Gloomy season is here!

I live at the beach and normally living at the beach is exactly what you would expect in a tropical country. Lots of sun, lots of heat, lots of people around doing beach things but for a few months every year the scene totally changes here in Da Nang , Vietnam.

It's probably called monsoon or typhoon season and the weather changes dramatically during this time as does the "motion of the ocean."

I never really got in the water all that frequently here anyway because I don't think the water is anything special. Also, the lifeguards won't allow us to swim anywhere outside of the designated areas and while it is all in the name of safety, I don't want to swim in a cordoned off area with dozens of other people crammed together. That isn't my idea of a good time.

These days though, the lifeguards have a very easy job because almost no one ever gets in the water since the temperature has dropped a great deal and the waves are quite violent.

The only people that really even use the beach are walkers and fisherman for the next month or so and the sky stays cloudy basically all the time. This doesn't really bother me a great deal because I appreciate the drop in temperature.

For the next few months we enjoy quite cool temperatures that we do not get the rest of the year. It gets cold enough at night that jeans and maybe even a jacket are in order. During the other 10 months it is blisteringly hot here, even at night. Therefore I find this time of year to be something to look forward to and I think a lot of the other expats here feel the same way.

This probably wouldn't be a great time to come for a beach vacation but for those of us that live here, a lot of us enjoy this time of year more than any other time.