Philippine Travel Notes

Alright! Let's continue the previous story -- still on my domestic flight from Danang (DAD) to Ho Chi Minh (HCM) aka Saigon (SGN) in Vietnam, with an onward international flight connection [transit or transfer] to Phnom Penh (PNH) in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Taxi To The Airport ! You already know, my notes always start from the very beginning . This time with this: Nothing extraordinary really, I just noted that like many in the world, the dashboards of taxicabs in Vietnam are also now cluttered w/ many tech gadgets like that tablet. In the Philippines, the most common thing is still the smartphone for waze, grabapp or google maps, right? Very small screens! Maybe our drivers (still) have good eyes! Or most probably, walang pambili ng tablet hahaha! Well, for Vinasun taxi, their gadgets even encroach on the front passenger's space: For people with longer limbs like me, who must always sit 'in front' for better comfort , that radio thing [roger roger, ove...

Done at Đà Nẵng, Vietnam , it was time to hop to my next destination: Phnom Penh, Cambodia . Oh don't worry about that city name, it's actually very easy to pronounce! How do they say that? Locals pronounce Phnom as Pnom [no vowel sound between 'P' and 'nom' ] dropping any "h" sound. Technique: start saying "nom" with pursed lips - the "p" will come out! To my ears, locals pronounce Penh also without any "h" sound anywhere. And, they utter the 'e' in Pen with a very short and guttural "u" (like in b u rn), not "e" nor even "i". For many children, it's even pronounced like "puyn" with just a very faint "y" sound. Easy di ba? Hahaha! Anyway... How to fly from Danang to Phnom Penh? Except for a daily flight to Siem Reap, there are no direct flights from Da Nang to all of Cambodia, and it did not match my planned route and/or departure/arrival...

Is Danang Beach a good tourist destination? My 'expert' answer is: GO! Now na! Let's talk about this famous beach, since this is where I stayed during my visit. Those huts are at Holiday Beach Hotel 's Beach Club . I was at the bar for that photo. In front of all the huts, I looked to the left, and this was my view... Still gloomy and hazy at 0832H. Well, this was Christmas Day. I think on this date, it is also like that in the Philippines, even all of Southeast Asia. I do remember, Bali is. This kind of beach shoreline goes all the way to, almost encircling those hills. That's the Sơn Trà Peninsula (still in Danang) , and there are many things to see or do there! For one, the Inter-Continental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort is there, maybe 15~20 kilometers from this beach club. Then white sands again, up to the Xoan Peninsula . It doesn't stop there, as white sandy beaches line all of Hue , all the way to Nghe An . Yet you don't have to go tha...

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...