Exploring Doc Let Beach
From Da Lat, it was time to drop off the mountains to the stew pot of record topping heat and humidity below. While we could have high-tailed it to the tourist havens of Hoi An or Hue to make things “easy,” we wanted the opportunity to immerse ourselves in an authentic Vietnamese sea village first for a couple nights far off the tourist trail, which we definitely found at Doc Let Beach, where there is clearly a local crowd.
Doc Let Beach feels real and raw. It’s more difficult to get to. Few speak any English. It’s unbelievably beautiful, yet has some heartbreakingly unpleasant parts. We found some incredibly hospitable, funny people here. We also found the best oysters we’ve ever had…for $4.
A local boy fetching a runaway ball from his football game on the beach where clusters of coconut basket boats congregate on the shoreline.
Motorbikes parked wherever they wish at the edge of the alluring water’s edge.
Our host, Tu sharing some homemade rice spirit with a banana brandy slipped in. We had several shots with him and thanks to his excellent English, learned a lot about him, his village, and the Vietnamese people. What a wonderful man! Tu’s place is called Sunrise Doc Let Beach, which we can’t recommend more. He also does tours!
We had a very comfortable private room and bath for $17/night. For the record, so far the pillows in Vietnam far exceed those in Japan…or France, which doesn’t make a lot of sense, but we’re delightedly sleeping well here. Our breakfast was not included, but was amazing and set us back $4 for two entrees, two juices and a Vietnamese-style drip iced coffee.
We had several other great meals there too including seafood pasta, pizza, spring rolls and a gorgeous shrimp and pineapple salad. The shrimp salad exceeded all of it and cost $2.80. Clearly the prices are getting even more affordable as we get off the beaten path, even at the beach.
Normally, we’re not really oyster people but at Tu’s brother’s restaurant, we had the best grilled oysters ever for $4. So, thanks to the divine herbs, garlic and spices, we might be converts now.
Tu’s helpful sign to get us the five minute walk to the beach 🤣
Locals setting up for a normal night at the beach.
Locals setting up for a fancy night at the beach.
Non venomous salps could be found all over the beach. Not jelly fish.
Although the days were blazing, the nights were cooler and breezy. There were tons of families out on the beach at this time. Doc Let, like much of the Vietnamese beaches, was lined with sweeping palms.
Doc Let is mainly known as a fishing community but it’s quite a hidden gem.
Of course, there are some not so gemmy attributes. The further you go south away from the hotels, the more you will witness tragic unfortunate realities. A lot of has to be lack of education on the matter. We saw one local family literally buy a basket of (plastic) beach toys, toss the plastic NETTING on the beach and watch it roll away before we scooped it up out of harm’s way.
The streets of Doc Let town.
The nearly empty Doc Let carnival which held a couple food stands and two children’s rides which seemed perilously risky.
Doc Let Beach by day was far less active so we grabbed a couple chairs and beers for $1 until things started picking up. We love hanging out on the local beaches, although we definitely felt very…white! Mandy was definitely the only woman in a swimsuit. All the others were fully covered although we think it’s more of a sun protection thing than a conservative thing here.
This is Vietnam 🇻🇳 ❤️
What a great people-watching experience! And everyone we encountered was so friendly towards us.
When the Vietnamese say it needs to be fresh, it NEEDS to be fresh. Take your pick.
Getting to Doc Let Beach
We took another very comfy $11/each Futa sleeper bus from Dalat to Nha Trang, which took about 4 hours.
We then took shuttle bus #12 on Quang Trung Street going north to Doc Let, which took about an hour and cost $1.25/each. It was super easy but this information was not easy to find in advance.
Thankfully Tu was incredibly helpful and a fantastic host. On the way out, he and his sweet wife even took us (for free!) on their motor bikes to where we needed to catch a local bus to our next destination of Quy Nhon for ~$5/each. His information was invaluable because the only info online we could find told us the only buses or trains were super early in the morning or late in the day.
And although the sleepers are far more relaxing, you just don’t quite feel the same immersion as you do when stuffed in a van with the locals ☺️
Life’s a Beach in Bai Sep
After 3.5 hours in un-air conditioned sardine sweat box, we arrived into the mid-size city of Quy Nhon, commonly known to be the new alternative to Da Nang. We liked the vibes we briefly saw, but our goal was to head south to the village of Bai Xep to stay at “Life’s a Beach,” a rustic off the beaten path lodging option with a clear identity crisis. They state adamantly that they’re not a party hostel, but they definitely give off that vibe with their clientele, activities and encouragement of drinking.
We went to the remote Life’s a Beach because it’s the number one rated option in Bai Xep, which we read is supposedly a tranquil fishing village known to be “upcoming on the backpacker scene.” By this, we now believe they mean…this particular place. Unfortunately, it’s located 3 km south of the actual village down a busy and unshaded road which isn’t exactly easy to get to in the tremendous 98 F/38C heat and much higher heat index.
Tucked into a cove, the beach at Life’s a Beach is undoubtedly pristine and gorgeous, which is an inviting selling point plopped next to the South China Sea. Unfortunately there is no shade, natural or provided, which made it mostly unusable for people old enough to care about overexposure other than a quick morning swim. However, the water was super refreshing and colder than at Doc Let Beach which was an absolute pleasure.
There were a few room options….dormitories, tents or bungalows. Most people seemed to be in the dorms. We decided to glamp in a $21/night tent which had “air conditioning” unlike the curiously more expensive fan-only bungalows for $25/night. Unfortunately the AC only pumped cool air about two inches from the unit before dissolving into a sea of steam…
…although it did cool off to survivable temperatures at night. The tent itself was very well furnished with bed side lighting, a comfortable bed, a water jug and two coconut cakes with a kind note from the really terrific staff. Had the weather been cooler, and perhaps if we’d been 15-20 years younger, it could have worked out fabulously. Unfortunately, we lamely couldn’t cut it two nights and had to leave early because Mandy started to get an extreme headache and nausea from the heat. 🥵
Our tent also included an indoor/outdoor private bath! We took about 5 cold showers each in less than 18 hours trying to cool down!
In the silence and cooler temperatures of the morning, the view from our little patio however, was absolutely lovely.
Having our Vietnamese drip coffee on the patio listening to the crashing waves was definitely the highlight of the experience.
The socializing and sunbathing area, which did offer umbrellas and loungers. We got there just as “family dinner” was beginning at 7 pm, but since we’d already eaten, and it was three times more expense than our meal, we opted out. It does seem like a great way to meet other travelers, however! The indoor lounge had a great vibe as well.
The chalkboard of activities which displayed you could get free shots if you danced on the bar, and 1/2 off pina coladas (which means actual Vietnamese prices) when the pina colada song came on. They also played drinking games after dinner and cranked the music. All this just made us feel old, which we prefer to deny. 🤣🤣🤣
After a hour of this, we were saturated in personal moisture which is when no-longer-22-Mandy started to get sick. Fortunately, the staff was super cool about us leaving early and didn’t even charge us the second night. We ended up in a $10/night full AC room in Quy Nhon to recover and saved money. We’ve learned not to push our limits in these situations.
Taking the Train to Da Nang
The next morning, we both felt much better and took our first train in Vietnam from Quy Nhon to Da Nang, five hours north for about $9/each.
Arriving to the station bright and early, we waited in the already sticky station….
…where we made friends with this adorable 80+ lady who fluidly dropped to a malasana (yogic squat) pose to sell us more coconut cakes and have a chat. Although the photo of Mandy lacks eyeballs, you can at least still see how precious Ms. Malasana was!
The ride to Da Nang was mostly comfortable minus four nearby hellions using their parents as jungle gyms and the conveniently located arm rests to sling shot their sugar-laced little bodies down the aisles. It’s always in these instances we’re eternally grateful for our childfree by choice existence. 
