Spooky scenes during a storm in Da Nang

Rainy and violent storm season is upon us in Da Nang and the temperature has already begun to drop, the winds have picked up, and it could rain at any time. It is a regular thing for an entire day to go by without seeing the sun at all.

Sounds awful to some people but I kind of enjoy it. I wouldn't want to live somewhere that is like this year round, but given that it is extremely hot here most of the year, a couple month break is something I welcome.

I took a stroll in the cool weather yesterday and went to some places that might normally have a few people around. Today, I rarely encountered another human as the winds were so strong there were times I had to fight against it to avoid being knocked over.

The waves are erratic and fast because of the winds and there is a bunch of debris on the ground because nobody is cleaning up until the storm has passed. In this particular part of the beach it is likely they will not bother to clean up since this is behind a failed shopping center about 4km south of the populated beach areas of the city.

It's kind of a shame that this shopping center / hotel / resort didn't take off because it looks like it could have been pretty nice and according the sign, it also contained a movie theater at one point. Now it just has a couple of security guards monitoring the property.

As beach access goes, this is one of the nicest entrances to the beach to be found anywhere in the city.

At the end of the access road, there is an ominous sign letting you know that you are on your own if you get in the water. I can't really imagine that many people would consider getting in because trash is rolling all around and the waves are so inconsistent that even the surfers don't bother to get in these days.

Something that is kind of strange about the choices property developers decide to make in this city is evident in this part of town. The gigantic shopping mall / condos / hotel thing obviously didn't go over very well and failed badly despite having international corporate support yet just a couple hundred meters down the road from this failed project they are in the process of building another one that is very similar to it.

Look at that monster! I counted several hundred balconies on the exterior of both sides and that was just the outside units. There are probably more.

I don't understand how someone can go and throw what is bound to be tens of millions of dollars (more than that?) at a project in an area that has already proven with the failure of the first one, that this area isn't going to support a structure of this magnitude. If I was an investor I would bring up this very obvious point at the board meetings.

This huge building somehow looks evil in the dark and windy sky. It's almost like there is some sort of video game boss fight that is going to take place inside of there.

The beach down at this point is really nothing special and if I paid to stay at this hotel, should they finish it, I think I would be quite upset. The beach loses its allure pretty quickly especially if nobody does anything about clearing up the trash and then when you do finally bail on that, you are at least 4km from the other things to do in the city and you also are not close to very many simple things like restaurants.

I don't know if I will be here when it opens but I would imagine that it will go to the wayside just like so many other projects have between here and Hoi An. I guess the plan is to just sit on it until the area is ready...

We have at least 2 more months of the weather being like this and I am not at all disappointed about that. I live with a ton of restaurants around and if I have to walk a bit in the wind and rain that is fine by me!