I am one of those weirdos that really enjoys rainy season here in central Vietnam. There are people that loathe it but since I live so near to all I really need in a day it doesn't bother me a great deal to have to use an umbrella or god forbid, even get wet when I get stuck in a downpour.
We have strange weather right now because when I woke up this morning the rain was absolutely hammering down and now when I am looking out my windows there isn't a single cloud in sight.
One of the main benefits of rainy season is that the construction gets called off on a regular basis because I guess those guys can't work in the rain. So not only do you get the peaceful pitter patter of rainfall, but the jerks who seem to want to throw every piece of metal that they possibly can, as hard and as loudly as they possibly can, aren't able to work. I suppose we are just delaying the inevitable by making them take longer to finish but if you lived here, you would understand why that is something we relish.
There has always been flooding here where I live. This is unpreventable there being so many people here and being so close to the sea but in just the years that I have lived here I have seen the vast improvements they have made to the overall drainage of the city and I guess they have done a good job of it.
The other day I got trapped out at a restaurant because the skies truly opened up. The roads had a good 5 inches of water in them and the buildings are designed to keep this out of the front doors since everyone's houses are a bit high above the street I guess specifically for this purpose.
[src](https://cdn2.tuoitre.vn/471584752817336320/2026/10/8/base64-17914430919541556819446-1791451064105341103511.jpeg)I didn't take this picture because I don't trust the waterproof claims of my phone it really isn't that uncommon to see the roads end up like this.
But the cool thing is that just a few minutes after the downpour stops, all of this is gone. The drainage is adequate I guess because outside of certain corners where mistakes were made with the gradient, the water makes its way into the gutter and then out to sea.
It's kind of gross to be out near the ocean when this happens because all the filth of the streets of Da nang just heads out into the ocean and man oh man does it stink.
I often will see people who don't know any better that are sunbathing near these drainage points where the city runoff meets the ocean and I wonder how many people have ended up with some sort of horrible illness because they are splashing away in the water not realizing that they are swimming in street filth and probably a bunch of urine as well. I don't often get into the ocean so this doesn't affect my life a great deal but I wonder if there could have been a better way to handle this.
I suppose the water has to go somewhere and given the rather low income level of the society here I guess they are doing about as well as can be expected.
Nadi doesn't have a great deal of understanding about what rain actually is but I do know that she doesn't like it. If the storm is violent and I am not home, I will often return to the house and find that she has been cowering under the sink in one of the bathrooms.
She also doesn't get to go outside during the days where it rains all day long. She wouldn't understand what is going on and then after we got back home she would be required to take a bath and if you know me and Nadi at all, you know that Nadi doesn't like baths and I would rather not have to give them.
Staying on point though, I have to say that I am quite impressed with the municipal handling of such a huge amount of water that can often fall on this city in the span of just a few hours. If the drainage wasn't done correctly it would backflow and flood like it did all those years ago when the street got wiped out along the shore and my basement got badly flooded.
These are risks I am willing to take though because the temp drops a lot, and the rain washes the pollution out to sea and at least for a little while, the streets actually seem kind of clean.
It's just a shame I guess that in order for this to happen it also means that they are polluting the crap out of the ocean. Vietnam does have a bit of a reputation for doing exactly that though and they are considered one of the worst polluters in the world.
