Deciding where to live is a very important part of your journey in being an expat in Da Nang. It can make all the difference between who you hang out with, what sort of stuff you have access to, and how much you are going to pay per month. While this city isn't geographically huge, there are a lot of people here (over 1 million) so when you are choosing a place to live, you might find yourself spending a lot of time in your neighborhood and hardly ever leaving it because of traffic. I know that I rarely leave mine.
Today I am going to somewhat cynically take a look at criteria you should keep in mind when choosing a place to call home in this fine city.
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The above is probably the idea you are going to have in mind with how you are going to live your life in this wonderful beachside city but I'll go ahead and say "good luck with that because it almost certainly isn't going to happen."
If you can even find a place that is sea view that does long-term rentals it is going to cost a relative fortune because these places, even now in the absence of tourism, are hesitant to charge anything other than daily rates. What is more likely is that you are going to live a few blocks from the beach and this is where things get a bit tricky.
It seems as though this entire city is under construction and while there would be laws regarding noise that probably exist in your country, they sure as shit don't exist here and avoiding construction noise is something that is VERY important and also very difficult to accomplish. I've lived in 3 different places and have basically given up at this point and settled on a condo with double-glazed somewhat soundproof windows. The construction noise comes from all direction and after a while you forget it is there, that is unless it is right next door to you. Here are some tips on how to avoid this.
When looking at a potential condo, if there is a vacant lot next to it, do NOT sign a long term lease. Sure they will offer you price incentives to you in order to do so but that vacant lot... well, it isn't going to stay that way for very long. This area seems to have an objective to build something on every available plot of land and it is never-ending.
You might be thinking "oh that plot of land is too small for them to put anything of consequence there" and you would be terribly wrong in this assumption.
There is a reason why most buildings here do not have windows on the sides of them and that is because the owners know it is only a matter of time until someone builds something that is damn near flush with the building next to it. There doesn't seem to be any vertical limitations on buildings where I live and people are just building taller and taller. It's ugly as hell even when they are finished. Very few operations bother with purchasing the land next to it in order to prevent this from happening. I can't think of even one to be honest.
Sure you can go ahead and move into these places month-by-month but once the decision gets made to build something, it is going to be going on for a very long time and they don't give half a damn about your sleep schedule.
If you are already living somewhere and you are walking nearby your condo one day and spot a pile of rocks, sand, or bricks, go ahead and make plans to relocate. These are the early warning signs of upcoming relentless noise. What is even worse is when you see one of these things get dropped off.
It would be wonderful if this was just someone's storage unit but no, this is going to be a construction office and probably for a very big project the likes of which you can see in the background of the same picture. I have 3 of these that I can see from the roof of my building and the only reason why I am not moving now is because I don't know how much longer I am going to be in this country. I have a rooftop pool and I wish it could be a relaxing experience but it can't be unless you are currently under the water. We have the sounds of power-tools coming from all directions from around 7am until about 10pm every damn day of the week.
Another surefire sign of upcoming unrelenting noise is when you encounter this. This pile of debris from where a structure once stood has been that way for a long time. I presume that Covid put a stop to whatever plan they had to build on the same lot but rest-assured, as soon as they can resume the pile-driving, drilling, and cement trucks arriving very late into the night, that is precisely what they are going to do.
If you want a quiet place to live in Da Nang I'll go ahead and go out on a limb and say that the only way that you are going to be able to accomplish this is going to be living in a kind of out of the way location that no one wants to build on. This means not being near the beach in most situations.
I kind of regret my decision to try to live so close to the beach since I rarely use the beach anyway. If quiet is what you are after and trust me, after a while it will be because it is so terribly rare here, you need to move into one of the neighborhoods where the streets are too small for it to ever accommodate meaningful levels of traffic. This doesn't guarantee quiet by any means, but it does make it a lot more likely.
I've been thinking lately of what would I value most in a place to live and it comes down to two things. Light and quiet. I had to realize I am willing to sacrifice space to get lights and quiet. However, it's very difficult to find the perfect home for you, no matter where you are or how much money you have.
I too am willing to sacrifice space for this and it is kind of the situation I am in now. My condo is small but comfortable and has lots of natural light. I wouldn't exactly call it scenic though since this is a concrete jungle.
I spent a good number of years happily living in Toronto. The one place was central, had an outdoor place with seats, was on the ground floor and was cheap because we had roomates. Almost perfect except for the HUGE Portuguese family living next door who launched each day with all of their contracting team warming up diesel trucks and yelling at eachother from 7:30am on.
The next place was my first home that was 2 doors down from the junction of train tracks. The high-speed go train would scream by several times an hour to the point I almost didn't hear it anymore.
Now, I am happily out in a small town and the silence is almost deafening. Something special about the quiet and the frequencies not running through the body from traffic and construction!
So cool to see your adventure and challenges to overcome.
A long time ago I was excited about moving into a house with my own pool in the middle of the jungle. This was in Thailand. There were times that I really enjoyed this but times that I didn't like if I forgot to pick something up on the way home it was a big rigmarole to actually go back out and get it.
In that situation it was sometimes too quiet. I'm not easily frightened but I remember turning off a scary movie I was watching for the first time in my adult life when I lived out there.
ooof, I wouldn't like this at all. But like you said, you kind of block it out after a while. Especially if my doors are closed, I hardly even notice the construction noise at all because I've just gotten used to it.
Oh for sure. I just remember my little baby being a little startled when there was the rumbling and felt bad.
Still, living in the noisy apartment put me in a position to buy and enjoy my first house. That noisy house lead to my second house which is now worth 3 times what I spent on it and I have a great garden now too.
Those trials lead to better stuff. Now I just have to get out of this comfy house and live a little more!
I have never experienced living in a hotel or condo, but I am always amazed on how they look like, But i did experienced living in aparments in a city, good thing they were inside subdivisions, like exclusive to homeowners. From my childhood and now we're back here, we're used to live with rural areas, lots of tress, farm animals and many insect sounds during night then rooster and chicken sounds in the morning haha, I've also dreamt of having a beach house but for now that's just a dream hehe. Thanks for sharing a piece about Vietnam and your thoughts :)
I would have thought there was certain times they could make noise. then again like you ay don't presume as 10pm is nuts. Stayed in a hotel once and on the very first morning outside my door pneumatic drills started as it was time to build a new pool. I left that same day as this was from early till after 6pm daily and with no warning.
This is a very big problem for a lot of the hotels as they don't tell their guests that there is a massive high rise being built next door when the people make a booking. Obviously the guests are not pleased by this surprise and check out early and probably leave bad reviews for the hotel in question.
You're making me think about moving to Vietnam and renting a condo! Near the beach! With a sea view!..:))
Lol, yes, the noise. I live in Romania, a coutry that sometimes is behind the most EU countries but there are rules here every construction site has to follow, otherwise the license can be revoked. Noise can be made up until certain hours and definitely not till late night.
It's surprising though to learn they are ignoring such basic rules.
I was surprised how laid back this country is as far as a lot of things are concerned. I expected it to be very authoritarian seeing as how it is a communist country but as far as I have seen people can basically do whatever they want. This has up and downsides of course, the construction free-for-all being one of the downsides. The upsides being that the government basically stays out of your life in all other regards. I rarely even see police or other government officials and since it is a safe country, I can't say that I am disappointed about the lack of that.
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Rarely can you ever have your cake and eat it too, but you're pretty well-traveled in this part of the world, so it definitely seems the negatives outweigh the positives. It's a similar situation in Cambodia too, and now that we're living in a rather wild outpost town, I no longer hear cement mixers and power tools combined with roosters crowing, something my body seemingly needs now to fall asleep.
I must now get used to chainsaws, neighbors' hacking coughs, and the sound of the monks repeating Pali language chants through a PA system.
Been a while since i've heard the monks chanting because strangely, Vietnam is a largely Christian country or some sort of religion that doesn't have structures that people gather at.
I do recall that at first the monk chanting was something I liked and found endearing and cool but after the 7000th time I had to listen to it go on for 40 minutes it kind of lost its appeal.
Totally dude. I feel as though I have made a terrible mistake by moving here and will be relieved when I get out. It has been an adventure but for the most part this country doesn't feel like home to me and I'm quite excited about getting back to Thailand, which is something that is getting in the works as we speak.
I wish you success with the move, we're currently working on buying land near the Trat border, the area is set to have a new international border crossing open up soon. I understand the feeling of a place not being home, we're kind of in a smaller version of that now. Although Cambodia is home, we're still waiting for a new town or village to grab our attention.
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