Danang

To be perfectly honest, we did not spend a ton of time in Danang.  We basically got to spend an afternoon there before moving on to Hoi An.  If there’s one major city in Vietnam that you can miss without “missing” too much Danang would be it.  Danang is a major city and there is certainly plenty to see and do there, but of all the places we researched it was the one we felt most comfortable short changing on our trip.  During the couple hours we spent in the city, we weren’t overly disappointed in our decision.  The city gives off a really strong communist dictatorship vibe.  It’s a political center for the party and the propaganda is in your face.  Whereas Saigon is a free wheeling, fun town completely devoid of any propaganda that seems to embrace open and free culture, and doesn’t feel the least bit different than your typical European or American city, Danang had a stifling political look to it.  The experience wasn’t different at all, but it’s almost impossible to describe how the city center just had a somewhat dystopian militaristic feel to the way it looked.