Life in Da Nang

It’s been a while since I moved to Da Nang, I came in November with a good deal of money saved up and the hopes of quickly finding a house and a job. The house came quickly – I found a three-bedroom Vietnamese style house within walking distance of the beach; the job did not – I’ve been working only sporadically.

The move from Hanoi to Da Nang has been a story of trade-offs. The shopping isn’t as good as it was in Hanoi. The pay is definitely not as good as it was in Hanoi. But on the other hand, I’m paying for a house here what I used to pay for a studio apartment in Hanoi – and no housing is anywhere near a beach in Hanoi.  Besides, life in Da Nang has something I never had in Hanoi – quietude.

My average day in Da Nang consists of eating breakfast, running some errands, laying out on the beach at around 11AM, and then coming back for lunch and a nap before going to teach at night. Because no sane Vietnamese would go to the beach in the sunniest part of the day, I get it almost all to myself. Sometimes I’ll skip the beach and go for a quick motorcycle ride up to our local rainforest park called Monkey Mountain, and it only takes me twenty minutes to reach the top – 500 meters – to then sit in silence and watch the wind blow through the canopy. So either I can take an outing to the beach or the mountains and still have time to come back for lunch and a rest before a night’s work. Oh yes, I usually remember to post a snide comment on my facebook page like, “Hi, just had a great time at the beach – how’s snow shoveling going back in Minnesota?” at least once a week.

A cool January Day on the beach near my house, Monkey Mountain in the Background and China Beach all around.

The winter was nothing like the gray cold affairs of Hanoi which stretch on until April, we got a mix of rain and sun in Da Nang, the temperatures stayed in the high 70’sF. So I was swimming in the sea till mid December. The temperature in March has been on a slow climb, but I still have avoided using the air conditioner, letting in the ocean breeze through the windows. I’ve really enjoyed my lifestyle change since moving from Hanoi, I suppose the only problem with Da Nang is that it is too perfect of a location. Because of it’s a small city with wide roads, no pollution, a beach and lovely country-side all around – it is THE place that every English teacher and expat wants to move to. Consequently, there are fewer working hours for everyone and even less pay to go around – I still haven’t moved into positive cash flow yet.

If work continues to be so scant I may have to stow the beach towel and head back to Hanoi for a few months to rebuild my savings, yet hopefully it won’t come to that. For several years, I’ve been trying to find a place in the world that I like, that has a nice atmosphere, good location, and is a place where I can make a living. Traveling from place to place gets quite old. I’d like Da Nang to be such a place, but so far this is still not a certainty.