i posted a trip report on danang. read that for more info. here are a couple lady friendly hotels. none of them have websites, some have email, some only phone numbers. i haven't tried the email address so they may not work.

as i've stated a few times, i'd recommend booking a "regular" hotel for your first couple nights. try the s/t service at the s/t hotels while you are at the non lady friendly hotel. in the meantime, check out these hotels and then book one of them for a couple nights and arrange l/t from the s/t girls or the disco girls.

phu an, 29 nguyen van linh st. email is phuanhoteldng@gmail.com. this is a s/t hotel that i used several times. it also serves regular customers. totally clean, serves food, has internet. it is on a main road less than 5 minutes from the river (via moto). i think the rates are about $20/nt.

phuong tam, 174 bach dang. bach dang is the road that goes along the river. this hotel is about three blocks north of bamboo 2 bar. very nice location. no email. i paid $43 for the top floor room (6th floor) that had a nice size terrace outside. i think the lower priced rooms go for $25 to $25. this is the hotel that my buddy and i used when we took the disco girls l/t.

tan minh, 142 bach dang. just grabbed a card but confirmed lady friendly. this is also on the road across from the river. looks like a nice place. email is tanminhhotel@dng.vnn.vn.

bao ngoc, 48 phan chu trinh. this is on the same street as bamboo green central hotel but about 4 blocks north. email is baongochotel@dng.vnn.vn. i looked at the rooms here. $20/nt and rooms were fine. better location than phu an but phu an was a bit nicer as far as lobby/room goes. the two hotels on bach dang are probably a better choice.

good luck.

i went back to danang on my way to hue. i stayed at the phu an (noted above) for $15/nt or 240,000vnd. i was paying 120,000vnd for s/t with ladies so real easy to step up for another 120,000vnd and forego my other room. room 302 is a good one. back of the hotel so no noise from the front and you have a decent view out the one window. internet and decent tv. have to pay for breakfast, egg and bread is 1.25.

pho 24 noodle shop is a few doors down. ATM just past the noodle shop. can't really walk anywhere. need to take moto taxi 2-3 minutes to get to the center/river area. in theory, you could walk but it is either too hot or too wet. not worth it.

i filed a report on my previous visit to danang. nothing really new to report except that i did stay in the lady friendly hotel. however, i never did do l/t. just stuck with s/t at 700,000vnd, sometimes 800,000vnd w/tip (800,000 is $50).

THIS IS A TRIP REPORT THAT I ALREADY FILED. BUT I DID A SEARCH UNDER TRIP REPORTS USING "AUTHOR" AND IT DIDN'T COME UP. SINCE I REFERENCE IT IN MY POST ABOVE, I'VE COPIED IT BELOW AS YOU MAY NOT FIND IT BY SEARCHING UNDER TRIP REPORTS.

i had visited saigon, vung tao, and nha trang within the last year (3 different trips, about 5 weeks total time). wanted to try danang, the fourth largest city in vietnam but really a pretty small city. it was a huge base of operations for the US during the war. hue, where there was fighting in the streets, is 2 hrs north, hoi an (historic commerce center) is 30 minutes south, and the famous "china beach" is 10-15 minutes from the city center. i guess there are some world heritage sites also (mostly temples i think). so if you are big on checking all the sites on your travels, you can easily spend a week btwn danang, hue, and hoi an.

i liked the all around feel of danang the best out of the places i visited in vietnam. you can stroll along the han river and hang at a bar and watch the world go by. the river in sgn is basically an industrial zone, not a place to hang out. danang has a really nice beach, i liked it better than the beaches of nha trang and vung tao. and, like vung tao, you don't see many tourists (nha trang has too many). i think most tourists fly in to danang but move on to hotels on the beach or head to hoi an. to use a simple analogy to california, i'd say saigon is los angeles (minus the beaches) and danang is san diego.

i arrived in the early afternoon and strolled the city in the early evening as it was a bit hot when i arrived. i liked to establish a grid/box of sorts when i arrive so i become familiar with my surroundings. during this stroll, i was approached by many moto taxis. i talked with many of them about the girls, the big party spots, etc... if i got a good vibe on the guy, i put his name/number in my phone. i had bought a sim on my last visit, i think it was $10 and you got minutes with that too. "mobi" is the service i bought. on day two, i called one of the moto guys and began my activities (paid him 100,000vnd/day but tipped 50,000vnd to 100,000vnd depending on what we did each day).

just to keep you interested, there are girls to be had here. moto girls and freelancers. 400,000 to 700,000vnd for s/t with moto girls. $100 to $200 USD l/t for the freelancers.
the hotels that you book over the net probably won't allow girls to your room. it cost 100,000vnd/per hour for a s/t room so not a big deal there. if you want to play the l/t game, book a room for a night or two over the net and then once you are on the ground you change to girl friendly hotels. just have your moto guy take you around to some lady friendly hotels and pick the one you like. two nights also gives you a chance to sample some s/t so you can decide if you like the local talent and the s/t. then you can make the plunge to l/t if you like the talent but aren't satisfied with s/t.

here are some helpful numbers (rough math):

100,000vnd =$7.
700,000vnd=$45
1,100,000vnd=$70
1,600,000vnd=$100

GETTING THERE:
i flew pbair (pbair.com) nonstop, bkk-dad, for 6500thb (call it $200) one way. plane was a relatively new regional jet (50 seater i believe), single seat on one side, two seats on the other. flight time about 1.5 hrs. if you are in sgn, vietnam air o/w fares are btwn 700,000vnd and 1,100,000vnd . you can check vietnam airlines fares on the net but you can't book on the net. do not book via expedia or you will pay double. best to buy domestic tickets once you are on the ground. as an example, i bought a ticket from dad to sgn on 8/8 for travel on 8/12. morning flight was sold out, afternoon was 1,100,000vnd and evening flight was 700,000vnd. so you should be able to get flights on short notice if you are flexible on the time. jetstar also services dad from sgn. air asia is probably the cheapest way to get from bkk to sgn.

dad airport is tiny. passport control was pretty slow although i was lucky, second in line coming off the terminal bus. luggage was on the belt before i got to baggage claim. i paid some tout guy 100,000vnd ($7) to take me to my hotel. the airport is basically in the city so the drive took less than 10 minutes. there were meter taxis available but i was too lazy to walk over to them. i took a meter taxi when i left and it was 45,000vnd.

HOTEL:
i booked 3 nts at the bamboo green central hotel. deluxe room for $50/nt (incl internet and brkfst). room was good size (over 400 SF) and was a corner unit so i had windows on two sides (one side was floor to ceiling window, the whole wall). on the 4th of 9 floors so i was above the roof tops around me. tv was good, had cnn, bbc, hbo, star movie, star world, discovery, nat geo, espn and star sports. breakfast buffet had cook to order eggs, fruit, bread, soups, and a bunch of other stuff that most people like. i liked danang enough that i booked another 4 nights at the same hotel and i was able to move up to the 9th floor. the view from the room was incredible. almost 270 degree view, you can pan from the harbor in the northwest all the way to marble mountain in the southeast. $55/nt for this room. i booked direct for this (through agoda.com before). if you want to stay in grand style at $55/nt, email the hotel directly bamboogreen@dng.vnn.vn. make sure you say bamboo green CENTRAL as there are several bamboo green hotels. 901 is the real nice view room, before i had 401 (which was really nice until i saw 901).

if $55/nt in grand style is too much $$ for you, you can get smaller rooms (maybe 200 SF) for $20 or so. i think the bamboo green hotel chain may get down as low as $30. one hotel near mine was the golden gate hotel. had a "copy" of the golden gate bridge on the roof. i looked right at it from my room. this place has a website, do a google to find
it (i don't have net access as i write this on word), and the rooms there are cheap. but my guess is not lady friendly. there are a bunch of small hotels near the beach, probably $10/nt. but my guess is food is a bit tough and you are a bit outside the city. if you ride a moto, then not so bad, as the ride back and forth will be fun for you (10-15 minutes at the most).

a lady friendly hotel is Phu An at 29 nguyen van linh. i did s/t here several times and the hotel is fine. best s/t room i've seen in sgn or dad and equivalent to many rooms i've stayed at in asia (cheap rooms). has internet, same TV channels as my hotel. not sure about breakfast. nguyen van linh is a major street in the city and you should be okay with food opportunities (walking distance). that said, i found that having a moto taxi on call was really the way to go. i got room 104 everytime for s/t so i think they have that "reserved" for s/t. likely that many other rooms are not used as s/t. there is no email address that i saw, but the phone number is 0511-825708. i found danang a pretty good place to hang for awhile so my suggestion is book one of the bamboo green hotels or the golden gate and then take a look at Phu An when you arrive. if you like it, book the rest of your time here (if you want l/t).

FOOD:
pho 24, vietnamese noodle soup place located at 90 tran quoc toan, vietnamese noodle soup with good quality beef is quite tasty. you can also add chicken or pork. 40,000vnd with a water.

pizza plus plus/bread of life (in most guide books), located at 12 le hong phong, a couple blocks west of the river. it has more than pizza. i had pizza a couple times. menu claimed the burgers were good so i tried. i hadn't had a burger in several months and it was really good. another guy was in there and he ordered a double burger, it was massive. the place is some kind of charity deal for the deaf and most of the workers are deaf, lots of sign language. they don't serve alcohol, which was kind of a nice change. for me, lunch and dinner usually include a beer. basic meal and water was about 60,000vnd.

christys, 112 tran phu. this one is in all the guide books. i ate here a few times. small bar on the first floor (very small). i ate on the second floor but you can get food on the first also. prices were a bit higher here and were quoted in USD on the menu, but payable in VND. the quality of the food was really good and not a big deal to pay an extra couple bucks.

room service - i did room service a couple times. basic sauteed beef, chicken or pork with rice runs 35,000vnd. quality of the food was inferior to the places noted above.

MOTO GIRLS:
i had not dealt with the "moto girl" thing before. this is how it went for me. my moto man and i would hang at a sidewalk cafe. mamasan would come by with a girl on the back of her moto. the girl would sit for a bit. none of the girls spoke english. if i liked what i saw, i'd pay a "deposit" of 50,000vnd and meet her at the s/t hotel a couple hours later. if i didn't like the girl, she was on her way with a "no" nod of my head. i set up "viewings" everyday btwn 2 and 4pm. then s/t hotel by 5 or 6pm. i paid 700,000vnd to the girl for s/t and 120,000vnd to the s/t hotel for one hour. that was okay for me.

my first viewing was a classic. i'm not sure what business uses the strategy most but it sure is effective with selling ladies. my moto guy told me the price would be 700,000vnd before i saw the girl. i liked the girl but said i'd only pay 400,000vnd. well, then they presented me with a 400,000vnd girl. and of course, i was back to the 700,000vnd girl. some of you might be okay with the lower grade. the higher grade ladies were very attractive, age range of 19-21. i'd rate them as 8's possible 9's. pretty face, good size tits (for asian ladies), tight ass, smooth white skin, great puffy lips on the face, no smelly pussy, not fat, etc..... they all asked for another 100,000 vnd as a tip (not in english but by showing me 100,000vnd along with "the look" on their face). i did tip one gal.

back to the "negotiation" piece. i could have just walked on my moto guy and his mamasan after the viewing. in five minutes i would have made contact with another moto guy and probably 20 minutes later had another viewing at 400,000vnd. but who knows, maybe you end up with the same syndicate and then you've got to start all over again. to save $20, i wasn't willing to spend that much time on the process. over five sessions, that is $100 so a meaningful amount in total. some people might actually enjoy working through a few different syndicates and, if that sounds like you, then you can probably get the price down a bit.

for me, i was at about 800,000vnd (say $55) for s/t (girl, room). and this is s/t like TJ or amsterdam. you chuck a load and you are done. i had three s/t's and two were quite nice. the bad girl, naturally the best looking, would not give bj or fuck in any position other than missionary. the two others did bj (no condom) and multiple positions with a good attitude. so 2 for 3 and then i repeated with both the girls i liked, so five sessions total in seven days. i felt 2 out of 3 was not too bad on the odds, i'd had worse odds back in my tj and amsterdam days (i'll never forget the dreaded position change charge in amsterdam. and you had to pay right then. the rubber would fall off my limp cock by the time i got to my money to pay and then she'd say, we're done !!).

the girls don't speak english so it is hard to discuss what services you will require with them. you can try and work through your moto guy but even that is a bit of a crap shoot. he may just say "oh yeah, you are all set, no worry". then, you get to the room and what you asked for (say, time to chuck two loads) is not going to happen. you can get these girls for l/t (i was quoted 1,400,000 vnd) but not sure i want l/t with a gal that speaks zero english.

on a previous report that i filed on sgn, i recall one member saying he'd prefer to fuck the viets for $10 or $20 in cambo. if your goal is to fuck viets, you should probably go there. if your goal is to travel and see vietnam, then i think you'll be okay with this s/t service. the girls look really nice, all had the same basic "uniform" - designer jeans, heels, t shirt, zip up sweat jacket, and assorted jewelry. i know this sounds a bit strange, but all had a good set of teeth also. a gal that smiles at me with a bad set of teeth (maybe too many teeth or fucked up teeth, etc) is a real turn off. and i've had this in thailand quite a few times (and passed on the girl). if you are thinking of a scene with some shitty shack, where girls are in pajamas, you fuck on a bed of cement, and shower with a bucket - that is not the case in danang.

TYPICAL DAY:

7:00 to 10:00 - eat brkfst, check internet, make sure my investment accts are holding up. catch some news on the TV.

10:00 to 2:00 - roll out with my moto man and check some of the local scenery (which i'll cover separately).

2:00 to 4:00 - quick clean up in the room, have a moto girl viewing at cafe, eat lunch.

4:00 to 6:00 - relax my room. then go s/t hotel and meet girl.

7:00 to 9:00 - sit at bamboo 2 bar on bach dang (street along the river) and enjoy a few beers.

9:00 to 11:00 - check US stock market action, watch some tv, go to bed. didn't usually eat dinner. the brkfst, late lunch and beers was enough.

total cost for the day is about 1,200,000vnd (girl 700,000vnd, s/t room 100,000vnd, moto man 150,000vnd, food 100,000vnd, beers 100,000vnd, 50,000 misc). call it $80usd. then you add your room. mine was $50 and then $55. so $135/day to see the sights, have a quick session, and enjoy some good food and beer. as someone who is interested in seeing vietnam, i found this to be a very enjoyable schedule at a reasonable price.

if you get a $20 room, then you are at $100/day on my schedule. if the $20 room is lady friendly and you want l/t for $100 and no s/t, you are at $140/day all-in. not too bad.

BARS/CLUBS:

bamboo 2 on bach dang st near the intersection with le hong phong. i just happened to see it as i was looking for a bar along the river. there are not that many. i liked this place, the girls working there were really nice. one excellent english, one limited, one not so good. they like to talk and learn english. usually a couple other western and/or expat customers when i was there. if the tables outside on the sidewalk are full (usually two or three of them), just ask for them to bring out another table. they have folding tables and chairs right inside the front door. i saw some people eating food but i never tried it. i think the beers were 20,000vnd. i'd have my moto guy drop me here after every s/t session.

red hot bar. this one was noted somewhere on the net as being like a "thai girlie bar". i was sure that was a big lie, like AN or Qbar being hot pick up spots in sgn. located at 179 nguyen van linh (same street as the s/t hotel i noted previously, but a pretty long walk even though addresses are 29 and 179). all viets inside, i was only westerner. not a big place, and a couple viet guys had their girls with them. surprisingly, there were actually hookers in there (8-10 of em). they were in somewhat sexy outfits, not quite as revealing like the hai ba trung girls in sgn. had a pool table also. i rated the girls a 7 maybe 7.5 so on the edge of acceptable. they wanted $100usd for l/t. so if you book at the phu an down the street, you are set with l/t for $100 plus room. the girls had limited english but far better than the moto girls. most were a little heavy, but cute faces. if they dropped some weight, they'd get an extra .5 on the scale. none were ugly/hideous. i'd fuck most any of them if the l/t price were $50. beers at red hot were 35,000vnd. price for you and for the lady were the same. so i bought a couple ladies a couple drinks each, only after confirming i wasn't going to get the shaft on the drink prices.

DANANG
if you look at a map of danang, you'll see the harbor in the northwest, then move east and you'll come to monkey mountain (sontra peninsula), and then south along the beach. first you have my khe beach, then marble mountain, then china beach, and finally the old fishing village of hoi an. danang city is immediately west of my khe beach. it takes about 10 minutes to get from "the city" to my khe. once you've crossed the han river (about 2 minutes or so from the city center) it is wide open spaces. so if you like to ride a motorbike, you can probably rent one and have a blast on your own. the moto traffic in the city is nothing like saigon. not too rough to negotiate your way to the han river bridge and then you are fine. bach dang is a one way street going north and tran phu is a one way street going south. staying on these streets will help as you won't have motos making turns every which way since traffic only goes one direction.

the city itself is generally a grid set up but i did get confused a few times on exactly where the hell i was. i stuck with a general "box" like i did in sgn but danang's box was a bit bigger. le duan is the border on the north (also the street that takes you to the bridge). le dinh duong is the border on the south. phan chau trinh is the border on the west and the river is the border on the east (again, the border of my box). my hotel was near the southwest corner of this box. so leaving the hotel i was typically headed north (to the commerce area) or east (the river). there is some real activity going on tran phu about two blocks south of le duan. i'd call this the city center, but not sure.

TOURIST ACTIVITIES
in order to enjoy these, you might want to ask your moto taxi for "an attitude adjustment" (think happy pizza in cambo). $10 will do the trick and you'll be set for a few days. also, if you search the net, you'll come across alot of pictures that guys took during the war. helps you realize the troops were here, in a big way. google "monkey mountain danang" and you'll find a site with 366 in the name (i think the 366th was an ammo supply unit). another good google was "hill 55 danang". that is where the real heavy shit went down.

my khe beach. i believe this is the real china beach (where the US troops were stationed). i was told that the name china beach was assigned to a stretch of beach further south to help attract tourism further down the beach. i hung out at my khe a couple times during the day. sipped some beers and water in the shade and dipped in the water. seemed clean, could see the bottom. imagine they get good surf from time to time, it was small when i was there but the shape was real nice. better beach than what i saw in nha trang or vung tao. claims of "one of the world's best beaches" might be stretching it a bit. it is nice but not a top 10 or 20 in the world.

monkey mountain or sontra peninsula. i guess the US troops occupied the top of the hills on this peninsula. you can tell the tops were shaved down for small bases, maybe helipads, etc... not much to see on the mountain but a great cruise on a moto. you cruise along the beach. then head up in the hills and you can see back to danang from the hillside. very, very nice view looking back at danang. if you are on a moto taxi, then he'll know the drill on where to turn around. if you are on your own, don't be worried about cruising through a couple of dirt/construction site sections. the road is open. once you hit a couple houses out near the point, it is time to turn around. i never saw a monkey and my moto guy told me there are no monkeys. read on the net that there were monkeys during the war. i guess they actually threw rocks at night and freaked the shit out of the boys (thought is was VC).

china beach (the new one). i took a look at this place. about twice the distance of my khe so didn't go back. nothing that my khe didn't have. checked the sandy beach resort on china beach. can't check in with a viet girl, have to get two rooms. nice looking place but too far from the city plus can't check in with a viet.

hoi an. i stayed away from here on purpose. i think it is a tourist mecca. not my kind of scene. i'm going back to danang with a buddy real soon and he wants to go here so i'll likely add an update after that visit.



SUMMARY
i'll be visiting danang again. this could be a pretty good place to set up shop for a couple months if you have time. you can rent a nice place for $200-$300/mo. then you arrange for s/t girls to come by your place. guessing you'd get the good girls at 400,000vnd as a frequent customer discount (who knows, maybe you'll become a sponsor for a couple so they can break from mamasan, although mama might come after you, and i'm not kidding). at that point, your room is $10/day and the girl is $30. i haven't seen any supermarkets but i'm sure they are here somewhere. say you spend another $15 on food/beer/moto rental. that brings you to $55/day. well below $2,000/mo and you have a pretty good quality of life (very scenic area, beach, easy to get around, friendly people, good TV, internet, airport with nonstop flight to bkk, etc...).

A PERSONAL NOTE
while i was in danang, i did alot of google searches related to the war. there are ALOT of photos on the net taken by the guys that were stationed in and around danang. i was born in 1966 so i got some exposure to the war as a kid and i lived in southern california when all the viets came to live there in the early-mid 70's. i loved looking and reading about all the shit that went down and then thinking about it while i hung on the beach with a couple beers. i don't want to get too deep here but for me, it got kind of emotional. when you think about life versus death, that can happen. maybe it was the beers, i don't know. but i can say this for sure, i won't forgot the days i spent on the beach saluting those that died on both sides. while i thoroughly enjoyed my time with the ladies, this additional mental exercise was the highlight of my trip. i don't think you can get the feel unless you are on the ground, where it happened. i didn't get this feeling from photos i saw of saigon during the war.

as i mentioned before, two googles that produced alot were "monkey mountain danang" and "hill 55 danang". not only do you get photos and such but you also find some travel blogs from the vets who came back to visit. that is really deep stuff and one can't imagine what emotions get triggered for those guys. the VC were dug in real deep about 10 miles south of danang. and from what i could tell from reading on the net, the US troops were in a constant fight with them to protect the airfield in danang. artillery, naval salvos, etc.. didn't do shit, the VC were dug in deep. the only way to clear the area was hand to hand combat (or firing at a guy two feet away). from what i gathered from the reading, it went on from 1966 to 1972 (not the war but the fight south of danang). i believe i read that the last official "search and destroy" mission was in the area of hill 55 (the padi's below were known as dodge city, a reference to the dodge of the old west. because going in there was a face to face gunfight. and they went in regularly for six years to clear the area).

one very detailed article was on historynet.com, operation meade river. this is where i got many of the facts that i've set forth here. i apologize if i made any errors in attempting to provide a brief summary.

i know this is a long report and i hope it was worth the read. if you need my moto man's name and phone number, send me a PM on this site and i'll forward it to you.