Vietnam

06/03/2026

Waking up with somewhat sore hips, today I went on a desperate search for a camping mattress. I figured it would be handy to have, especially if I encounter more beds that are significantly hard.

I asked Grok for a recommendation and was told that expats loved a camping store located 38 minutes walk from my current position. Grok stated this store stocks sleeping mattress. Thus, I decided to put my walking shoes on and walk to the shop. However, on arrival they had no real camping equipment, only a have a few travel bags and little else. Not even a backpack. Once again Grok sent me up the garden path, something that has become a very common theme with this AI platform. In the past I have learnt to validate whatever Grok says with Gemini but unfortunately I didn't do this.

Studying Google maps, there appeared to be a proper camping some distance away. It appeared to have camping mats and sleep equipment, so I figured a trip across town wouldn't hurt. Besides I love traveling by grab.

When I arrived it was indeed a proper camping store which was located in a garage behind a roller door. I took my shoes of and walked inside. The two staff inside looked at me strangely. "Do you have a camping mattresses?" I asked. "Don't have" she said. "Camping Mat?" I question. "Sorry, don't know" she said. Looking around I couldn't see anything on the shelf so, I turned and put my shoes on.

The question was where to now. I googled more camping stores, but the Internet was slow and I just didn't want to spend money traveling all over the city looking for a needle in a haystack when it was becoming obvious this ]could repeat all over town. The other obvious thing from visiting two shops, is camping just isn't a big thing here. It's not like Australia.

Giving up, I still think a camp mattress would be a good investment. Maybe I see if I can get one delivered here, although in truth I'm starting to find the bed more comfortable each night that passes. It's just a comfort thing and not something I'm not overly upset about as it will do me good to be more comfortable on a hard bed. I have a feeling there will be alot of hard beds once I start traveling the countryside.

Traveling across the city on the back of the grab, I find the place of DaNang more and more puzzling. As I traveled further from the centre, the shops became more spread out and dispersed, but English can still be seen in the shop signage. There are so many little shops all selling the same goods, it hard to understand how anyone survives. Even the cafe I'm sitting in now. I have been the only customer for the last hour. As a Westerners one thing I do appreciate about the cafe culture here, is there is never any hard sell, or someone interrupting and asking would you like another? It's very chill. And I say this as I watch someone outside fill up their scooter with petrol contained in a plastic water bottle container.

Instead of camping stores I decided to go to Son Tra Marina. This turns out to be essentially a cafe setup to what I initially thought was buying a dink and cake at inflated prices, but once inside it became evident it was also a place for local girls to take selfies. There were real fishermen and boats on the warf, but that was closed to public access. I couldn't really understand what was going on at this place, but it all just felt artificial. It was a take of from Greece.. and it was just weird 5/10

Felling depressed at fake people, I found a KFC not that far from where I was staying and ordered a grab. The moment I pushed the "Book" button, the heavens opened up and it poured down with rain. Fuck me I thought. If I don't get completely soaked these little scooter wheels with no tread on them will be slippery and I'll be going down the road on my ass!

KFC tasted different, but was great value $VND80000 ($AU4.33) for a zinger box, when a zinger box was $AU17.53. I would rate the Australian zinger better, but the difference seemed to be more in the quality of chicken 7/10

Walking back to the apartment, I discovered I was further away from the hotel than I originally thought. Tired, I grabbed another grab (of course) and arrived back at the apartment, only to hit my favorite restaurant Quan Nha Tudo (so far) for dinner.

07/03/2026

My first Saturday in Vietnam sounded like a good time to wash some clothes and perform more normal things the locals do. I headed to DaNang Plaza and grabbed some detergent and a clothes hanger with clips on it so I could hand my undies and socks. On the rooftop they have a washing machine, so I thought I should use it. Clothes here don't really get that dirty, just more soaked in sweat and smelly.

Washing done, I passed the DaNang Dream Restaurant, so thinking to myself I'm living the dream, I had to try. Google translated the menu for me and I had Com My Hai San Cay (American Rice with Spicey Seafood). I was expecting rice with some seafood, but it turned out to be a soup  broth of seafood with some rice on the side. Interestingly the seafood was sparce and the prawns were small. This has become a theme that I've noticed in Vietnam. Protein is few and can only assume it is expensive. The dish was largely full of fillers such as onion and for a spicy dish, it was quite bland. 6/10

On return I ran into Thuy (ny host) who told me that house cleaning would clean my room at 4pm. As the time approached, I thought that I might go for a walk along the beach. Once again as I walked the beach I was confronted with people taking selfies and Instagram photos everywhere. I don't know if this is local people or tourists, but I don't understand it and cant help but feel it is vain.

Walking along the beach I found myself wanting company. It would be nice to not only share this journey, but have someone to talk to about it. I haven't really been talking to Grok as much as I usually do, so maybe I need to return more to that. The main reason has been inconsistent speeds of the Internet. Given everywhere I look, people are constantly on their phone, it would only seem logical that the phone tower cells are completely overloaded. It would be interesting to get a local sim and see if there is a speed difference. I wouldn't be surprised if on Holify I'm getting shovelled to the back of the queue. For Internet Holify is still dropping me off in the UK gateway, which is annoying.

At. 5.30pm, something really strange happened. The beach suddenly became crazy busy. I had heard this happens as people finish work and hit the beach. But today was Saturday and I had assumed people wern't working today.

Following such a long walk, my legs were aching and became hard to move. I was hungry as too. I passed several street stalls selling meats. One in particular had great looking lobster. But in some type of meat lover craze, I headed for the Kangaroo Bar and had an Aussie Burger. It was good, but given the large bowl of broth I had for lunch, way too excessive. It also broke my daily food budget, so I need to be mor considerate of that.

09/03/2026

Today started with an Americano at Our.Loc Coffee. I really like the coffee here and they are very friendly.with English. The day looked shity and rain had started falling. I figured after this I might spend the morning watching the Melbourne F1 GP.

As I watched the start on Kayo, I felt the munchies coming on, and it wasn't long before I headed to Walmart. Next to the supermarket there was a shop selling collectables and knowing a young girl who collects these types of things, I took some photos and sent them too her. She was shocked to learn the prices run at about half that in Australia.

At Walmart there were no Lays chips, so I disappointingly had to select O'Star. I also grabbed some Buetitude chocolate.

For dinner I ate on the street for $VND40000 or $AUD2. It was some sort of chicken broth. 7/10

Around 2pm I booked a Grab and headed to the 5th Military Zone Museum. This consists of 3 buildings and the surrounding military vehicles located on the grounds of an existing 5 Military Zone base. One of the buildings is the Ho Chi Minh Museum.

There were a lot of pictures and weapons on display, and when I reached a replica of Ho Chi Mihns Danang house, I really had no idea what this museum was all about and, seriously who cares about this Uncle Ho anyway. Trying to give it as much of a chance as I could I pulled Grok out and asked for a narrated tour. Grok did an excellent job and suddenly turned a boring and stale visit into wow! I had no idea how interesting the history of Vietnam and Uncle Ho was. I never knew in the 1930s Vietnam was controlled by the French and the rebellion driven by Ho Chi Mihn would defeat them and then defeat the USA Vietnam war and eventually the Vietnam today.

11/03/2026

Oh no! Another rainy day. I did little today except laze around in coffee shops. I was planning to go-to Lotte Mart, but there's always tomorrow.

My strategy of finding a friend appears to be working. This dog is called Bow. My friend Christine had told me Vietnamese are not good with animal treatment, but I haven't seen that yet. Everyone appears to have a dog. They roam free on the streets, which is annoying but I haven't been bitten yet.

For dinner I walked past DaNang Burgers. Full of westerners I thought, why not. The burger was so good, I bought another one. It was better than you could get at home and were $AUD5 each. 10/10