We find that sometimes when we get to a new location, we put together a list of places we want to go for fun or possibly other places to stay or to live, and invariably we think we have plenty of time– until we don’t! It seems the time goes by, and many times we get to the end of our stay and recognize that we did not do everything that we had planned. Well not this time!

A short while back I tapped into my network of fellow Nomads and AI and asked about places in Vietnam that were coastal, midsize, non coral beaches, and mild surf. I got about a half a dozen suggestions, and decided to start my search. Since I am the Scout, I am always looking for places that I think Kathleen would like, and sometimes it is quite obvious that it’s a thumbs down, sometimes it’s a big high five, and many times it’s in between.

I started with the closest one to Da Nang, called Quy Nhon, but even so, that is a 6-hour overnight bus trip, but it’s not as bad as it sounds … they have sleeper buses in Vietnam that are pretty darn nice. The VIP model only has 22 seats, reclining beds, USB jacks, and privacy curtains. When it leaves at 10:00 at night, it gets in early morning, so the whole next day is available.

But what sounded like a good idea, efficient and quick, in hindsight, was challenging. As comfortable as my pod was, and it really was, it was custom-made for a 67-in tall frame, but there was an awful lot of lateral movement along the way. That meant not a solid night’s sleep, at least not for me. We made two pit stops literally in the middle of nowhere, and arrived at 0300 the following morning. I must admit that is an unsettling feeling, getting off a bus in a strange town in the middle of the night with totally empty streets except for a bunch of taxi drivers plugging for a ride. Fortunately I checked the map beforehand and saw that I was just a few blocks from the beach, so thank God for Google maps. I headed that direction and started investigating possible rooms. I found lots of options, and booked a room for that night for all of $11 USD, which is even cheap by Vietnam standards. For the next several hours I hung out at the beach, laid down, grab maybe a few winks, and already at that time there were people at the beach, and in the water! No question, the Vietnamese people love the water and they come down very, very early to exercise, swim, and just hang out.

You have to love the internet and AI, and the amazing access we have to information at our fingertips. During my downtime I started looking into things to do while I was in town, places to go, and recognized that I would probably need a scooter since some of the places where 30 minutes or so outside of town. One of the things that Quy Nhon is known for is an amazing Beach called Ky co, which they claim is the Maldives of Vietnam. I also asked the host of the room where I stayed if I could at least drop off my bag, and just before 6:00 a.m. I did that, so that left me much lighter to trek around town. I found a little cafe that was highly rated and had some breakfast, and by 9:00 I was on two wheels heading to the beach.

I don’t you use the word stunning very often, but Ky co beach was incredibly stunning! It was a bit pricey to get in at about $7, and you had to leave the main road and wind around about two miles until you got to a shuttle stop. There you left your vehicle, and they shuttled you down to the bottom of the hill and the beach. And rightfully so, since it’s very steep, and could be tricky for automobiles and bikes!

Smooth white sand, and cliffs on both sides of the bay made this extraordinarily inviting! There were a handful of restaurants down there in different price ranges, plus hammocks to relax on. I was there for about an hour, tried to catch a few winks of sleep, and then left to go to the next place that people said I should go: Eo Gio, which means “Windy Strait,” and it’s actually a little village just a few miles from that beach with a large mountain which generates a lot of wind. It didn’t that day that I was there, but it was a very peaceful town, so I sat and had some fresh coconut and just enjoyed the view and the quiet.

I had no specific time table as to how long I would stay in town, but I recognized that I would need a second day so contacted the host of the room and booked a second night. The city of Quy Nhon is truly beautiful, and it has something that many towns in Vietnam don’t have: beautiful open air parks. I saw several of them, plus it has one of the most pristine beaches I have ever seen that goes on about 4 miles. What was notably missing was restaurants or bars along the beach, just a lot of beautiful public artwork and people hanging out. There was another significant distinction about this town, and that was the traffic. Or the lack of it! Many Vietnamese cities are challenging to walk in, and certainly difficult to ride a scooter in, but traffic was not an issue at all, and even crossing the street was effortless without putting your life in danger.

I looked into potential residences for long-term stays, plus for some variety in restaurants. Unfortunately there was not a lot of Western type restaurants in the town, and that’s mostly because it is not that well known to visitors. The tagline for the city is, “Da Nang 10 years ago,” and I think that’s true. I think I can concluded that as much as I would love to love the town, it will take another handful of years before it feels comfortable for us to live in. It sounds a little bit weird to say, but as much as I love the Vietnamese people and culture, it can get a little overwhelming.

So my final decision here: no thumbs up or down, just sideways, since it is a gorgeous town to visit, and probably stay for a short visit, but not for a month or more