Chan May Port, Vietnam... Part 9

Sailing south our next port of call was Da Nang, famous for it's being a major base for the USA's war activities back in the 70's. It was made even more famous by the film "Good Morning Vietnam".
We however weren't actually docking in Da Nang, in fact we were about 40 miles away at the industrial port of Chan May. Not exactly a cheap taxi ride but that was if you could get one, we had been told they were not allowed in to the port.
We had planned to do our own thing when we arrived but in the end decided the best option was to sign up for an organised tour we had found a fellow passenger had arranged. That though would be on the second day, we had an overnight stop following our early afternoon arrival.
The ship or port or more likely, a local resort hotel paid for a free shuttle bus as this was where you were dropped off. We  were fortunate to be at the front of the huge queue and so didn't have too long to get on a bus
When we got to the drop off point there were lots of mini buses and taxis all touting for trade. Our friends we'd met at the bar in Cai Lan were ahead of us and negotiated a minibus trip for $25 pp but we declined their offer to go along on the grounds we were doing that the following day. We opted to wander the street ( it was just one long dual carriageway road ) and see if we could find a chemist as Claire needed some antibiotics for a head cold.
The shops we found certainly didn't sell anything like that but we did discover there was a chemist in the next township. Hiring a taxi we had a successful mission then returned to find a place for a beer. Instead of going in to the resort we found a "Bar" . I say "Bar" but really it was a shop of sorts that sold beers and had a few plastic chairs outside. The owner put some cans in his freezer and we passed an hour or two sat alongside the traffic! Hardly inspiring but very cheap!
There was some wildlife too, well a few Mynah Birds.


and this Gekko that I watched climb out of it's hiding spot in broad daylight.

It slowly walked down the wall then stopped a few inches from it's target, a small spider that was heading his way.
I thought the Gekko would suddenly pounce but no, it sat there perfectly still until the spider reached it. Then the extraordinary thing was the Gekko opened it's mouth and the Spider climbed in!

End of Spider.
That was nearly the end of our day too. We wandered back to the shuttle bus stop, had a beer at the resort then headed back to the ship for another night on board.
Next morning we were off on our tour!
TBC