The Son Tra Night Market is a fun night out for the whole family and a short walk from the Dragon Bridge in Da Nang, Vietnam. In this video I take you for a walk around the Son Tra Night Market – before it gets busy – so you can see what goes on here.
There’s food, music, games, shopping and more. Definitely a worthwhile night out if you’re in Da Nang and easy to combine going to the Son Tra Night Market with the Dragon Bridge Fire Show (9pm Saturday and Sunday).
*On some of the links provided we might make a commission if you purchase something by clicking through our link. This creates no additional cost for you.
It’s a lot of walking, so be sure to wear comfy shoes. And it’s a lot of eating too, so bring your appetite. AND make sure to have a lot of small money if you can, 10k, 20k, 50k and 100k Dong notes so all those little purchases you’re going to end up making are easy to manage.
If you’re heading over to the Fire Show, leave 15-20 minutes to get across the street in traffic, up the stairs and through the crowds. Due to Covid, you’re seeing this night market with no tourists. Once tourism resumes, it could get really crowded.
How to Get to Son Tra Night Market
To get to Son Tra Night Market, call a Grab and let them drop you at the entrance. It’s easy and inexpensive and there’s plenty to do in the area, like visit the Love Bridge or go to any number of bars, restaurants or coffee bars. Taxis and Grab are readily available in the area.
Happy Travels!
Travel Tip: Right next to the stairs for the Dragon Bridge, if you’re facing the dragon head on, it’s on the left side, there’s an area where they perform traditional Vietnamese music, and sometimes cover pop tunes on their traditional instruments. It’s a nice little music bash.
Video Transcript
Hello Everyone, I am coming to you from the Son Tra Night Market in Da Nang, Vietnam.
We are very close to the Dragon Bridge. Let me flip the camera around and show it to you before we head into the night market. See the Dragon Bridge? Those yellow arches over there. It changes color, but that is the Dragon Bridge where I did the live from last week for the fire and water show – which will be going on in a couple hours.
But if you want to see it, definitely check out what we did last week. I am going to get out of the road and into the night market. If you have never, let me, tell me this, have you ever been to a night market in Asia, especially Southeast Asia? Have you been to one before, and what did you think, and did you eat anything crazy, or did you find anything awesome? So let me know that in the comments because I’d love to to know. I might not be able to respond as we go, and so I’m going to show you the night market and we’re going to see what we see.
Because I’ll be honest, this is my first time here. I’ve been to plenty of night markets before, but this is my first time to this one.
The first thing I’m going to show you is the little furniture. And I say that because every travel vlogger will talk about the little furniture in Vietnam and I’ve got to show it to you.
I’ve got to show it to you because for those of us in places where people run a little bit taller, this is really fairly small furniture. Let me see if I can, I’m going to flip back. We’re having fun with cameras here. And see, I mean basically the back of the chair barely comes up to my hip.
This is always fun when you’re from somewhere where people are taller. We’ve been places where people are taller, a lot taller, than us, and places where people are a lot shorter than us. It was a big surprise for Tim when we were in Benin and he was actually the short guy in the room. In Southeast Asia he has this tendency to bump his head on a lot of things.
Okay so we’re going to go through some food places. I’m not starting with food. We will look at the food places, but you’re not going to see me eating anything weird unless it’s just really outrageous. I’m not ready to, I don’t want to just dwell on food because that’s what everyone does in the night markets.
So let me, let me flip the camera around and show you this night market, Son Tra Night Market in Da Nang.
Okay, hello, we have got snails with peppers and coconut in a broth, and we’ve got eggs. and it looks like there might be like a hatchling. I don’t know what’s in them. I don’t know if they’re filled, or if there’s hatchlings in them. I’m not entirely certain, and some sort of chicken.
Watch me taste test the Spicy Snails and Mystery Eggs.
And as I say, you’re getting this all LIVE. I have not been here before myself so I’m exploring this with you. That’s one of the things I like to do on these live shoots, is explore it with you so you can see.
Now this thing with the sticks, they’ll cook these sticks on on demand and you can make them have as spicy, or not spicy, as you want. It looks like they might do these in a wrap as well, and that is that happens in Thailand a lot too, the barbecue on a stick.
And then we’ve got some seafood. So you’ve got seafood going. To give you an idea of prices, when it says 550k the exchange rate is 23,000 dong to one dollar, so…hello, I’m just showing it right now and then I’ll come back around for food…so we’ve got grilled meat, grilled meat and meat on a stick, and probably noodles. Yeah, see? She’s got the noodles back there. That’s going to be some good stuff. Oh, mi quang. Yeah, I love mi quang. It’s one of my favorites. Ah, and we’ve got fresh fruit juices, fresh fruit juices, fruit and vegetable juices.
And I will say thank you. People here rarely balk at a camera. It’s one thing I don’t have to worry about too much here, and the one gentleman didn’t want to be on camera and he just got up and got out of the way. Hello, but here in Southeast Asia, if you have a camera, people don’t get too shy too often.
So this is for anyone who has just tuned in. It is Son Tra Night Market in Da Nang.
Got lots of snails here in the night market. I have had snails elsewhere, I have not had them here yet. I ordered frog one night and, I guess I did come down the food aisle. Oh well. One night I ordered frog when we first got here and I thought it was gonna be frog legs, and it turned out to be whole frogs, which was a surprise to me, but it was actually very tasty.
So I wasn’t going to start, I don’t know how big this night market is, I don’t know if it’s mostly a food market, it might be, but there should be other stuff. Obviously on the other side so I’m going to, you know this all should be pretty fresh seafood.
More skewers over here, just like any night market you’ll see a lot of repeat. Ah, okay, so we’re near the end here. It’s a little smaller than I thought it would be. I actually got here early and it wasn’t, it wasn’t very busy, so I waited till we got a little action going on. Yeah, so the fruit juices, the snails, the seafood, a lot of similar things here.
We’ve got, and we’ve got like pancakes, similar to pancakes.
One thing you’ll see are banh mi and French baguettes. One of the good things that the French left behind here were baguettes.
They have mastered baguettes here. They know how to get them exactly the right amount of crunchy.
And we’ve got jelly dessert, so that could be something I try later that looks really tasty. Okay, and there’s a really lighted sign over there. Okay, let me bring you back over this way, so that’s that end of it. Oh I really thought this was a little bit bigger, so… hello thank you thank you thank you,
not right now I’m recording, but let me let me come back, let me come back…
as you can see people are friendly here. And to be honest, they’re friendly whether they’re trying to sell you something or not, so don’t think that’s just because of the sales pitch.
They do sugarcane juice and that’s what all these are, is sugar cane juice…not right now, not right now, I’ve got to record… and they seem to understand that, too, that if you’re recording you’re too busy to do it right now.
As I said, I’m trying to show you a little bit of daily life in Da Nang and, let’s see this is another mi quang. Mi quang is really good it’s, mi quang is, it’s got a little bit of broth in it, but it’s not a full on soup. And so you’ve got grilled meat, or multiple meats, and some really tasty stuff, and you can usually add your own spice level.
That’s one thing here, a lot of the food comes so that you can add it to your own spice level. Not that some things don’t just come very spicy to start, but you can always request it milder. Okay, so yeah we started on the food side. Let me go see if there’s another non-food side, because there’s a fair amount of repeat here. Hello.
We’ve got like little mini egg rolls, spring rolls and egg things, and meat skewers. On the way back I’ve got a lot of places to eat, on the way back. It looks like…hello, not right now… and we’ve got skewers. Okay, so if I wasn’t going to start on the food side I went the wrong direction. Ah, here’s some more. Okay. it is bigger than I thought.
We got nearby here, or it’s a love bridge, so we got the lights and the hearts and the trees lit up. They like lights around here. Lighting everything up isn’t just a seasonal thing around here.
Ah, we’ve got temporary tattoos. I’ve got three regular tattoos, so you know, and if I didn’t already have an awesome hat I could get one here.
We’ve got very nice hats. Oh, there’s one that Tim could do. Oh, I have to think about that for Tim. He’s got a big head though, so sometimes it’s hard to fit.
You’ll find phone cases galore. In fact last week after the Dragon Bridge thing, I ended up buying a new phone case and I ended up loving it more than I thought I would. Thank you. Sunglasses, and a hundred thousand is a little less than five dollars, so to give you an idea of what we’re talking about here.
We’ve got wallets and belts. You never know what you’re going to find at a night market, so this is, this so far has been as I say, if you’ve been through a Southeast Asian night market, this will all look pretty familiar. But if you haven’t, we’ve got all sorts of fun stuff.
We’ve got keychains, hair doo-hickeys. I never could get hair doo-hickeys to stay in my hair. My hair is like terminally straight.
We’ve got dried fish, that salty fish. There’s one of those, one of these salty fish things they put in banh mi. So there’s only one ingredient I have my favorite banh mi lady leave off my sandwich. No offense, but it’s just not a flavor I care for.
Let’s see, ah, we’re getting into some cool clothing. I have to get some clothing made here. Obviously nothing they make here is going to fit me. Even shoes, like this is a good point, even shoes can be difficult for westerners.
I wear about a 42 European, which is about an 11, 42 to 44, and that’s about an 11 in the US. Tim’s foot is even bigger. He’s a 12 men’s, and so we even have trouble finding shoes here sometimes. At very touristy shops you can find them, but overall we can’t buy clothes here.
Even if we were thinner, Tim would have trouble finding clothes. Even I would, in some cases.
So if you’re a bigger person, whether it just be tall or heavy, don’t expect to buy a lot of clothes in Southeast Asia. But you can get them made. And so, if you find a fabric you like, buy it and then the tailors will make you a really great shirt, or something, to your size. I’ve always loved this banana fabric. I may have to find some of that banana fabric and get a shirt made.
Tim keeps teasing me about the shirts I’m buying along the way. I’m a minimalist packer except I keep coming across cool fabrics. So yeah, if you’re at all tall, or that, don’t expect to buy a lot of clothing. But you can get it made, and you can get it made very affordably.
We’ve got jewelry and accessories, some very pretty stuff. I don’t wear much jewelry, but it is actually quite nice. And we have found the clothing section, and if you need it, you got lingerie.
Okay, so let’s see. I’m going down with some not haste, but you know, you see clothes. I don’t want to bore you with all one topic all at one time. What I’m really on the quest for, which I don’t know if I’ll find, was just something really unique. Either a food that was really unique to to show you, don’t know if I’m gonna find that, or something that’s very Vietnam.
Although, it’s all very Vietnam, so maybe that’s something I’m missing.
Oh, that looks interesting. It’s like a cashew brittle. Oh, Tim would really like this. I am going to come back for that, I am coming back for that. Tim likes cashews and he likes peanut brittle and cashew brittle’s even better. And then we’ve got phone cases and tripods…hello thank you…yeah people don’t shy from the camera here.
Okay, and we’ve got some more jewelry over here,
and yes if people seem to not want to be on camera, I do make it a point to shy away from them.
Okay, so now what might we find, oh, hello, yeah those are some really cool vases. Look at that, look at that. I like those. If I were going to live here forever, if this were permanent, I’d get them. I like those.
If you followed me through the Lady Buddha and talking about sculptures, I also have a thing for ceramics. So I’m kind of a sucker for ceramics and sculptures…hello, no I’m recording right now, so maybe, maybe later. We’ve got the three little Buddha characters that you see in a lot of temples, and a whole lot of Buddhas.
I’m thinking of putting together a video of one picture from every Buddhist temple we’ve been in. Let me know what you think of that idea, just one video where you get like one or two seconds of one picture from every temple. Because there’s lots of temples here in Southeast Asia. So yeah, let me know.
Then you always have some electronics. Electronics here are generally very affordable. You do, you know standard. Sometimes you buy something cheap and you know it’s cheap and so you know if it lasts, it lasts if it doesn’t it doesn’t. But they have a lot of name brand stuff, too. And they have a lot of the stuff before it gets a brand on it, so they sell it cheap, but it could be something that gets sold under a higher branding.
So as long as you’re sort of smart about what you’re buying, you’re in pretty good shape.
Oh, look at the lanterns. Look at those lanterns. That is nice. Yeah, if we were gonna live here permanently I would be buying things, I really would. I mean, look at this look at this. Some very nice lanterns. Oh, and look, I think these are like paper cut out. look at the detail look at the wonderful detail.
Some beautiful stuff here.
And then obviously this is a place to to eat and drink. Beer is very popular here. I’m not much of a beer drinker, but it’s like a buck a can. I mean it’s extremely affordable.
And let’s see, electronics, and they have a full shop going on. If I needed a new tripod, or anything, this looks like they are well-stocked.
Plenty of flip-flops here, they probably have some western sizes but…
“Hello, do you have like a size 46? 46?
In something with a back on it?
No, not for me, it’s for my husband. No, not me. What size is that? Oh, 42 no no. That would fit me, but these are good. Sorry. Thank you. See, yeah, 42 was probably the largest she had. I can wear 42, or 43 European size.
And this is a great place to pick up some inexpensive souvenirs to share with people.
‘Vietnam, Vietnamese, Vietnam. Ah, yes. No. I like those
Magnets. Aha, let me come back because I’m recording, because I’m recording. Let me come back. I like what you have though.
Should I do a giveaway? Should I buy something here and and do a giveaway on the channel? We’ll think about that. Let me know what you think.
And some more tchotchke. Anything you see that’s branded may, or may not, be authentic. In fact, I would sort of assume is not.
Ah, we get into some carnival games over here. Let’s see, we’ve got, ah put your own picture…hello… you put your picture on, yeah and they make a case for you with your own picture. So very cool. Yes, thank you, thank you. That’s a cool one.
Then we have like a shooting gallery, shooting gallery to win stuffed toys. You do get a carnival type atmosphere with these things. I will say, it’s not that busy yet tonight. I think we’re early. Once you get closer to the Dragon Bridge time.
Let’s see, I think that’s a dragon claw, maybe, on the leather wallet there. Once you get closer to Dragon Bridge time I think it gets a lot busier. We’ve got a little key ring. So cute little key rings, lots of cute key rings.
You can see how colorful it is here, it is wonderfully colorful.
That sound, let’s see.
I can tell you he’s selling food of some sort.
You see, he’s got the steamer on the back of his bike. It’s got a little wood burning stove under it and he’s selling banh bao, which is the bun with the meat inside. I actually have a little short video on that from a few weeks back.
But when you hear that recording it’s always someone selling food of one sort or another, not always the the banh bao. Oh, it looks like they might have the sour plums, and interesting, interesting.
What are these?
huh
Oh my, okay.
May I try one?
For 100, okay, can I sample from here, or just a little one? Okay, she’s letting me sample one of these.
Oh, okay.
I think it’s very peach-like, very peach/apricot-like.
She was kind enough to let me sample and I’m going to buy some because she was nice about that. So give me half a second while I do this transaction.
It’s a set price so I’m not going to question it. I’ll take that and those. So yeah, some of that, and some of that. Yeah, yeah. I’ll buy it. Yes, I’ll take it, yeah.
Yes.
I’m sort of assuming those are sour plums. If not, I’ll find out the hard way.
Changing my grip just a little bit so I can reach into my pocket and get some money.
That’s perfect, thank you.
Thank you for letting me, and I will say that I’m a sucker for trying everything at the the night market I’m not stopping to try every single thing here with you because it would take forever, but I am a sucker for trying all these different things. Wonderful, thank you.
And normally you do pass off money…ah, okay she’s got to get some change, let me flip the camera and if I’m a little sweaty, okay a lot sweaty, it’s because it’s like 80 degrees out. It’s nighttime, but it’s 80 degrees out. So that’s it and usually you hand off money with two hands, or there’s this gesture…wonderful thank you…there’s this gesture where you put your one hand to the elbow and then hand it over just to out of respect, but I didn’t that time because I have one thing in my other hand and I’m sure she understood that. So I’ve got a snack for Tim and me later, for a few times.
Okay, let’s see, yeah, but no it’s like 80 degrees and there’s a lot of lights and yeah so it’s a little warm a little toasty, so let me flip the camera back around because you don’t need to be looking at my sweaty face. There we go.
Okay we’ve got some music going on here. Ah, throwing darts at balloons. I know this is rigged.
oh
You hold that for me, okay?
We got it. I’m gonna try it.
Okay, real hard/
Oh, they’re hard to get fast. Okay,
last one, last one. I’m doing really lousy
here.
Oh, thank you, thank you. I got a consolation prize. I did lousy, but I got a consolation prize. This is cute. That’s awesome. That is really awesome.
Okay, let’s see, we’ve got a slight, slight thing I’ve got to do here with the equipment. I am actually cabled on my mic because I don’t trust bluetooth everywhere, or not everywhere, but I don’t have a bluetooth mic yet, so I’m cabled to the mic and I had to let it out. I don’t want to trip on it, so there we go.
I will say, this owl type figure is really popular here. You see it on a lot of things. I recently, or not recently, but when we first got here, I ended up buying a neck pouch that I’m hoping will help us next time we have to go through an airport. But when I bought it, I didn’t know it was going to be a year and a half, two years before I got to go back through an airport. Should be perfect for putting passports in.
I’ll cover that on some packing video…hello…and then if you got kids, oh the toys…hello, no kids.
Oh, that is what you need. That is what you need. Okay,see we’re starting to get active now.
Some things smell very strong here. Are those, is that frog?
Ah, okay.
I don’t know if those are eat straight, or if you cook with them fish. Yeah, it’s all fish. Ah, okay they have fish and they have beef. Okay, thank you.
Okay, so well I have acquired a very cute little toy when I did the dart throwing. Those darts had the feathers on them. I don’t, it would take a lot of practice to get good at that because I’m usually good at throwing games and targeting games, but you saw how badly I did. That was pretty funny, that was pretty funny. I wasn’t even close on those.
So we’ve got the sunglasses and yes, it is true. Once you see one night market you’ll see a lot of repeat. I see there’s some hats that look just like mine.
Now this guy’s pretty good, so he might be a real guy, but he, karaoke is huge here, as you might imagine. Watches. I guarantee you none of them are the brand that it says on it.
More of the paper sculptures, ah it’s a card that opens up. Very nice, thank you. Later, when I come back.
Okay, some nice lanterns yeah, if I lived here I’d have all sorts of stuff.
We’re living here right now because of the pandemic. We got, this is where we were when it all started and honestly, if you notice not everyone’s wearing masks. I should have mentioned this in the beginning, no masks because there’s no Covid here. If there’s any Covid cases in the country they are quarantined and under state control because they came in through an airport. It’s really not an issue here. So don’t think that we’re being silly. There’s just no Covid here. They’ve done a massively great job at controlling it. Whenever there’s been an outbreak they just contain it, and they contact trace.
You engrave on it? So they engrave shot glasses, they engrave shot glasses here, and then you have the wood engravings and then the stone little stone Buddhas. Those are probably pre-made.
Some kind of chunky jewelry. Oh that’s a bottle with like stuff in it, like probably perfume, okay.
Oh, those are some cool bracelets, those are some cool bracelets. I like it. They’ve got little ceramic kitty cats. Look at that. You’ve got a little ceramic kitty cats. Isn’t that cool? It’s a little ceramic kitty cats. I’m an all animal person, I love dogs, I love cats, I love them all.
Maybe I’ll do a live next time there’s a coffee bar I go to and there’s a dog that regularly sits and visits with me. So we’ve got some very colorful jewelry here and well let’s go ahead and finish.
Okay, we’ve got a lot of jewelry. This is a jewelry area. You will find a lot of night markets that aren’t 100% organized, but you’ll find often that there’s sections that cater to one thing or another. Some are more organized than others.
See? There’s that banana fabric again. I think I gotta find some of that and make a shirt out of it. What do you think? Do you like the banana fabric? Should I get a shirt made out of that? I’m liking it, it’s very popular here. It seems I see it on a lot of, a lot of shirts.
And check out these hats. I will say if you’re coming to a sunny place like this, and, it’s one of my travel tips. This is a travel tip for you. If you’re coming to a sunny place and you don’t want to pack your own sun hat, just wait till you get here, they’re going to have plenty of them to buy. They’re usually pretty affordable.
Oh, look at the little bobbing buddhas back there. Look at the little bobble buddhas back there. Those are very cool. I like those a lot.
But yeah, buy it, buy your flip-flops and your sun hat when you get here because there’s plenty of choices and they’re very affordable. I mean fifty thousand, that’s like two dollars a little. Okay, it’s like two and a quarter. So don’t bother packing it, don’t waste the space…hello…
We’ve got tea sets here. Oh, very nice. I’m showing people at home, at home and all around the world because I know we have followers from everywhere. I know some of you are tuning in now and it’s a normal time. I know it’s middle of the night for some people.
That’s the thing with our LIVES is that I can’t do them at a specific time because things happen when they happen. It’s the travel life. These things happen when they happen and you can’t always, more where you can put your own picture on it. Oh, I should do that. I have a grumpy face of Tim. I should put that picture on the the case.
It’s a fun grumpy picture of Tim, don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun picture. Ah, another carnival, more carnival games. I’m not doing that one again. We saw we saw what happened on the last one.
And toys galore. Yeah, if you have kids bring them to the night market. Just hang on to them so they don’t go running off. A flying pig.
As you can see there’s music going on. We’re gonna go find out if there’s dancing. I’m hoping my lavalier mic is doing better than I expect it to be. I’m gonna try not to yell because in the past I’ve yelled because I didn’t think you would hear me and you could easily hear me. I’d look at the recording… See, this is the,
she’s running anymore through. Oh, there’s, that’s what goes to the sugar cane and then it gets run through there and they get the juice out of it. Let’s see what’s going on up here on the stage.
Oh, we’ve got ice cream, some sort of, some form of ice cream here.
I’m not quite sure what that turns out to be. No one’s at the booth right now. So we’ve got
as I say skewers.
Okay, I’ve gotta find my way here, gotta pay a little attention where I’m going.
We’re starting to get crowded. Another part full of lights.
Chinese chess, I believe. Flip-flops galore. That’s why I say don’t bother packing flip-flops, or sun hats. Just buy them when you get here.
Okay, it’s a dj kind of set up.
You can get electronics like crazy here. You can get the modern electronics and a couple generations back.
This area is actually pretty empty, and you can pick up a taxi here.
Yeah, just got a dj up there spinning.
Oh, she has skewers and stuff too. Okay, and drinks. Okay I’m gonna take you guys out here. I’m gonna take you guys out here just a little bit because I want to show you how close we really are to the Dragon Bridge.
So we came in one side and have gone out the other side of the night market.
So I don’t know if I found anything really strange, but you guys got to see me do a really bad job of throwing feathered darts and I think I may call this my new mascot. What do you think? What do you think this thing’s name is? And do you have any idea what it is, any idea what kind of critter that’s supposed to be? If you know what kind of critter that’s supposed to be let me know, or just give me a name. What do you think I should call it? I think it’s gonna be my new, my new mascot.
Okay, so I’ve just finished with the Son Tra Night Market.
Sorry, I’m watching traffic here.
And then there’s the Dragon Bridge. Passing another skewer, skewer place. Let’s see, there’s the Dragon Bridge right through there, all the way down.
And then there’s the love bridge. It’s not really a bridge, it’s more of a walkway, closer to like the Hollywood Walk of Fame than a bridge. It’s all on the Han river, by the way, but there’s your Dragon Bridge. I’ll give you another view of it just because.
So that is a fairly typical, Southeast Asian Night Market. There were no huge surprises, but it was really, you know it’s really cool. I’m gonna go back in and, hang on let me flip it around and talk to you for a second, okay.
So that was the night market. I’ve done a full walk through, you’ve seen the whole thing. It is a fun place to come, and when you’re coming just for the fun of it and you’re hanging out, you’re having food and hanging with friends and listening to music and doing all the games and everything else it can be a really fun night, especially if this is something you’re new to, or…uh I feel like I have something furry on me, showing that little critter.
Night markets are all sorts of fun. They’re not as much Tim’s thing because he can’t see very well and so when they’re crowded, people tend to cut him off and it’s hard for him to navigate. So I do night markets on my own nowadays. He did a few early on with me but he didn’t end up loving them.
So all through Southeast Asia and I think most of Asia in general, well I can at least speak for China, have night markets here and there, depends on the city. But Southeast Asia is just all towns, most towns have them. So I recommend going to a night market.
And as I say, I hope you’ve enjoyed the look at the night market. I’m going to try and bring you various LIVE from Da Nang things, so that you can see what all this stuff is like and so you can just see what daily life here is like. I’ll show you all the cool sights and I’m gonna show you just daily things.
And this is something I think the night market’s here every night. The Dragon Bridge Fire Show is just on Saturdays and Sundays. If you want to see the Dragon Bridge shoot fire then, if you want to see the Dragon Bridge shoot fire then go check out my video from last week and you’ll see the live of the Dragon Show. And that’s it.
I think that’s the end of our LIVE. Thank you for joining me. I really appreciate you coming and I hope you had a good time.
We will see you next time.
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