The weather here in Da Nang has been unpredictable; if there is one thing that is certain, it is rain. Our hotel is within walking distance from the beach, so I decided to walk there. A man on a moped approached me and offered to take me around to take pictures. I refused in Vietnamese, this was where I made my mistake, and kept on walking. He followed me for a good 2 minutes, at which point I turned around and screamed khong can dau, or I dont need your service. I, then, hopped off a concrete platform to access the beach, leaving the man on his moped staring down at me, but was not able to follow. I dont doubt that he has good intentions, but there is no chance in hell Im hopping on any strangers moped here. I had the entire stretch of beach to myself due to the weather. Dark clouds covered the beach and high wind tossed waves into the shores as I left prints on the soft and coarse sand. A group of natives stripped off their clothes, tied them to the the very poll that says swimming prohibited, and ran towards the shivering and stormy water; only to be greeted by the blaring whistles of the lifeguard. I came across a couple, Zoe and Stan, who are English teachers from the US and UK, respectively. We chit chatted for a bit and I invited them to join us for dinner. I was surprised to find them being anything other than Aussies, every foreigner who I had come across up to this point has been Australians. By looking around, I could tell that this beach once would have rivaled some of the best beaches in the world. Sadly, the lack of tourism had made this part of the beach unattended and falling apart; literally, one brick at a time. Trash such as plastic wrappings, empty bottles, tree branches, and styrofoam could be found on the shoreline. The Dragon Bridge costed the city $88 Million to build, they could spend a fraction of that to clean up this high potential beach.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 09:26:50 +0000