The amount of drunks in Da Nang is really high

I am only commenting about the foreigners here because sadly, I have made very little effort to become part of the culture here. I speak almost none of the language and I justify this because of the fact that Vietnamese is considered one of the most difficult languages on the planet as it is very unforgiving with the tones. However, the reality is that I could learn it if I put forth an effort but I just don't feel like it.

I don't know what the impression is that the locals have of us foreigners here but I think I can safely say that it is a love/hate sort of thing. We bring money into the economy and the part of town that I live in likely wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the relatively large amount of tourists that come here and the amount of expats that live here. The land isn't useful for anything else and before Da Nang became a tourism center, this part near the sea was almost completely undeveloped. Now it is constant construction all the time.

The other day I woke up really early because I had enough sleep and well, there's no reason to stay in bed at that point. It was 5am and I went into my living room and got an early start on my day's work. While I was there at my computer desk I heard shouting in the street in English and the voices were getting closer.

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The voices sounded almost aggressive and they were very loud especially for that time of day. When I went out to my balcony I was a little less than impressed when I discovered that 2 of the 5 staggering lads headed down the road were people that I know. I hate to see this because when it does happen, the Vietnamese are going to notice and they probably have the impression that we are all like that.

I have been a rather polite person most of my life and even if I was seriously drunk - which is something I very rarely do - I would likely still be polite and quiet in the middle of the night. Many Vietnamese people wake up very early and go to bed really early as well, it is just the way life is here, so this must have been a very annoying situation for all of them, especially the people who are up with their kids getting them ready for school.

To make matters worse, one of the guys that was walking that I do not know, decided to smash his empty beer bottle on the street on purpose.

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This made me particularly angry because in a country as hot as this one most people, including me, wear flip flops most of the time and now I have to contend with potentially being cut while just walking.

I sent a message to one of the guys that I knew the following day and kind of told him off for it. He apologized but said he doesn't remember any of it. I don't know if he was expecting forgiveness because of being blackout drunk but I wasn't going to offer any to him. This kind of behavior would get you arrested in the country that I come from but here in Vietnam they tend to turn the other way and I have never heard of the police ever arresting anyone regardless of how drunk and disorderly they are.

This is a dark truth of the expat community here and probably all of the cheaper South East Asian countries. The expat community or at least some of it sees this part of the world as their playground where they can do whatever they want and there are not going to be any repercussions. The Vietnamese for the most part are a stand-offish people and don't want to cause any problems, but this looks bad for all of us that are foreigners that live here. Even though I didn't do anything wrong the people who see these people behaving this way might have a negative opinion of me and every other expat that comes their direction and that is just sad. It's unfair but it is sad.

Maybe it is because I have never been a raging alcoholic and I tend to be home before midnight, but I can't understand how these people are able to function in their lives if they stay out all night long and stumble home, making a ruckus along the way.

In my building we once had a guy like this that lived here and he would bring people back from the bars to his condo and have zero respect for the neighbors and would start blasting music at 2am or even later. When confronted by neighbors he would become violent. Thankfully, the landlord kicked him out after just a few weeks of living here so I am glad that we have a responsible landlord.

For the most part I really enjoy living overseas but when people start doing stuff like this it makes it more and more likely that the government and the people are going to see us as a nuisance and this will negatively impact our ability to legally live here. So screw these guys and anyone else that behaves like them. I get that you want to have fun but if you are doing it at the expense of other people's lives, you are an asshole and I hope you get deported.