The monsoon or rainy season will soon be upon us in full force here in Da Nang and while rain is annoying, I welcome it because it chases away most of the tour busses for a while and the temperature drops a rather large amount for a few months.
We aren't there yet, but we got a bit of a preview the past few days about what almost every day is going to be like soon.
Dark skies, winds, and frightening looking ambiance that could wet your whistle (and the rest of you) rather quickly. It is advisable to always have an umbrella with you wherever you go, even if it doesn't look like you need it at the time.
One of the downsides of this time of year though is that Nadi doesn't get to go for as many walks as she normally would. Some days she has to get reacquainted with the indoor "doggy pee pads" because even though she doesn't understand why this is, she wouldn't like to be out there sniffing around in the pouring rain.
So since most of the other day was like this, I decided to mostly carry her for a romantic dinner with just me.
My dog is such a good dog. She calmly sits in any chair that I put her in and it would take something pretty special for her to jump down. While I do not give her many opportunities to violate this policy, she understands that the pizza on the table is not to be gone after but if she sits there patiently she will end up getting some of it.
This restaurant by the way is called Roadhouse and they specialize in being cheap and cheerful. The pizzas and burgers are just "fine" in that they are nothing to write home about but they are quick and the prices is very appealing. They don't have much of a furniture budget though and why should they? This place is exclusively outdoors.
Before the pizza arrived Nadi wouldn't really even look at me. She isn't mad at me, that's just the way that she is. It's amazing how much some cheese and bread can change her attention span though. I can make her look at anything once that is part of the equation.
She sat calmly in her seat the entire time I was there. A few of the staff came by to say hello to her but none of the other patrons did. I don't know if I look like a crazy person sitting there on my own with a dog but as I have gotten older I find myself becoming less and less outgoing and not really wanting to meet and talk to strangers. Nadi can help with this from time to time because if someone does approach us, it isn't for me, it is for her.. and now we have a conversation piece.
Another thing I like about Roadhouse is that they don't disallow pets. I didn't even ask if I could bring her in because the place it outdoors and the furniture didn't exactly look as thought it was super clean or anything.
In all the times that we have been going out to eat together I have only been reprimanded a single time for having her with me and when that happened I was calm about it. It is their restaurant after all and they can restrict or disallow whatever they want in it. I will say that I was a little bit cheeky happy when the one place that had a tiff about my dog being there with me went out of business earlier in 2026.
Nadi needs to get used to being carried and made to sit at a table because even though I don't think she really understands what rain is, she cannot be permitted to run around in it. When that happens, the rare instances where it happens it is almost always because we got caught out in the rain and Nadi will normally look back at me like she is upset with me for throwing water on her... I'm not doing it sweetheart!
We have many months of this coming up and I have even gotten a couple of doggy sweaters for her when this cold starts happening. I normally don't like dog clothes but while I have not acclimated to the hot temps of SE Asia at all, my dog, who is a cold weather dog in her DNA, expects warmth.
She also expects pizza. Even though she is on a doctor-recommended diet I still give her small bits of the crust when she behaves... and she always behaves.
