Philippine Travel Notes

Let us talk about Bridges over Danang's Han River . Why? Because, promoted or not, they are all worthy of a visitor's attention - at least 5 of them (since there are many). To better understand what I'll be talking about, let's start with this google map: That is part of the northeastern side of Danang, and I marked the 5 famous bridges. Trần Thị Lý Bridge [ Cầu Trần Thị Lý ] Let's start with the 5th one. That is the Trần Thị Lý Bridge that I passed-by last night when I arrived. It's this same bridge I saw earlier, near the APEC Sculpture Park. Eto: It's a uniquely designed cable-stayed bridge with only one (145-meter-tall) tower that leans (slants) at 12° to the west. It's too easy to spot even from afar. Can you see it? A friend who is both a licensed architect and civil engineer (yes, me ganun) tells me that this bridge is a very challenging structure to make, especially that it is on water. He told me that for comparison, the Leanin...

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...