Bring on the rain I say!

In Da Nang, Vietnam we basically have 2.5 seasons. We have the hot as hell, can't do anything outside because of the heat and humidity season, and then we have the cool season. There is a "rainy season" in there as well which some people call monsoon season or whatever and it is a lot more likely to rain during this time of year. It isn't like it is portrayed in movies though where the rain is just non-stop for months. There is a lot of rain this time of year but it isn't like it is a constant deluge.

The sun doesn't break through on a lot of these days and if someone needed to scoot around on a motorbike for work or whatever this would probably be pretty annoying but since I do not own a motorbike, have only driven one once here, and see no reason to ever drive yourself when taxis are just a bit above free, I don't see the point.

But there are some really big upsides for this time of year and the increased rains.

This is the mid-day or "all day" sky right now and yeah, it's gloomy and every hour or so the rain will crash down, sometimes violently. For the most part it is a mild rain that people from the UK can probably relate to a great deal.

The upsides of all of this is that it is dramatically cooler already and today in the first day in many months that I haven't needed to turn on my air conditioning at all. I am not stingy, I don't mind paying for air con, but the filtration is not very good and I find myself having sensitive sinuses because of it. So if I can, I will always opt to instead have some level of natural air flow in my condo if possible.

That's a big plus for me because one of my biggest gripes about living here is the intense heat and I am happy to wave it bye bye for the new 4-5 months or so.

There is a bigger benefit though.

These a-holes, who are the bane of my existence from 7am until 8pm or even later on most days, are incapable of annoying the entire neighborhood while this is going on. You can' t pour cement in the rain if you want it to work properly. So they are reduced to a skeleton crew during the rainy season and some of the builds just close up shop for the entirety of the season. You can't just have a ton of people turning up and getting paid each day when they aren't even going to be able to do what they are there for. I suppose it is tragic for the workers who now are out of work but good grief guys. 13 hours a day of relentless construction noise will drive anyone to madness.

The streets stay wet basically all the time even between showers and this introduces a little bit of a problem for my furry roommate Nadi. I do not allow her to go outside until the street dries up a bit because since she has a really low clearance with her tiny little legs, she tends to bring so much filth back from our walks on her undercarriage. I am sure this makes her upset a bit because like most dogs, she really looks forward to her time outside.

She has spent the past 2 days exclusively indoors and while I do take her up to the gym to run around a bit, she doesn't get to touch the street until it is either dry or I am ready to give her a bath. If she had the comprehension of her options of either going outside and having to take a bath afterwards or not going outside and not needing to take a bath I know which one she would choose. She is housetrained and uses pee-pads to do her business when nature calls, so it's not like this is hurting her.

So even though a lot of people really don't like the rainy season I absolutely love it. It probably sucks for the guys that deliver my food to me but I always tip them a bit if it is raining at the moment. Bring on more of the rain! I love it!