da nang - the intercontinental
while planning this trip, a wanted to stay in the nicest possible hotel for this leg because da nang is known to be a beach/resort town. i wanted to stay in the still extremely nice, and way more affordable second best hotel. even though i won our bet in fantasy (american) football, i relented and we did end up staying in this super nice resort (the things i sacrifice for love).
dinner: surf n turf
we arrived around 7pm as the resort is a little bit farther from the main tourist beach area--just in time for some grilled meats and seafoods for dinner. This is one of the more "casual" restaurants at the resort (because the other ones are like, classic french with a michelin star, and omakase sushi)
these french fries were sooooo good.
the next morning: breakfast at citron
we had breakfast at the hotel buffet, citron.
as far as fancy hotel breakfasts go--this was pretty good/average. the "local food" is slightly worse than what you'd find out in the actual city, slightly more palatable for foreigners, but served in a fancy environment with nice plates, cutlery, fancy room with mirrors on the ceiling, blah blah blah.
definitely catered to foreigners because look at the kimchi, kimbap, and soy marinated eggs. the hash brown, bacon, and sausage link, the braised pork belly! the eggs made to order! the bowl of kimchi jjigae!
the pastries were delicious. i do feel like on average pastry is better at these places than the other, savory/meal time food. i wonder if it's because i hold some prejudice--i do think that it is harder to cook large quantities of food well than it is to bake large quantities of pastries well. is this a remnant of some old era of grand hotels or is it just me who believes this?
the monkeys
the hotel is located on Sơn Trà Mountain, also known as Monkey Mountain for self-explanatory reasons. a and i were both really hoping to see one (me from afar, a wanted to get up close and befriend the monkey). apparently there is also this endangered species monkey living there. I think I saw one from really far away, but I cannot be sure.
when we arrived, the hotel staff let us know that they work really hard to keep the monkeys at bay because they are often "naughty" stealing fruit from people's fruit baskets, stealing their lunch--things like that. anyways we had been here almost 24 hours and I had not seen a single one yet except for the statues decorating the grounds. so i figured, oh it must not be so common any more, their security measures are working.
we spent the rest of the morning on the beach, getting massages, chilling out by the balcony and hoping to see a monkey, mostly we saw many little birds and some squirrels.
afternoon tea
they have these instagram-famous tables here. a and i figured a good way to secure one instead of trying to snag one at the "first come first served" situation at breakfast, would be to make an appointment for afternoon tea. very honeymoon vibes.
this petit canale was perfect and i truly mean that, it was not too sticky/hard, but not too soft or mushy either. the perfect combo of a crisp outer shell and moist chewy interior. I mean look at this cross-section. it's a petit canale par excellance.
about 75% of the way through tea, a staff member came to our table to take a picture for the table across from us (something we would ask her to do to the table next to us in a half an hour anyway. as I was scooting over to let her get the shot, I heard/saw something out of the corner of my eye splash into the water behind her. I thought immediately, "oh no, a squirrel is about to drown and tried to rush over to see if I could...help it? idk i hate squirrels but I also don't want one to drown right in front of me.
she saw me looking over and yelped and grabbed one of the pillows off the couch, and before I knew it--i was screaming because this guy and i were face to face.
but not for long though because she shooed him away with said pillow.
don't worry though. because he did come back to the other table across from us and steal all their sugar packets. 
i was so tired from travel, jet lag, etc. i slept the rest of the day.
dinner
alex ordered room service, I ate a little but mostly was sleepy and went back to bed.
soju courtesy of the convenience store right outside the da nang train station.
a boiga
gn da nang