the mess I made in the dark last night. Sigh. Do I fix it tonight…or leave it til tomorrow? I don’t leave for the airport til 9pm so I’ve got a long day here.

We’ll see.

Saturday, October 10

I had a hellish night of “sleep.” The hard bed is getting to my body, the ac had to go on off on off, I was having anxiety about my luggage weights and getting Korean won and getting myself onto the airport bus to my goshiwon. All the things. I guess the bright side is that after not sleeping much last night, and having to stay up super late for my flight (it leaves at 12:40am), maybe I’ll be tired enough to actually sleep on the flight!

All I really did today besides pack was go back to Little Hanoi Egg Coffee for more potato wedges before I left them. So sad. Oh, and on the way back from there I got a mani-pedi in the salon downstairs from my room. The girls were really sweet. The one was like “if you come back Da Nang you stay with me,” and “how much do you weigh?” HA HA HA HA HA.

The airbnb host came by with her brother as I was leaving and helped me get my luggage down the stairs (and by “helped” I mean, they did it), which was lovely. Then the Grab whisked me away to the airport, that was like five miles away, so zip zip and I was there.

Pretty easy airport process. Except that here, like Thailand, when you have overweight luggage (which I always do), you don’t pay at the check-in counter. They give you a receipt that you have to take to the other end of the terminal to pay…then go back to the check-in counter where they have been holding your fat suitcase hostage waiting for the proof that you paid, and then they release it and you and you move on to immigration. That’s just a lot of extra legwork.

THEN we had to enter the plane from the tarmac, which I hate, cuz I have to carry my crossbody (about 10lbs), my carry-on (about 17lbs), and myself (so many lbs) up the stairs. Stairs are not my forte to begin with. So I waited at the back of the line so I wouldn’t be holding up anyone behind me…and then went up – suitcase up a step, left foot up a step, right foot up a step…suitcase up a step, left foot up a step, right foot up a step…you get the picture. Slow. Fortunately about half way up a young man who was already at the top, jogged down, grabbed my suitcase, and jogged back up, suitcase in hand.

Show off.

Ha ha ha ha ha I was very appreciative.

And then the flight. My back doesn’t do well with cheap airline seats – they have a weird curve to them that just doesn’t go well with my back, so I’m in pain most of the flight. When it gets unbearable, I lean forward, resting the top of my head against the seatback in front of me…and just breathe. I was able to sleep a little bit in this position. I’m sure my row mates were like wtf.

But then I was in Korea, yay – and I’ll you all about my first week there in the next post!

See ya later luv ya bye!