You're Coming?

Dear Mom,

(Real Mom, I'm hoping and continuing to Hope that your healing progresses with blessing, and that you'll be able to come as planned in December.)  Other Moms, some of you have said you're also hoping to come for a visit and we are so excited!

So here's all the things some of the many things to think about:

First of all, you can get your e-visa up to 6 months ahead of time, so the time is already now:  https://vietnamchases.blogspot.com/2025/07/vietnam-e-visa.html

While you're still home using your own phone (and you do have a phone that is provider-unlocked for international travel, right?) please download these apps and then create a login and authenticate your phone # for each of them: WhatsApp and Zalo (Zalo only if you expect to befriend local people) and Grab.  Allow/authorize them to send you notifications, and ultimately you will give Grab your credit card info, too.

None of your hair dryers or curling irons (suitable for 120V, an electric current unique to the USA) are going to do the right thing here.  If the device has a DC conversion brick (like a laptop charging cable does), then it will say on the side that it can input AC 120-240, and it's fine.  Your chargers for phones and laptops are going to be fine with the 240V power here, but if the grounding prong of the laptop plug makes it three prongs, that's not going to fit into the sockets.  I accidentally brought one and I had to chop off the grounding prong.

Credit cards!  You'll want to verify that you're carrying a primary credit card that charges no international use fees.  Most debit cards (only use them in ATMs--nothing else) will hit you with an international use fee from home as well as a 2% fee charged by the local machine, but if you get a checking account at Charles Schwab they 1) don't charge an international use fee and 2) they repay the fee charged by the ATM here.  So it's a double win, and if international travel is something you'll do a lot, I can heartily recommend Schwab.  If you bring cash, bring the most pristine, unmarked, crisp, clean, new-style $100 bills you can find.  When I travel internationally I bring $200 in cash (one bill with my passport, the other somewhere else) and usually bring home $200 in cash because I did all my travel with credit cards and ATM withdrawals.

As you pack your carry-on, you'll want to make sure to have a change of clothes in case you miss a connection and spend unplanned-for time in an airport terminal.  You're bringing earplugs and an eye mask, right?  And long sleeves on the plane are a good idea year-round.  Granola bars to eat in airports AND for if you accidentally wake up hungry at 2am.

Meds?  We think Tylenol PM is a good thing, because you get a bit of sleeping aid and also your pain receptors are affected so that the discomfort of a long flight is more manageable.  But in addition, a dedicated sleeping aid (one that goes beyond diphenhydramine hydrochloride's subtle effectiveness) can be super helpful to have on hand if you really NEED to sleep but your body-clock insists that you should be wide awake.  

When you're arranging your flights, check flights to DAD from your originating airport, but don't be alarmed if the cost is super high.  Next check flights from SEA/SFO/LAX to DAD, because usually if you get a domestic flight to that outgoing city (keep several hours of bumper time to allow for luggage retrieval and checking in for the international flight) it's a lot cheaper to just do your international flight from one of those three hubs.  

You'll usually be flying through Korea or Taiwan.  I haven't developed a preference for either option, and I'm able to recommend nice ways to spend long layovers in either place.  Let me know about your flight numbers.

Our airplane-sleeping strategy:  We boarded the plane Stateside and each watched half of a movie and took a sleeping pill before they came by with an airplane meal, and then we put on eye masks and dropped off for something like 6 hours of sleep.  When we woke up, we only had 3-4 more hours of flying to do before landing.  Then we slept a little on the final flight to Da Nang.  Basically, sleep as much as you can, with help from sleeping meds, while you are flying.  Don't try to get your clock adjusted until you arrive--just sleep as much as you possibly can.

Our airplane-drinking strategy:  We've had visitors who arrived badly dehydrated, and it wrecked up those early days of their visit.  "I was in an inside seat and the guy next to me was sleeping, so I didn't drink anything."  Here are some keys to success: Begin the travels fully-hydrated (cups--not liters--of water drunk in the 2 hours leading up to your flight).  Each time you land in an airport, drink a lot as a first thing to do.  Especially in the layover airport in Korea or Taiwan--it's not easy to find free drinking water, but it's SO important to get rehydrated first thing in that airport.  I'm the original cheapskate, but I'm telling you to BUY WATER in that airport and get your cells replenished.  Hydrate more than you think you need to--liters, not cups.  We also like electrolyte packs that can be added to a bottle of water--use those on your travel day and one or two a day for the first week. 

Our airplane-clothing:  We used to travel in bare feet and sandals, but then we got old.  Now we're "of an age" and it's not smart to travel without knee-high compression socks.  Even on the shorter flights it's getting to the point where puffy feet are indicative of cellular damage that takes a couple of days to recover from.  We always recommend loose lightweight long-sleeves and slacks.  Extra pockets are good--it's easier to reach a thigh pocket when you're trapped sitting for 12 hours, and it's nice to know which pocket your passport is zipped into. 

Arriving:

DAD airport has easy free wifi.  Please hop on and immediately message me that you've landed and are in line at or walking towards customs--it's about that time that we'll call a taxi and meander to the airport (takes 15 mins), and you still have some things to do before you step out and find us there waiting.  

Customs in Da Nang airport is straightforward.  Follow the throng through the halls and finally down the escalator.  Stand in any long line as long as it doesn't say "Vietnamese Citizens."  The lines saying ASEAN are fine for you.  You probably won't need your eVisa--just your passport.  [By the way, please send me a good picture of your passport page ahead of time, because we'll need to submit that to the hotel and various police authorities depending on where you stay.]

After customs, get your luggage.  After luggage and before exiting the airport, it is wickedly important that you get your phone working with local cellular data.  Just sidle up to the friendly people at any of the SIM card counters and use your credit card to have them make your phone(s) happy.  Once you leave the airport, it's a headache to get your phone working, and YES you need your phone working here.  

After you've got your luggage and a working cell phone, digitally message me again that you're ready to step out into Danang proper and we'll come from where we've been waiting and meet you as you enter the hot, humid air that is our home.  

Love,

Tim/Janet

Also see this related post

https://vietnamchases.blogspot.com/2025/11/moving-to-danang.html

Neighborhood Ride

Dear Mom,

The sound quality isn't great ... if you watch on your phone you might have better luck hearing our explanations.

Video 1:  https://www.loom.com/share/f9b3e167bb3b4924a3eaceea18442834

This 5 min video starts in our local business district neighborhood across the busy high road to the west.  We drive around the north side of the market and up to the high road to head back down toward Vincom.

Video 2:  https://www.loom.com/share/66cdd7f7198a412abd161fc6d4ef6522

These 4 minutes continue on the high road south to where the enormous Vincom roundabout used to be, we hang a u-turn at the light, and proceed onto our street and stop and buy some items from a lady who sells veggies like a one-woman mini market just 5-6 doors down from us.

Love,

Tim and Janet

What's that on your front porch?

Dear Mom,

I am pleased to tell you that I provide no end of amusement to my neighbors.  They think my attempts to speak Vietnamese are precious and hilarious, and we're just generally inexplicable as people.  For example, I recently saw some of the older women of our neighborhood dressed up fancy in their Áo dài (careful, that d is pronounced like a Y and Z at the same time) and I went over with my friend, Google Translate, to talk to them.  They had rented a large van to take them to an amusement park for Vietnamese Women's Day.  I think it's probably a new Japanese-themed park over on the west part of the bay, and I did confirm that they weren't going to Bana Hills, which is the only other park I know about.

Oh, but they were giddy.  They laughed and said I should jump in the van with them, and wondered if I had bought them any gifts for Women's Day.  They were buying little snacks and treats from the corner vendor before loading up in the van for their excursion.  When we were done with our breakfast noodles and walking back to the house, the van passed and we waved and they all waved back with big grins.

But while I consider it something of a duty to provide the occasional chuckle, I don't want to be a laughingstock, or offensive.  Like this:

Do you see what's going on there, in that photo?  Take in the grass mat outside the house at the front door.  Seriously?  What are the foreigners DOING?  Zoom in so you can appreciate the cultural gaff.

We bought two of the colorful grass mats at the local market.  Rolled them out and found that they perfectly fit the entry.  Pretty much awesome!  Such a great patio vibe, right? Then one of our old friends (a 10-year friend, as opposed to some of the ones who are newly entering our lives) came over and stopped, screwed up her face, tilted her chin to the side, and VERY tactfully said, "What's your vision here?" She listened as we told her our idea for making the front area more attractive, for changing shoes and putting bags down, etc. She listened, then over lunch she said, "I think I really do have to tell you something." 

We are so grateful to have friends who will keep us from unintentionally offending people! After many reassurances that we wanted to hear everything she had to say, that she wasn't hurting our feelings, she told us that those grass mats have a lot of underlying cultural meaning and value. They are a traditional handicraft, and there's a feeling that the hand-made crafts need to be protected and honored. They are meant to be sleeping mats, and the elderly and people from the countryside often prefer a grass mat on a hard surface rather than a mattress to sleep on.  

Grass mats are also a floor-level table cloth.  You can host a party and invite everyone to sit on the mat and share food and drink, on the floor but separated from the floor's surface by the grass mat. The grass mat is a place to sit or lie down, not a place to walk and certainly not a place to put your shoes. 

Some of this we already knew--such as that people sit and sleep on the mats--but we didn't already know the "vibe" attached to them, and what it feels like to people if you use them the wrong way. 

It's a little bit like having a quilt made by your grandma or great-grandma. You recognize that its first purpose is for covering a bed. And maybe, if you don't need it on any of the beds in your house, you use it as a picnic blanket so the family can keep enjoying Grandma's quilt. But what you definitely would not do is use it as a covering for your front porch so people could take their shoes off on it, wipe their feet a bit, then come into your house. 

That's what it felt like to our friend. We don't know how many of our neighbors saw this display for the half day that it was there, but the next day, when I saw a grandma pushing a baby stroller past our open gate, and I watched her watch our house, I was glad to know I wasn't dishonoring a cherished handicraft!

Love,

Tim and Janet

House-Tour Video

Dear Mom,

On a personal (real-Mom) note, you broke your leg above the ankle?!!?  I'm so sorry for that!  Sending my thoughts your direction.  I looked into the more expensive flights, seats where you could elevate your leg and have more room for movement ... they are SO EXPENSIVE flying over the Pacific.  I hope you'll still be able to come in December.  Even more thoughts!

This is our house here:

Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ2hukP5GOs

Yesterday we met this 28 year old friend in a coffee shop.  She's excited to bring a group of her friends to meet us at our house.

And these 30 year olds from Vision Cafe days came over after their work day ended Saturday and chilled at our place.  Grateful to reconnect!

Housepitality

 Dear Mom,

A couple nights ago we went out cruising by motorbike and got phở at a special little restaurant in our new neighborhood.

.

For context, 52k is roughly $2. And then yesterday we went back to the same neighborhood and had Banh Cuon for breakfast:

I wish you were here! And with food like this, I think you wish you were here, too!

And this our neighborhood. (click for a video description of the map)

When I was at a local English club Sunday afternoon (Gosh, that was YESTERDAY? Time is warping over here—some days feel like weeks!), I expressed a desire to host people in our house, and it is so very, very heartwarming to see the delight and hopeful disbelief in their eyes when they realize I’m inviting them into my space.

These three went out to dinner with us the night we moved in:

And last night we hosted leadership from a second English Club at our place.

We’re still getting things organized and put away, and working on decorating so the walls aren’t so white. We know we owe you more of a photo-tour of the whole house. We promise to send more pics eventually—hopefully the building suspense will keep you checking your inbox. ;-)

Here’s a couple photos from the realtor, before we moved in:

Our bedroom is the second floor balcony.

We’re grateful to be able to park our motorbikes behind the gate at night. There is lots of space for guests to park both inside and outside the gate, and on our street there is no traffic aside from the residents who live on the street. A quiet street in an urban center!

Love,

~Tim/Janet

Tomorrow, A House

Dear Mom,

We chose a house and we’re happy with our decision.  

The resorts and public beaches are 1km east of our house at the red place marker, and we are closer to the north-flowing Han River than we are to the beach.  The river separates the main city from the Son Tra peninsula, and we do a lot of our navigation based on which bridge we should use to get to a shop in the central city.  If you listen in on our conversations as we motor south in Son Tra, you’ll hear us say things like “Okay, so this is the road that goes to the Dragon Bridge…”  and “Now we’re almost to the big southern bridge road.”  We don’t know the road names very well, yet.  Oh, and it’s worth noting that when you say Son Tra (which is the district that is everything east of the river) you should be saying “SONE JAH” with a long O and a very soft J in place of TR.  

Today we bought an expensive mattress, a bunch of chairs, and other random stuff for setting up house.  Tomorrow at 10am we’ll sign papers on a 7 month rental contract, and move in one hour later.  The mattress will be delivered in the afternoon.  

In the evening some friends will join us for a first dinner at a local place.  Janet and I cruised the neighborhood last night to scout promising places to eat, and one banh xeo place was particularly packed with people (always a good sign).  It’s a typical neighborhood hole-in-the-wall place with small plastic stools and nothing particularly amazing about the ambiance, but if the food is good we want to know about it as an option for when people are over and we want to go out and get dinner together.

Soon we’ll have pics of the house, and a report of whether the banh xeo was any good.  ("bahn SAY-oh")

We keep thinking that we’re 100% over jet lag, and then we get hit in the head with a sleepless night, even though we’re past 10 days now.  Last night I was awake from 1:30am to 4am (I was trying for a night without sleeping aid), and I’m hoping to sleep better tonight as tomorrow is an important moving day!

Love,

Tim/Janet

PS.

From Janet’s phone, first week in PHOTOS.  If you’re on a phone, the videos might play best if you watch them in a Google Photos app.

PPS.  

In the map above, all the teal flags are placemarkers of my Dining Danang maps overlay.  Every time I go somewhere and think “I’d like to bring friends back here” for coffee/food, I drop a pin into my map.  There are already lots of good options—I’m sure there will be a future letter, or many, about the culinary delights of this place.

PPPS.

Tonight we had bún thịt nướng at a local place that we knew from 10 years ago.  As I paid for our meal ($1.50 each), I used Google Translate to post a big note on my phone and held it out to the proprietress in the red apron (same lady from 10 years ago) saying “Delicious, as always.”  This made her grin with pleasure.