Rainy season is upon us... and I love it

For people that see Vietnam as a tourist destination, this is the least popular time of year because it is quite likely to rain on and off, or just on, all day, every day, for sometimes weeks at a time. This is accompanied by wind and the normal things you would expect with a rainy season, and the amount of people that are here almost completely dries up.

This stretch of beach and many others like it nearby is normally inundated with hundreds of tourists but the win and rain is keeping them away. I don't know if they are even here as I would imagine that people are aware that the weather can be like this often from now until around early Feb.

The tides are quite strong during this time of year as well so the areas that you are allowed to swim in are quite limited but that doesn't matter that much to me since I never swim in the ocean anyway.

I spent a lot of time living on the East Coast of USA where the water looks like this year round so I have no idea if it is actually dangerous or not but (and I mean this with zero sense of insult) Asians are generally poor swimmers and drown easy I guess. Da nang and Vietnam in general has an excellent track record of drowning prevention and it is probably largely because of all the rules.

The footpaths and beach-access roads are normally completely filled with motorbikes but not during this time of year and even though they have a no-dog rule at these places, they just wave you on through during this time of year because there is a good chance that you are going to be the only person on the sand. I love it.

The few motorbikes that are at these places are likely the property of the lifeguards and other staff as well as a few surfers here and there. During other times of the year they have to employ someone to do parking enforcement because people will just block other bikes in if left unchecked. Honestly, it's pretty chaotic.

Another thing I quite enjoy is that my favorite restaurants are empty and even though they allowed it before, they are extra nice to Nadi when we arrive and nobody puts up a fuss about me bringing my dog in. This particular restaurant is really struggling and not just because they put cheese on the chips that come with your guacamole either. There's simply no customers to be had.

There is a chef here that is afraid of dogs, even really small, cute, and harmless ones like Nadi and the other staff members set him up to get spooked by Nadi. It was cute.

Relax dude! She couldn't hurt you if she wanted to, and she doesn't want to. I tried to get him to give Nadi a piece of food to prove that she is harmless but he wasn't having it. I get phobias, I'm afraid of balloons.... explain that one?

The only real downside to this time of year is that you have to bring an umbrella with you everywhere but that doesn't really bother me that much unless I need to carry a dog and a bag of some sort as well. Other than that I really appreciate this time of year because I am not a suntan-desiring type of person anyway. The reduced crowds, the shutdown of construction sites, the much less congested streets, all of these things are a wonderful thing for me.

The temperature is still hot enough to make me sweat though even though the locals are running around with hoodies and long pants on. They say that you acclimate to a temperature if you live somewhere long enough but for me, that hasn't been the case even after 20 years. So this is just one added benefit for me.

If you don't mind rain and hate crowds, this could be the perfect time to visit Da Nang!