It was insanely cool to go on a first international trip and that too as a solo female. I went to Da Nang in Vietnam which is a very cool place. This post highlights everything I did there, how I got around and everything in between.
Think of this as a cross between a travel blog and a guide if you’re visiting the city.
Buckle up because it’s a long read.
Visa, booking flight tickets, hotels, and stuff
Getting a visa: As an Indian, I require a visa to go to Vietnam. The visa is a 90-day one. So I went on the official website [https://evisa.gov.vn/] to apply for it. The application was rather easy. And since this was my first time filing an application for a visa, I was very scared. (Spoiler alert: I messed up something). I paid $25 and I got an email from them a few days later saying that I got my visa. This process was easy. The only thing I would recommend is that you get your visa at least 5-10 days before your flight, just in case.
Booking flights: My nearest airport is the Delhi Airport (DEL), and I was trying to see if I could find direct flights to Da Nang. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of direct flights. And then the ones I found had long layovers. But funnily enough, I still had to do a layover.
So I found out that there is a Vietjet flight that goes from Ahmedabad to Da Nang. The timing of this flight was kinda late, but I was okay with it. The departure time was 12:25 am and the flight was ~5 hours long. And the price was good. I was looking at Skyscanner for the prices and ended up finding this on MakeMyTrip. I paid 8252 INR (95.64 USD) for this flight.
The next one I had to book was Delhi to Ahmedabad. The duration of this flight was 1.5 hours, and I booked with Air India and paid 5512 INR (63.88 USD). The timing was not that bad, so I ended up waiting for a few hours at the Ahmedabad airport. I packed a few snacks because there was no way I would buy the airport food. I still ended up buying a can of Sprite lol.
Fortunately, my flight with Air India included food, so I had that. This flight was not that long and soon enough I was in Ahmedabad (which is a city in Gujrat state). I arrived at the domestic airport (which was Terminal 1), and now I had to go to the international airport (which was Terminal 2).
Now here’s something. I didn’t book the return tickets. When I was filing my visa application, I said that I would stay there for 3 months, but I didn’t have an idea about when I would return home. So when I reached the Ahmedabad International Airport and went to check in my bag, they asked for my return tickets apart from the visa and the passport. And I panicked. Thankfully my friend told me to use an onward ticket (there are a lot of websites that do this, but I used this https://onwardticket.com/). So essentially you pay $16 to get a real onward ticket which is valid for 48 hours. I got one of those and showed it to them. And it worked perfectly fine.
Everything else was good, but the airport was not that cool. I should clarify that the departure side was not that cool, the arrival was nice though. So then I got on the flight to Da Nang, and the time difference between India and Vietnam was 1.5 hours. I also soon realized that I wouldn’t have any internet data because my Indian SIM wouldn’t work there.
After 5 hours, I arrived at the Da Nang International Airport. And when I was going through immigration, I found out that the passport number on my visa was incorrect. I didn’t know about this mistake, and after a lot of back and forth, I ended up paying an extra $25 to get a new visa.
My friends came to pick me up and the weather was rainy. I didn’t know that it was rainy in December.
Hotel: I was staying in Loseby Street and it is so nice. My friends recommended this hotel and I booked it for like 10 days. People who live there for 3 months (or more) end up getting an apartment. But don’t get an Airbnb because it’s more expensive than finding a dealer or something. I wanted to try different hotels, so I did that. I stayed in three hotels and had mixed experiences in all of them.
SIM, taxis, food delivery, apps, and cash 💰
SIM: I first went to get the SIM and I got the Viettel one since my friend recommended it to be the best. I paid 185,000 VND (7.38 USD) for the data-only pack which gave me 4 GB of data per day for 28 days. I went to the Viettel office with my friend and it was not that far away from my hotel.
The other thing to note is that you get two options- calling + data, and only data. I personally wouldn’t use the calling option since I do most of my calls through WhatsApp or Signal. So you can decide which one you want. I met this awesome person who later became my friend and she told me that she got the eSIM. But as she showed me, the prices for eSIM were much more expensive than what you would get in the local SIM. But then you wouldn’t have to carry a physical SIM. Both have their pros and cons.
Taxis and food delivery: Grab is a super popular app that is available not only in Vietnam, but also in Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar. This app is both for food delivery and getting taxis. One hack I learned from my friend is to get a free trial of Grab Unlimited, to get discounts. The other tip is to select as many coupons as you can when you check out for food. For the cabs, find the option that is written in Vietnamese. It is often the cheapest option.
Grab also has bikes apart from taxis. They’re cheaper and better if you just wanna get around. I never used the bike option because it was raining most of the time.
There are also a few other options I saw there, one of which was Xanh SM. I believe they have electric cars, and they’re a little more expensive than Grab. I have never got their service because I was happy with Grab.
For the food, I also saw Shoppee food service a lot on the streets. Again, I never got food from them, but it’s an option.
Wallet and messaging: I had to download Zalo and Zalo Pay (yes they are two different apps). Zalo is their equivalent to WhatsApp. A lot of people use Zalo, and you would require it because of the OTPs (to register on different apps). I got the Zalo pay because I could connect it to the local account so that I could connect it to Grab. So whenever I order food or a taxi on Grab, it deducts the money from the Zalo pay account. And yes you would have to top it up frequently.
Bank: My friend told me that foreign people can get a local bank account with Timo and then we can pay through the QR codes. It’s a good thing for me since I use UPI all the time in India, and I barely carry cash. So I was advised to download their app first and submit the basic information. Then we went to their branch to complete the registration. They would ask for your visa, passport, and a few other information. The process was rather quick and my account was activated a few hours later. I then loaded cash in it and used it throughout the trip. I never got cash once.
I was also advised about the Niyo bank (for Indians). So you can get their card and withdraw cash there and it shouldn’t cost you to withdraw the cash. I am not sure about the fees as I never withdrew cash from that card.
My other friend was the one who was paying by card at certain places. She was using the Revolut card, and while it was not accepted everywhere, it is a good option for those who can get that card. She told me that it was a good option. But she also had to carry cash as she didn’t have a Timo bank account.
Food
Food deserves its own section because it was so nice. And I forgot to take pictures of a lot of food because I was too busy enjoying the dish.
The first thing I had there was a chicken Banh Mi. It’s a sandwich which is made with a Vietnamese Baguette. Then there are different fillings you can choose from. There’s egg (which was my fav), pork, chicken and others. If you eat at a local Banh Mi place, it costs around 15,000 VND (0.60 USD). They’re best for breakfast and I used to have them every day. They also give this tea with it. I am not quite sure which tea it is, but it’s nice.
I also tried a bunch of Vietnamese coffee. I tried salted coffee, Dalgona coffee, Vietnamese milk coffee, sweet milk coffee, and coconut coffee. My friend also made me try the americano which was too bitter for me.
I forgot to click the pictures of other coffee, but here’s Dalgona coffee which I had at this coworking space. It was 35,000 VND (1.40 USD), which was very expensive for a coffee.
Usually, the coffee I used to get was around 15,000 VND (0.60 USD). I didn’t really like the coffee at first, because they were bitter for my taste and I never really had “real” coffee in India. But towards the end, I really started to love them and salted coffee became my favorite.
I didn’t really like coconut coffee because it had a strong coconut flavor, and they also added these dry coconut flakes which were too coconut-y for me.
I regularly used to go to this restaurant which was across from my hotel. I tried almost everything from their menu. I tried the Yangzhou fried rice which had pork and vegetables, egg fried rice, beef and pickle fried rice, beef stir-fried noodles, chicken pho, beef pho, and meatball pho.
For example, this is their beef and pickle fried rice.
In this particular restaurant, it used to come with this clear soup, which seemed like the Pho broth.
There was this other local place we went to that had white rice and you can customize the toppings. I used to go with pork and stir-fried vegetables. It was a local spot, so you would only find locals there. I never found any foreigner there. I found its taste to be weird at first, but after having it a couple of times, I started to like it. One plate was 25k VND (0.99 USD) which was super affordable.
The portion sizes differ from place to place. For example, at this other restaurant, the portion sizes were huge. But it also costs double the money. For example, here’s this egg fried rice which was for 75,000 VND (2.99 USD). The place I talked about earlier was affordable. Their fried rice was 35,000 VND (1.40 USD). Pho is cheap and their portions are also big. I got Pho at 30,000 VND (1.20 USD) and 35,000 VND (1.40 USD) at different places.
Pho usually comes with a lot of side dishes. It could include bean sprouts, leafy vegetables, lemons, and jalapenos. I really liked it because it was simple and filling, not to mention, it was tasty.
Speaking of noodles, I also tried the Mi Quang noodles, Bun Cha Cua, and others. The Mi Quang noodles were nice.
I also tried these quail egg things, which were these tiny eggs. It came with a savory sauce which I believe had fish sauce, vinegar, red chili, and garlic. They were nice.
When I went to Ba Na Hills, I tried a bunch of things, and all of them were very expensive. I first tried this sweet red wine and I had to pay for it because it was not included in the main ticket. I paid 100,000 VND (3.99 USD) for the silver ticket at the wine cellar. They have three options- silver, gold and platinum.
I believe they would give you a basic wine at the silver level. So I opted for a sweet wine. It was good in my opinion, but I am not a wine person so take it with a bag of salt.
I was feeling hungry at the Ba Na Hills and that’s when I got the most expensive Banh Mi lol. It was 95,000 VND (3.79 USD). It was overpriced and not that tasty. I prefer my 15,000 VND one.
I wanted to try some Korean food since I never had it in my life, and that’s when I got Bibimbap. It had rice and on top of it, there were some stuff like fried egg, carrots, seaweed, bean sprouts, beef, mushroom, and cucumber. It came with a bunch of things like Gochujang, kimchi, and pickled radish. I really liked it and it was very filling.
I wanted to try some vegan food, so I ordered something from Grab. It’s called Vegan bun dau & vegan roasted pork. I ordered it with vegan spring rolls. I paid 56,000 VND for it (2.23 USD) and it was horrible. I didn’t like anything and I had to throw it all away.
I also tried Tteokbokki and it was not nice. I thought it would like the texture, but it was not that nice. And speaking of more Korean food, I also tried the vegan Gimbap. It just looks pretty and it was not tasty at all. I guess the vegan food there was not that nice (based on what I had).
I also tried the burger and they were really nice (Except the one I got at this other bakery which was not nice). This one was beef and chicken cheese and it was a loaded burger. I had like multiple times, and it is by far my favorite thing.
It even looks like those commercials. It was tasty, and their French fries were thin and crispy.
I also heard from my friend that the pizza there is nice. So I tried the marinara pizza and Bolognese pizza.
The pizzas were thin, and a little crispy at some places. The medium was a little too small for one person, and the large was too large. But it was tasty.
I also tried the spaghetti Bolognese and garlic bread which was tasty. The garlic bread was a little too oily for me because it had olive oil, but yeah.
We also went to the Indian restaurant and tried things like honey chili potato, naan, tandoori roti, Afgani murg tikka, paneer lababdar, laccha paratha, and drinks like margarita and daiquiri. The cocktails were not nice, and some of the dishes were not nice. But we really liked the honey chili potato, paneer lababdar, and garlic naan.
I also went to this other Indian restaurant and got Aloo tikki. It came with this green chutney, and it was not nice at all.
When it comes to fruits, I tried guava because I like them a lot. I also tried the red grapes and jackfruit.
If you’re sitting at any restaurant, you will see these ladies with a big basket filled with fruits. These are sliced and peeled fruits and they’re all for 20,000 VND (0.80 USD). So I got this jackfruit for 20,000 VND. I also tried the red dragon fruit and it was tasty, but it makes your pee and poop red. It really scared me, but it’s totally fine and it goes away after a couple of days.
Places I visited
There are a lot of places to visit in Da Nang, and these are some of them I visited. Since I went on rainy days, I couldn’t go to a lot of places like Hoi An. I will go there the next time I go there.
Ba Na hills: This was the very first place I visited when I went to Da Nang. I went with the tour guide, which was referred to me by my hotel. I paid 1.2 million VND (~48 USD) which included the shuttle, the cable car tickets, a water bottle, and a few candies that they gave on the way back.
When you check through their official website, there are different options. The cable car tickets for adults are 922,000 VND (~37 USD), and if you want the lunch buffet + cable car, then the price is 1,213,000 VND (~48 USD). Then there are prices for children and elderly. There are also different prices for Vietnamese people.
The weather on the day I went was sunny at first, and then it got cloudy and even rainy towards the end of the day. So you gotta research the weather properly otherwise everything will be cloudy and you won’t be able to see good views.
The distance from my hotel to the Ba Na hills was 26 km. Upon arriving there, we were told that we only had a certain amount of time to roam around and then we would have to meet at the meeting spot. The first place we went to was the Golden Bridge, and that too with the cable car, and it was so amazing. It was my first time going in the cable car, and the views were incredible.
From the time we arrived at the Golden Bridge, it got very cloudy, and we couldn’t see much of the views. The place was crowded though. My tour guide said that in the summer, it gets even more crowded, so yeah. This is how the bridge looked:
There are a bunch of things to do there. For example, there is a flower garden, a wine cellar, and a Buddha statue. The wine cellar was not included with the ticket, so you would have to pay separately. I paid 100,000 VND (~4 USD) for the wine. It was not half bad.
This is the flower garden:
We then took another cable car and went to the French village.
It had these amazing European-style buildings, and the whole vibe was very different. It felt like we got transported to Europe for a minute. In the French village, there are a bunch of things to see. For example, you can roam around the streets, see the wax museum, play games at the Fantasy Park, and more. Again, the wax museum is paid so I didn’t go there. I did go to this 3D movie thing, which was not that nice to be honest because it was more of a children’s thing.
We also saw a bunch of live dance performances. They were super cool, and I believe it happens multiple times in a day.
I had the Banh Mi here (which I showed earlier), and paid a lot of money for it lol.
The next place was the moon castle, and we went in this mini train thing. The castle was mostly empty at the time we went, and the only thing that we did was watch this 5D movie. It was a very fun experience and I absolutely loved it. There were a bunch of arcade games too.
This basically concluded my experience there, and here I am looking all nice (but in reality I was tired af)
Overall, it’s the best attraction for kids and people who are into games and stuff. And I don’t necessarily recommend coming here with the tour guide. There’s so much you could have explored on your own, and having a tour guide also meant that we had strict deadlines. So we couldn’t explore much. You can get a shared shuttle on Klook, or a taxi on Grab. It would be much cheaper that way. And I would also recommend taking some snacks with you because the food there is 3-4X more than what you would get in the city.
Dragon Bridge: This was one of the first places I visited, and that too on a rainy day. The Dragon Bridge is a normal bridge on which you can walk and where cars go from. It was like a 10-minute walk from my hotel and the streets were nice so I just walked there. If you want, you can also take a Grab bike or something.
This is how it looks [This picture is from Wikipedia]
This is the one I clicked right before the show.
The main thing about Dragon Bridge is the fire show. Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 9 pm, the dragon spits fire and water. It’s a really cool thing to watch and you would find a ton of people there. Not just on the streets, but on the actual bridge itself. As you can see in the video below, it was a rainy day, so we were carrying our umbrellas. And it was not that crowded that day.
Here’s a video of it which I recorded:
The conclusion is to go a little early to find a good spot and go on a sunny day.
Son Tra Night Market: This night market is close to the Dragon Bridge. For me, it was on the other side of the bridge. I am not really sure about their timing, but according to Google Maps, it opens every day. We went on weekends though. It has a lot of food stalls and you can also buy souvenirs and stuff. We went on a rainy day and it was not the best experience. I have heard that it is much nicer on a sunny day. But since we went on a rainy day, it was not that crowded. The food was nice, although a bit expensive. We tried octopus skewers, quail eggs (I have posted the photo of it above), oysters, and pork skewers.
As for the fees, there were no fees to enter the market itself. You would only pay for the things you buy.
Lady Buddha: From where I was staying, the Lady Buddha was ~7 km away. We took a cab and went there. The entry is free, which was nice. We were fortunate as the weather was sunny (and windy) that day. The Grab was not that expensive, and it’s the best if you go with other people. The main attraction is the tall lady Buddha statue, which you can even see from the beach. As you see in the picture below, I can see the tall statue far away from the beach.
When you see the statue in person, it’s even taller. This is the photo I took, but if you look on the internet, you will see images that were probably taken by a drone or something. These are much cooler.
There are a bunch of temples which you can visit. This is one of them.
The thing is that you have to dress modestly. This means no short and revealing clothes. If you chose to enter the temple themselves, they would give you this skirt thing that you can wrap around. Also, you would have to take your shoes outside the temple, which is similar to Hindu temples.
Apart from the temples, there are a ton of cool bonsai trees that you can see. It was super cool to check out all these huge bonsai trees.
Here I am standing with them to take a picture.
You would have to walk a bunch to explore all the things here. There are people who come with a tourist guide or something, but I suggest coming on your own, or with friends because it’s a chill place. And you can read the history and stuff, which are written there on these stone things.
We saw this small pond, this big tree, and other stuff. One of them was the lying statue of Buddha. It was very cool.
And you can sit there and enjoy these cool views. The whole city looks so nice from there, and the ocean looks even more cool.
There were monkeys, and people were taking photos with them and whatnot. I think overall it was a calming experience. There were prayers happening too in both the temple and outside the temple.
My Khe beach: The beach is probably the best part of Da Nang. It’s pretty long, and it stretches until Hoi An. The time I went there was good since it wasn’t too crowded. There were people who were doing surfing lessons and also swimming.
I usually used to walk there, and make sand castles lol.
This is how the beach looks:
And this is the image
It’s the best place since I went there countless times, and I also got to do this cute picnic with my friend. We had yogurt with muesli, dragon fruit, and other fruits. And this made me fall in love with Muesli lol.
Marble mountains: The Marble Mountains are a cluster of 5 different mountains and they’re literally in the middle of the city. The ticket for entry is 40,000 VND (1.59 USD). There is also an elevator which costs an extra 15,000 VND (0.60 USD).
There’s one thing you need to know. There are stairs. And a LOT of them. And these stairs are steep, narrow, wobbly, and all you can think of. I mean look at them.
Similar to the Lady Buddha Pagoda, there are a bunch of temples here, so you have to wear modest clothing. I would also add that the clothing should be comfortable because it will be easier for all things walking. For example, this is one of the pagodas.
I have heard people say to go early because it’s nice then. But we sort of went after lunch, and it was crowded. We went on a sunny day, but later on, it got cloudy, and by the time we got off the mountains, it started raining. I should tell you that it’s not that good to go on an even slightly rainy day because the stones will get slippery, especially when you get to the very top of the mountain. And you don’t wanna risk falling lol.
We went on top of two different mountains and it was the best experience ever. Here is the photo from one of them
And here’s the photo from the second mountain
There are a bunch of caves there too. There was one of them which scared me lol, because you had to climb that slippery rock. Everyone was super careful. This was the outside of this cave.
And this is how it looked from the inside.
I am not someone who enjoys walking a lot. I have started to do more of it, but this whole thing made me very tired. If you’re someone who enjoys hiking, I think you’re going to love it. I also believe that I didn’t get to explore all of it because we were running out of time, and I was tired af.
Helio Night Market: This was one of the other night markets in Da Nang, and I believe it was very underwhelming. We took a Grab taxi and it was like 10 minutes away from my hotel. It was mostly empty, there were not a lot of shops or something. The Helio Center building had movies going on, but we didn’t do that stuff. There were also a lot of food stalls, and the food was very overpriced. I tried boba tea for the first time, and it was so bad I had to throw it. I paid 35k VND (1.38 USD) which was sort of expensive considering I could get a lunch/dinner for the same amount. My friend also got this other thing which she didn’t like.
The only good thing about this night market was the live show which happens every day. The show was for like 2 hours and they sang a mix of English and Vietnamese songs.
I don’t really think it’s worth a separate trip. If you’re visiting something else nearby, then you can visit here. The Son Tra night market was much better though.
General observations
These are just my general observations that I couldn’t fit into other sections. Note that these are just my perspectives and not something everyone will agree with.
- The English problem is real. I find it very hard to communicate with people. But the thing is that Vietnamese people are VERY kind, so we mostly talked through Google Translate. Other times, I pointed at the thing I wanted, and they told me the price in the calculator app. And I would just pay. It would be nice to actually talk with the people, but sadly that was not the case. But there are some people who are good with English. For example some Grab drivers, and shop people.
- This could be a tad bit controversial but here goes: I find Vietnamese people to be much more nicer and kinder than Indian people. They are very respectful and even though we can’t communicate, they don’t become disrespectful or something.
- If you’re going to live there for the long term, then it’s best to rent a studio apartment or something. As I have said earlier, renting an Airbnb is very expensive. I remember my friend was paying like 18 million VND (710 USD) for a small studio apartment. I heard that one can get a much nicer apartment for like 5 million VND (197 USD) or something.
- I noticed that water is not really available for free in restaurants. In India, it’s common for you to get free water in restaurants (even though they would try that you get the paid water). So instead of water, you can get tea for free. I remember this restaurant had a big bottle of tea for free.
- Speaking of water, the only water you get in your hotel room are those small bottles. So everyone had to buy their own water. I used to buy the 1.5-liter bottles at first, but then I started buying the 5-liter bottles. Also, the price of water hugely depends on the shop you’re getting. For example, I saw that you can get the 1.5-liter water bottle (from the same brand) at 10k, 12k, and even 15k. I don’t recommend the big mart shops for water because they’re usually the most expensive ones. Look for regular shops that locals go to.
- When you go to the restaurants, you will find a lot of different things on the tables. for example, chili oil, pickled garlic, hot sauce, pho sauce, toothpick, chopsticks, and spoons.
- And speaking of tables, you would find those small chairs and tables everywhere. They are cute, but not the best when it comes to comfort lol. I still don’t know why they have such small chairs and tables.
- Bonsai trees are everywhere. They’re on the streets, in tourist places, and everywhere. I have never seen so many bonsai trees anywhere else. And these trees are really so beautiful and nice.
- The other thing I noticed is that non-vegetarian food is super popular here. So it would be very hard to find good vegetarian/ vegan options for cheap. I tried a few vegan things, and I didn’t quite like them. I had to throw it out. I should point out that my Indian tongue might not be familiar with all the flavors here. But if you are someone who eats meat and seafood, then it would be nice for you because you would get a lot of cheap options.
- The other thing is that people genuinely seem to enjoy what they do here. I have seen people happy and feeling great about the work they do. And the people are very warm and inviting.
- Roaming around on the streets at night is very safe here. I was out on the streets at 12:30 am and I felt quite safe. And there were not a lot of people on the street at that time so you might feel weird, but I felt very safe there. Funnily enough, I have never felt that safe in India (which might sound very controversial).
- The streets are well lit up (maybe it’s because I came around Christmas and New Year), the night vibe is great, and the streets are very clean. Speaking of vibe, the stores are so well decorated for Christmas and it was so cool seeing them like that.
- I also went to this co-working place and it was so nice. The ability to get good Wi-Fi, good coffee, and a good desk with a view is nice. Their coffee might be a bit expensive though (I mentioned this earlier).
- There are a lot of cuisines to try here. I tried Korean, Vietnamese, Italian, and Indian. You might also be able to find Japanese, Thai, and others.
- The snacks here are kinda expensive, but you can get beer and even wine at the grocery stores, which is cool. You won’t find wine and alcohol at Indian grocery stores lol.
- If you’re traveling alone, you might be able to make some good friends. I certainly made some good friends.
- And the last thing I want to mention is that since the people are kind and respectful, I believe that the foreigners should also be equally respectful to them. I saw a lot of visitors who were not nice to the locals, and who were making fun of the people.
Final thoughts
As a first international trip, it was truly an unforgettable experience for me. There are a lot of things I learned about not just myself, but about life, about friends, and how the world works. And I believe that the more we travel and meet with new people, the more we become humble and grounded, as it opens us to different life stories.
I only wish to take on more adventures like these. This ride was surely an adventurous one since I had my sad days, and I cried a lot, but in the end, it was all worth it.
Onto the next one.
<3