Tom On day 4 of our Da Nang Travel Itinerary, we decided to do what Singaporeans do best – eat and shop! As it was also the eve of Lunar New Year in Da Nang, we also planned to stay out a little later to catch the Chinese New Year fireworks display at Dragon Bridge, along Han River!
We woke up to breakfast at Happy Day Hotel Da Nang and we chose fried vermicelli and beef pho…
After breakfast, we decided to hop on over next door to Brilliant Hotel. Apparently, there’s a rooftop bar at Brilliant Hotel that offers unrestricted views over Dragon Bridge and Han River. So it became a prime candidate for where we’d head to for tonight’s Lunar New Year fireworks display in Da Nang…
As it turns out, the views of Dragon Bridge/Han River from Brilliant Hotel’s rooftop bar, was indeed brilliant! There was a clear view over the entire Han River and Dragon Bridge. Hence, we entered the bar and asked the attendant of the closing hours. She mentioned that they would close at 11:30pm that evening but guests could still hang around in the open air area and catch the fireworks if they wanted to. So, Brilliant Hotel became a prime candidate for where we’d head to this evening!
When we’re overseas, Tom would normally try to get his haircut done. Remember the $2 haircut in Leh Market which included a shoulder and facial massage? Or the $8.5 haircut at Batam Megamall which included shampoo and head massage? Hence, we headed to trusty Google and found a local barber joint. However, as it was the eve of Chinese New Year, it was closed. Thankfully, we stumbled upon another local barber by the roadside…
Of course, we paid the tourist price of 100k VND ($6 SGD) but it was rather decent and expertly executed in 15 minutes. Unlike India, they do have electric razor. But like India, there was no hair wash included 🙁
Aroi Dessert Cafe Da Nang Review
As there was no hair wash included, we headed back to our hotel for quick rinse before heading out to Aroi Cafe…
What attracted us to Aroi Dessert Cafe was its alfresco area that faces Han River. Also, a quick Google, revealed that they have a teddy bear mousse. Which was essentially a pastry, shaped liked a teddy bear, filled with rich chocolate mouse and sprinkled lusciously with chocolate powder…
We also ordered a Cream Cheese Rice Tea, Coconut Coffee as well as a salted egg cake for a total of 140K VND ($8.5 SGD)…
All the drinks and pastry tasted really great. The cream cheese was legit and coupled with a slightly sweetened rice tea, tasted great. The coconut coffee was also rich and was generous in portion. Teddy Mousse had a rich chocolate filling while the salted egg cake with its chicken floss on top, were both delicious.
What was lacking was the view…
Turns out that there’s a small spiral staircase that led to the third level!
That was when we shifted our remaining drinks up and chilled for a little there. It was rather windy but was still very much enjoyable. Views of Han River and drinks? Awesome!
Shopping at Han Market Da Nang
After taking our fill at Aroi Cafe, we took a short walk to Han Market. Shopping time!
Some time back, while we were in Ho Chi Minh City, we bought a Crumpler bag for 20USD which turned out to be one of best purchase to date. Today, we still think that the bag was authentic because of the zipper on the bag as well as the overall quantity. Probably one of the “defective” ones that didn’t make it pass QC.
At Han Market, it was pretty much the same…
Branded shoes like Nike and Asics went for 30SGD while Under Armour polo t-shirts went for 20SGD. There were also winter wear, bags, dresses and local hand crafted items available as well. As we weren’t prepared for shopping at Han Market this time round, we left empty-handed. Mostly because we did not have sufficient Vietnamese Dong. Nonetheless, we could see that the deals were rather good with many Korean tourists leaving with BAGS AND BAGS of items! Korean tourists must be the main patrons of Han Market because of the many healthy haggling that took place in Korean. Yes, the locals spoke Korean rather fluently… 😛
We’ll be back Han Market.
The original plan was to head over the suspension bridge to Vincom Center to have lunch and watch a local movie. However, Vincom Center was closed for the Chinese New Year period! Hence, we crossed back the bridge again and lunch at Star Beef…
This time, we had the Beef Hot Plate as well as the Beef Broken Rice, along with 2 beers (Larue and Tiger) for a grand total of 155K VND ($9SGD). “Broken Rice” seems to be a term akin to our economical rice (or Nasi Padang in Indonesia) where the dishes are served separately along with the rice. The beef hot plate was not too bad but the beef with the broken rice was rather tough.
In the meantime, we had a little fun with Tom doing a blind taste test to differentiate between Larue Beer and Tiger Beer…
Turns out, Tom was not able to identify Tiger Beer! Even after visiting Tiger Brewery…But to be fair, Kate also tried the Tiger Beer and found it to be different from what we usually drank. Perhaps the ones brewed in Vietnam missed out a little secret ingredient. Just didn’t taste as hoppy – that’s Tom justifying his failure to identify Tiger Beer 😛
After lunch, we decided that we should head back to the hotel to catch some rest since we would be staying out late this evening. We woke up at 6:30pm and walked over to Novotel hotel. At the top of Novotel hotel is Hai Cang – one of the top Chinese restaurant in Da Nang City. As we had wifi and Skype, we decided to call ahead to make reservations. Apparently, reservations are required for entry…
Initially, they didn’t get our reservations (even though we were confirmed over the phone!). After sitting for less than 5 minutes, we were invited to take the lift up to the 33rd floor of Novotel Hotel. From there, you can take a short walk up the stairs or transfer to another staircase up to the entrance of Hai Cang restaurant…
As it was Chinese New Year’s eve, they only had the “festive menu” (aka everything also more expensive)…
This time, we ordered the Prince Fried Rice, pan fried dumplings, spicy sze chuan chicken, roasted meats combination as well as broccoli. Together with tea, the total bill came up to 1.6M (~$100SGD)…
To our surprise, all the dishes tasted good! The fried rice had that smokey (wok hei) flavour – which we joked that they probably added “liquid smoke”. The pan fried dumpling didn’t turn out as expected but was still not too bad. The outer texture was mochi-like. Spicy sze chuan chicken was nice and fragrant peppercorns though there weren’t much meats there. Broccoli was stir fried in garlic. Simple and elegant. The best dish of the lot. Lastly, the BBQ meat combination dish had great pork dishes. Char siew was fatty and well BBQed. However, the duck was a litle off – salty and bony. For “dessert”, we enjoyed the salted egg custard bun (liu sha bao).
Initially, we were given a table right in the middle of the restaurant. However, we saw that another family was about to finish their dinner and requested for their seat as it was right next to the window. After trying twice, we were eventually given the table! Yay! This was also where we saw dragon head of Dragon Bridge, spew fire!
We were particularly thankful because we were initially told that the fire spewing from Dragon Bridge only takes place on Saturday and Sunday at 9pm. It was a Friday. However, as ships (with their neon lights) started to gather close to the head of the dragon, we started to focus our attention at the head of the dragon. Then, it happened! We witnessed the fire spewing from the Dragon Bridge in Da Nang! Another tick in the box for touristy things to do in Da Nang! 😛
After dinner, we strolled through the Lunar New Year flower displays (along Bach Dang Han River) and that’s where we first heard “Want Pao? Want Pao Lai” on repeat as motocycles selling steamed buns rode past. To save on our budget, we decided to catch the fire works along the Han River, instead of heading up to Brilliant Hotel as originally planned. Then, shortly after midnight, the fire works happened…
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Firstly, we want to confirm that fireworks can be seen during Lunar New Year over Dragon Bridge/Han River in Da Nang. Secondly, the quality of the fireworks in Da Nang is so good! Check out this video we took…
Turns out, Da Nang hosts the annual International Fireworks Festival. This pretty much explains the quality (and length – close to 10 minutes!) of awesome fireworks! While we often take pride in our National Day Parade Fireworks, this was pretty much comparable as well. There were various shapes (heart shape!) that burst into the night sky as well.
Stay tuned as well chillaxed on the first day of Lunar New Year at our next hotel…
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