Housewarming - now with extra $5 a bottle Vietnamese vodka

So I eventually found a house on Nguyen Hoang Street (well I should say off that street). Thats the main road you use to find my house and it's about 5 minutes away from Da Nang airport. However my house is off a little alley way a row of houses back from the street. Once I get around to it (and if it ever stops raining) I will make a video tour of the house for those of you back in Australia to enjoy!

It's a really cute 1.5 bedroom place, with western style bathroom (read normal toilet but no shower recess) and hot water (thank goodness). It has terracotta coloured tiles on the floor and white walls and ceiling. Gorgeous shuttered windows at the front and back of the house and wrought iron work on the door. Very secure with a lockable gate out the front. My walkway also has bamboo plants, which are very lucky apparantly.

So to celebrate and to get to know my new workmates from the Hanoi School of Public Health I had a housewarming party which was warm-up drinks before hitting Phuong Dung disco on the 30th of November.

Here are some of the pics:




































I had to be talked into purchasing the $5 bottle of Vietnamese vodka, made in Saigion, but it was suprisingly good.












Then we hit Phuong Dung disco which is the best disco I have found in Da Nang so far. There was a dance floor with lights underneath it a la Saturday Night Fever, good beats and an excellent mix of locals and foreigners. The pole dancing girls were also not too obvious and less scantily clad than Las Vegas so all in all I was quite pleased with the place. Word to the wise, avoid the fruit platters and the imported beer (v. expensive, at least for those of us on a volunteer budget!).

Making up for lost time

So I would like to apologise to my readers (I hope I still have some) for the lack of posts recently. In the last week or so I have found a house and moved in, started work, gone on an extended weekend trip to Hue and today (Saturday) I am planning for my housewarming party which will take place tonight.

So the next post will be dedicated to the trip Tim (my boss' nephew) and I took to Hue and I will post some pics and maybe a video of my new house in the coming days.

But since I last posted I have experienced some of the night life of Da Nang. The hopping little night spots I have visited are as follows:

• The Camel Club - this is where I started my foray into Da Nang night life. It's a brightly lit (from the outside) club which a live band and a rotating crew of singers, which then gave way to heavy beats and the usual scantily clad pole dancing women (and one boy) so there was something for everyone. It's cheaper to get shots of vodka ($3) than beers ($5) and even cheaper still to buy your vodka by the bottle.


• Las Vegas - this is the big nightclub in Da Nang. There was a killer female DJ, who even got me on the floor for a dance when she played a dance remix of "A Girl Like You" by Edwin Collins. It rocked. Drinks are very expensive and we got to witness some pole dancing girls and saw their pimp (some rich, old white guy... v. creepy). All in all it's an ok place to go but watching drunk or high white guys on holidays sleazing all over the local girls gets a bit tired after a while.


• Bamboo Bar - this is my local for now, not really close to my house but a relaxed kind of bar, with a dodgy pool table and excellent tunes (think Damien Rice, Neil Young etc). I'm thinking about donating a Crowded House cd to their collection (but only if they take the James Bunt cd and crush it into a thousand pieces and then set those pieces on fire). Anyone who comes to visit I am likely to take you here. You have been warned!!

I also spent a couple of weeks looking for a house, and had settled on a beautiful 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 5 level house fully furnished which the owners said they would give me for $300USD a month, when we called to confirm, they decided they wanted at least $500USD a month, which is out of my budget and I would prefer to spend the extra money on travel etc.

So I am now living in a 2 bedroom, one bathroom, one level house, with minimal furnishings (a bed, air con, table and chairs, but no fridge or washing machine) for $250USD a month which is lovely and quite secure, in the heart of surburban Da Nang. Pics coming in the next few posts. I will also post some pics of the house warming party that will take place tonight.

Next up is a post on my trip to Hue. Stay tuned.

XOXO

Amy