Da Nang is a great city but has some downsides
If you are Vietnamese please don't think that I am bagging on your country in this entry. That isn't the case at all. I am very fortunate to have gotten into the country when I did because if I had waited just a teensy bit longer I would not have been allowed to come in even until now. I moved here from Thailand and February and for the most part things have been good, but just like anywhere there are going to be some downsides - and some of these things are actually my own fault especially the first one.
There are way too many people in this city
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.vietreader.com/uploads/posts/2020-09/travel_danang-beaches-crowded-again-as-covid-19-pandemic-under-control-1.jpg)
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Any time you go to do almost anything there are going to be a ton of other people there. This is true despite the fact that tourism is almost completely dead in this city. I have never been witness to how crowded everywhere could be if tourism was actually happening and honestly, I am not looking forward to that.
There are more than a million people here and the area itself is quite compact. This leads to travel going almost anywhere being a bit of a traffic nightmare. Therefore, I rarely leave this particular area that I live in.
The beach really isn't that great
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0f/78/98/3f/d-ch-v-luu-tru-dfg-beach.jpg)
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Well that picture looks amazing and I should just shut up because what the hell man? Too bad that is a professional photographer's photoshopped picture that is an advertisement from a hotel website. I can assure you, that is not what it looks like here. I question if that picture is even Da Nang even though where I got the image from claims that it is.
The water here for the most part is grey and actually kind of dirty looking to the point where I hesitate to really get in it at all. Which brings about another aspect of the beach that I don't like. You aren't allowed to go swimming anywhere on the main beach other than pre-approved lifeguard roped in areas. Therefore if you do go swimming you are going to bumping shoulders with strangers if it is at all crowded. I've seen it very crowded down there and this was an immediate "nope" from me.
Surf? What surf?
One of the things that is advertised pretty heavily here is the fact that this is a surfing beach but I don't see how anyone can really justify this statement. I'll admit that I am not the best surfer but I do know a bit. Mostly the only waves we even get here are shorebreak (the waves that break on the sand) and you aren't supposed to surf those anyway unless you enjoy breaking your neck and the board you are on also.
Maybe there is a certain season that I don't know about but thus far I haven't seen anything that I would consider a surfing beach anywhere around here. It certainly isn't in Da Nang city.
Dude, the littering
I remember seeing a statistic about how Vietnam does a little less than awesome when it comes to pollution and you don't really have to look very far to see that this notion is justified even on a local level. There is garbage just discarded EVERYWHERE. When I take my dog for a walk I don't bring a plastic poopie bag with me because I know that i'm only gonna have to take about 4 steps away from the entrance of my condo before I find one lying on the sidewalk.
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I don't know what the mindset is of a person that thinks it is just ok to throw stuff wherever or even worse to just dump a bunch of crap on the ground at a park, which is what the scene above is even though I did not take the photo. I'll maybe focus on that one of these days.
The parks and public squares are very nicely maintained but this is only because of the army of people that are cleaning it up on a daily basis. I'm not big on police presences but I honestly wouldn't mind if there was some sort of enforcement against people littering. It's just trash trash everywhere no matter where you go in this town.
So it probably seems like I am venting / whinging a bit and yeah, that is exactly what I am doing.
There are other downsides that I could include such as the lack of nature and the construction noise that is never-ending, but I suppose I've done enough complaining.
Nowhere is perfect and this place has a lot of upsides, the main ones being that visa policy is very attractive and easy/cheap, the authorities kind of leave you alone all the time (LOVE that aspect of it here), and this is by far the least expensive place that I have ever lived in that I can easily do so for under $1000 a month while eating nearly every meal at a restaurant.
littering can be solved with my @trashtoken you get paid trash tokens for picking up trash and posting it on steemit and it can be a DANCE, an ART form , something to take pride in
for example, normally cleaning is looked down upon BUT
If trash is seen as gold something to re organize to sort, to get paid via steem bots, then there's no limit to how clean we can make the world
EARTH CLEANERS is a lesson from an episode of king of the hill , bobby joins a dog poop cleaning company but is shown how the main who owns the cleaning business is rich and has a model wife, a million dollar mansion and works whenever he wants to
https://steem-engine.com/?p=market&t=TRASH
https://steempeak.com/@trashdapp
Yeah, every place has it's ups and downs. Honestly, since we left Da Nang, we actually miss it quite a bit. I think it comes down to the relationships we have there. The surf season is supposedly September-March I believe. We did get some good surf while we were there but I agree that it's very inconsistent. I will say that the designated swimming areas are there for good reason as the rip currents are extremely strong and can be very dangerous for people who are not comfortable in the ocean (we had to save a Korean tourist who got ripped out on a foamy one day). That said, I can see how it would be very frustrating for someone who is more comfortable in the ocean to feel like they're being penned in, haha. The lifeguards with their little whistles are too much! Hope you can find more things to enjoy than things that frustrate you!
I still mostly like it here. The tremendous value is a big part of it.
I remember hearing about the rip tides and ok, I guess I can understand that part of it. If you go out on any sort of floatation device it doesn't seem to apply so i guess I'll get a boogieboard. The surf hasn't impressed me enough to feel like investing in an actual surfboard. Seriously, i can find nothing but shorebreak outside of very rare occurrences.
Question 🙋🏻♂️ nowhere is perfect.
Blurt.blog is not perfect but you have some money over there. And I became a witness. Are you interested 🤔
I've heard other people mention blurt but I dunno if i want to join another blogging site. It's just too many things to log into to be honest. I'm lazy, what can i say :)
Positive and negative sides to every city, its just that which side overcomes and is benificial.