A Secret in Central Vietnam

View Photos (2) Image © 2000 Lou Dematteis

With hotels and tourist spots popping up in even the most remote parts of Vietnam, sometimes it seems there is no place to get away from it all anymore. Living and working in Hanoi, a place of ceaseless noise, the desire to find a quiet spot can become very intense. Until recently, smart Hanoi expats managed to keep quiet about My Khe beach, one such getaway. Now the secret is out but it will still be years before My Khe beach becomes as thronged with tourists as Sapa, Nha Trang and Vung Tau.

My Khe beach, six kilometers south of Danang, is reachable from Hanoi by two daily one-hour flights on an old Soviet turboprop plane. After you touch down at the dilapidated airport ringed by rusting hangars left over from the American war, a taxi will drop you off at My Khe Hotel in less than ten minutes for about ten dollars.

My Khe Hotel, situated in a grove of trees just 100 meters from the smooth white beach, is a true feast for kitsch-lovers. Built during the Russian heyday in the early 1980s, the hotel's main building is foreboding and gray. Inside, however, the receptionist's desk is shaped like a big open clam in pink and white plastic. Plastic flowers line the mirrored walls. The young family that manages the hotel is quite helpful, friendly and speaks good English.

For forty-eight dollars a night (less if you bargain a little), visitors can take a "Class I" room in the hotel's newest building, also a severe looking place. Our double room faced out onto the pounding sea, with a small semicircular balcony perfect for sunset cocktails. Inside, the room was an explosion of bright yellow nylon fabric draping windows and beds, recalling the boudoir in the Barbie dreamhouse. Despite the decor, additions such as the air-conditioner, full-sized tub, refrigerator full of reasonably priced soft drinks and daily fresh fruit make the hotel a very pleasant place. If you aren't into so much luxury, there are also 'Class II "(thirty-eight dollars a night) and "Class III" (twenty-eight dollars a night) rooms that are considerably smaller and darker. All prices are reduced somewhat during the off-season from October to March.

The ground floor of the hotel is an open-air verandah and restaurant serving a decent, cheap breakfast and strong coffee. Seafood is also available here, but after the sun sets it's much nicer to stroll along the beach boardwalk and dine at one of a dozen seafood restaurants. Here, you can peruse the catch of the day, still flopping around in plastic buckets, before deciding on a delicacy. The last restaurant in the row, Tan My, is definitely the tastiest. A heaped plate of steamed clams with a chili-lime sauce costs only two dollars and succulent prawns the size of lobsters roasted to perfection and served with various sauces are three dollars each. Rock lobster is also available for five or six dollars each, as well as fresh squid and deep-fried fish. If you bring along a few bottles of good white wine as we did, you can have a fantastic feast while sitting at one of the little tables gazing out at the dark sea. Just don't forget to bring a corkscrew from home.

The beach itself is strangely empty during the day. We were the only foreigners and almost the only people relaxing in the oversized beach chairs under big colorful umbrellas. The price for renting chairs needs to be negotiated, and beware that if you don't speak Vietnamese, or even if you do, this will be a challenge. A dollar per chair per day seems to be standard. Throughout the day, wandering female vendors of all ages, from toddlers to grannies, will stop by to offer you rice cakes, peanuts, quail eggs, mango, cold beer and soda, so you can snack all day without moving a muscle.

In the middle of April, the beginning of the high season, we found the water chilly but not cold. However, there is a steep drop-off and the undertow can be a problem so it's best to stay fairly close to shore. During our visit it was partly cloudy, but this is unusual; normally the temperature is a balmy twenty-seven to thirty two degrees (eighty to ninety degrees Fahrenheit) and the sun shines all day.

After a relaxing day of dozing on the beach in peace, you can stick around to watch groups of Vietnamese teenagers arriving with younger siblings to frolic and play badminton or soccer in the setting sun. Locals are not quite used to seeing foreigners around and a few will inevitably set up camp near your chair to watch the bizarre way you eat a mango. Still, it's pleasant to see so many children and babies enjoying the natural beauty of this special spot.

If being a beach vegetable just isn't your style, there are many other places to visit within an hour of My Khe beach by motorbike. Rent a Dream II from the hotel for ten dollars a day and head back toward Danang to visit the Cham Museum on Tran Phu Street. The lush gardens and open-air exhibition hall were artfully designed by the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient in 1915 and contain hundreds of artifacts from the Champa Empire which ruled central Vietnam over a thousand years ago. It's easy to spend an entire afternoon wandering around admiring the stone carvings that capture the grace of a long-lost empire.

Another spot in Danang worth a visit is the Cao Dai temple on Hai Phong Street. The Cao Dai religion, which began in the early 1920s in Vietnam and gradually evolved into a powerful political movement, still has approximately 2 million followers who adhere to the belief that all world religions should be harmoniously blended into one. The highest ring of Cao Dai deities is presided over by Jesus, Lao Tze, Moses, Mohammed and Buddha. Smaller deities include French writer Victor Hugo. Known for its wacky style, bright colors and figures reminiscent of Disneyland, the central feature of the Cao Dai temple in Danang is a huge blue globe with a "divine eye" painted on it. If you're lucky, adherents will be holding a service when you arrive and you will be allowed to sit quietly in back to listen while they chant their off-key melodies.

Other than the museum and temple, Danang does not offer a lot of attractions for the average tourist. Although the city played a pivotal role during the American War when it was home to the busiest airport in the world and close to China Beach, these days Danang is just a dusty workaday town. On Ngo Quyen Street, you might check out the tombs of Spanish and French soldiers who died trying to protect their Catholic interests in the mid-1800s. There are also some pleasant cafes in the center of town that are good places to people-watch.

Another half-hour south of Danang is the quiet former port city of Hoi An. Known as Faifo during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when it ranked in importance with the ports of Macau and Malacca, the town boasts dozens of beautifully preserved houses, temples and meetings halls in Chinese, French and Japanese styles. Although the town is becoming somewhat overtouristed, it is still worth strolling along the streets lined with old wooden houses, colorful Chinese temples and French villas. If you want to try another beach, hop back on your motorbike for a ten-minute ride south to Hoi An beach. It's not as quiet as My Khe beach, but you can eat fresh seafood on the beach and the waves tend to be more manageable. Again, bargain hard for your chairs.

On your way back to My Khe beach, consider visiting the Marble Mountains. The five sacred mountains riddled with natural caves are said to represent the five universal elements of wood, fire, water, metal and earth. While there are usually large crowds of tourists and worshippers, the breathtaking view from the top makes it worth the trouble. Inside the biggest mountain, Thuy Son, lighted joss sticks on elaborate altars send their smoke spiraling into the cathedral-like cavern. A natural skylight made in the roof of the cave lets in rays of sunlight that catch the smoke and dust and mysteriously illuminate the many sculptures of deities. Beware that if you allow any of the little children to guide you around the mountains they will expect a tip afterwards.

Back at My Khe Hotel in the evening, there is not much to do other than sit on your balcony, sip a drink and watch the waves. However, if you're coming from Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi, it can be a relief to have nothing to do but sit and look at the moon and sleep soundly in the Barbie palace until the sound of the surf awakens you at dawn.

Editor's Update, August 1999:

This piece was originally published in our July/August 1996 issue. Since that time, a reader informs us that "Your description of the My Khe Hotel seems somewhat outdated. The hotel isn't family-run anymore. I don't think the clam reception desk is there any more either, but it still is a very reasonably priced way to stay at the beach. Travelers should understand, however, that they should bargain over the price of the room as hotel operators will almost always quote a higher price than they expect to get. It would also be good for potential visitors to understand that My Khe is a very particular kind of experience as beaches go. Travelers should not expect a quiet beach experience at My Khe except at midday."

Published on 8/1/96