Philippine Travel Notes

'Busy' with something else on a Christmas Day, my yearning to peek around Danang decidedly brought me to the Han River . You have partly seen it in 2 previous stories . NB: yes, in Danang or Da Nang City, Vietnam! Not the Han River in Korea :) The reason for opting to walk along the Han Riverside was: it's just near the Danang Cathedral where my group was holding our Christmas activity with the parishioners! Shhh, I did not want to 'escape from' or 'skip' the activity. I am just no expert at what was being conducted. My role/s came before and after the main program activities. So it was time to take a leisurely walk! Bạch Đằng St. , along the Han River is just a block away from the cathedral. The Han Market is a similar walking distance from the cathedral but this was my best choice! Sculpture Park? First to greet me at the promenade were these sculptures, many of them... I'm not good at interpreting / appreciating such artworks but th...

In the previous story , we ended with the two icons I saw on the taxi dashboard, and I said: I was not sure if those were for two different Buddhist-based religions or not. Counting The Religious You probably already know that Vietnam is an Atheist country. That means majority of the population don't believe in a God, therefore not many have a religion. Ganoon! 74% of Vietnam say they don't have any religious affiliation. 14% practice Mahayana Buddhism. 10% are Catholics. The rest are a scattering of various sects and beliefs. But in Danang City with a population of about 1.2 million, only more than 6.3% have a religion. Catholics are the "maniest" at about 42,000 or 3.5% of the city population. Meaning: of Danang folks who say they believe in God, many of them are Catholics. Though in all Vietnam, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) has the most number of Catholics. The Cathedral So yes there's Christianity, notably Catholicism ! Yes, in Vietnam. Oh ye...

Dandering ? Aw, let me use that as a synonym of ' drifting ', ' gallivanting ', ' wandering '! Roaming without an itinerary - all left to 'chances', by breaking away from my group! For that is what happened here hehe! Yep, I didn't really come to this place to tour-around, as I usually do. I joined a group of friends for a benevolent Christmas Day Program - but, with an itch to look beyond ! Shhh, huwag na maingay. Silip-silip lang naman ang ginawa ko! Not a bad idea, right? Aw, I stuck with our scheduled activities 100%. But there were chances - like during lunch breaks, I'd sneak away to look around and/or shoot pics! That said, everything I will tell you, were most likely unplanned or unintended. As we say in Tagalog: kung ano lang ang nakita, natagpuan, naranasan. In short: whatever! This gave me a different kind of thrill. So let me tell you about some of them! First, a briefer on the not so obvious things (to many Pinoys) ...

That was one quick ride. We left the parking area of Danang's Domestic Terminal at 1855H, and I arrived at the lobby of Holiday Beach Hotel at 1914H. Just 19 minutes! For 7 kilometers? That was 22+ kilometers per hour hahaha! But I considered it fast because, in the Philippines, travel from an airport to anywhere usually takes "years"! Oh well, this is where "the psychology of waiting" comes in. I was pre-occupied with watching those places we passed-by. I was excited, so I did not at all feel impatient! Excited because, I was back after two decades, and our Chritmas Eve Party , among the craziest of my friends, was already brewing. Cocktails at 8, Dinner at 9PM. Woh! I had 45 minutes to wash-up and go down to the venue, on the sand, Holiday Beach Club of this hotel (across the road, actually). Kayang-kaya! More about that later na! But as I always say, let's have a blow-by-blow account of my way to their city center. I found it challengingly fu...