DANANG, VIETNAM – After living in Hanoi for seven months, we decided to escape the pollution and chaos and move to Danang, on Vietnam’s central coast.
Don’t get me wrong; we really enjoyed our time in Hanoi. We loved visiting its historic cultural sites and exploring its labyrinth of narrow bustling streets, and it certainly presented an eye-opening introduction to life in Southeast Asia.
We’ll always cherish our time there, but we had read that Danang had cleaner air, beautiful beaches, more civilized traffic and delicious seafood.
Everyone told us how nice it was in Danang
After we made the decision to relocate, everyone we talked to – Vietnamese and Westerners alike – said how nice it was in Danang. Many of them said they would like to move there themselves.
Danang is much smaller than Hanoi, at least as far as population goes. Hanoi has 7 to 8 million people, Danang has about a million and a half. Danang has wider streets, and most of the sidewalks we’ve seen so far are more suited for walking than in Hanoi.
We arrived here on a Wednesday, booked into an AirBnB room for two weeks. We figured that would give us enough time to find a suitable place to call home for a while.
A friend in Hanoi had given us an introduction to the couple who own the B&B where we stayed. They rent out two comfortable rooms above a laid-back coffee shop/café with delicious food and a cozy interior, as well as additional seating in a peaceful outdoor garden.
We liked Brenn and Lien right away. Brenn is a computer whiz (among other skills) who works remotely, and Lien is a sharp Vietnamese woman who keeps a close eye on every aspect of the café.
Lien agreed to help us find an apartment, offering to ask around, make some calls and talk with landlords to try to help us get the best possible deal.
After our apartment experience in Hanoi, Melanie and I have a much better idea of what we need in an apartment. We really liked our neighborhood there, but the apartment was lacking a few things we now realize are essential to living well in Vietnam.
We spent a couple hours just walking around
We found a few apartment listings online, and after going out for breakfast one day, Mel and I spent a couple hours just walking around the area, looking at buildings, writing down phone numbers from “apartment for rent” signs and talking to the occasional person we saw coming out of a building that looked inviting.
Back at the B&B Lien made a few calls for us, got more details from some of the managers and one day went with us to one of the places that had a few apartments available.
Unfortunately, every place we looked at seemed to have some fatal flaw. Either it was too small for us to both have space to work, it didn’t have enough light, it was right next to a construction site (like our place in Hanoi) or it just plain cost too much.
After a disappointing morning of checking out possible leads, we were headed back to the café when we passed a small well-maintained apartment building. Lien looked at us and said, “Should I ask if they have an apartment available?”
“Why not?” we replied. What did we have to lose?
So Lien disappeared into the lobby while Melanie and I waited in a shady spot across the street. A few minutes later, she reappeared at the entry, smiling and nodding her head.
The friendly young woman at the front desk took us up to the third floor and showed us a fairly roomy one-bedroom apartment. It had decent light, air conditioning in both the bedroom and the living room/kitchen area, a bathroom with an enclosed shower, a kitchen big enough to cook in (with two stove burners and sufficient counter space), and it had a balcony with enough room for a small table and chairs so we can sit outside and enjoy our morning coffee.
“This might just be THE ONE,” we thought
We were already starting to think this might be “the one,” but there was one more selling point to come. We rode the elevator up to the top floor of the building – the fifth floor – where there is a workout room fitted with a treadmill, some exercise machines and a wall filled with barbells.
“That’s convenient,” we thought. “We might actually work out once in a while since it’s right here.”
But best of all, on either side of the workout room, there’s a rooftop deck offering views of much of the city – to the beach in one direction, to the mountains in the other and over the entire neighborhood all around. The beach-facing half is covered so it can be used rain or shine. It also has a long table with chairs and a large barbecue grill available for residents to use.
At this point we were both bracing ourselves for the price to be the deal breaker. Lien talked at length with the attendant in Vietnamese, as Melanie and I held our breath.
We broke into happy smiles when Lien at last announced the price, well within our desired budget. “And she says they will discount it by $50 a month if you rent for six months or longer,” Lien said.
Considering price and amenities, this apartment was the closest to ideal that Mel and I had seen so far.
We had one more place to look at before deciding
Lien still had one more place she wanted us to look at, so we told the young woman we wanted to think about it some more before making a decision.
The other place had an apartment that would be available the first of August, so we figured we’d take a look and if we liked that one better, we’d pay $600 for one month at the first place and then move to the other.
Well… as it turned out, the other apartment had a few too many flaws. It was quite small. And the lighting was considerably less than ideal. Not to mention that there was a construction site right next door. It just didn’t measure up to the first one.
That settled it. Decision made, we put down a deposit and set our move-in day for a few days later, on the first of July.
Yay! We’ve found our next home on the road.
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About that photo at the top of the page:
The shipping container pictured above sat on a busy corner we often walked by during our first few weeks in Danang.
It seemed obvious that the sign referred to an actual apartment somewhere in the neighborhood, but I joked with Melanie that maybe we should call and see how much the rent was for the container. It was, after all, a very convenient location.
One day we walked by and noticed that the large pile of trash that had been next to the container had been cleaned up and the “for rent” sign was gone.
A couple days later, on our way to lunch, we saw that the container had been freshly painted a rich royal blue. “Could they really have rented it to someone?” we wondered.
Unfortunately, I guess we’ll never know. When we were coming home from lunch – less than one hour later – we walked by the corner again. The container was gone, with no sign it had ever been there.
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