I'm loving the location of my hotel. I'm next door to a coffee shop and gym. There's not much more I need in life. After my morning work and coffees, I tried going to a popular banh mi place, but the wait looked long, so instead, I found a cafe that sold a banh mi variation. It was like a deconstructed banh mi with two over-easy eggs, what tasted like summer sausage, and slices of French bread.
My adventure for the day led me up the nearby mountain to the Lady Buddha and Linh Ung Pagoda. This was a fantastic Buddhist site with dragonflies buzzing around and monkeys hanging out near the tourists. The impressive 67-meter-tall (about 20 stories) Lady Buddha is supposedly made from marble sourced from Da Nang's Marble Mountains, which I plan to visit as well. The whole visit felt tranquil.
Off to the side of one pagoda, I found what may be one of my favorite Buddha statues. It was so funny and bizarre.
Upon returning to the city, I felt a bit peckish from the light lunch, so I found an American diner and ate a double cheeseburger with fries. Honestly, this was a great meal. I might have to go back and get the Elvis special.
In the evening, I attended a WOD at the only Crossfit place here in Da Nang. It was a small and narrow box, but I enjoyed the small class size and workout. There was a very strong Dutch couple in the class.
For dinner, I ate at Vietnam Eatery. The owners also own the American breakfast place I went to yesterday, Bikini Bottom. At this restaurant, they hire hearing-impaired employees. I wrote my meal choice down on paper. The place was empty at the time I went, but I genuinely enjoyed my beef drunken noodle stir-fry.
I found a highly-rated coffee shop to do some more computer work after dinner. This place would have been great for a quality morning coffee with its single-origin beans, but it was much too expensive for popping in at night. It cost about $8 for a decaf (which seems to be a rare find over here) iced coffee and a brownie.
I ended the night coding on the beach. Man, I could get used to this.