If I was to choose one aspect of living in Da Nang that I don't particularly care for it would be the not-so-wide-range of activities that are available to people here. Due to the congested nature of the compressed city it seems as though they only things we have to do are go to the beach, go out to eat and drink, or participate in consumerism. As someone that has only purchased a pair of shoes and ONE shirt in the past 2 years I am not going to participate in the last thing. My objective is to leave here with the same amount of stuff I arrived with so that isn't something I ever seek out doing.
So even though I probably could seek out other things such as venturing outside of town to the north or south of here, I find myself doing the same things over and over again. I suppose it could be worse but even in a lovely beach setting, it gets old after a while.
My friends and I go down to the beach, which we can see from our balconies, 3 times a week or so and we just end up sitting there and drinking overpriced beer. Not only does this make us fat(ter) but it also costs us 3x as much as it would if we just went up to our own rooftop where we have the same view. I've kind of gotten tired of doing it and should probably take it upon myself to simply not go anymore.
We also find ourselves going to the same bars in the same part of town and talking to almost exclusively the same people every time. I like my friends, don't get me wrong, but after a while this just seems like a waste of time and money.
The other day I wandered off on my own with Nadi and went to a bar I had never heard of because they were playing Pantera in there and this is really rare. I loved Pantera as a kid and haven't heard anyone playing it anywhere for 20 years or so and therefore I always go in anywhere that is playing it. Thankfully they were very receptive of Nadi (my dog) coming in along with me.
She enjoys going to new places and it actually works out for both of us because she does a good job of breaking the ice with strangers for me. Dogs, especially tiny cute ones like Nadi that are well-behaved, do a very good job of roping in the strangers for me. Even though this was a new place and a new style of bar, it really wasn't any different that the others that we go to and of course if you get drunk - which I tend to - the next day seems even more mundane than the one before.
When I lived in Chiang Mai I had the option of riding my bicycle in just about any direction and discovering something interesting or at least containing some level of nature. Here in Da Nang you have the beach, and that's all. I would probably like it a bit more if the waves were something worth talking about but despite their claims of this being a surfing beach, it is not. The waves are weak as hell and I have only tried to surf on them once. It was lame.
In other news I also finally got some reading glasses and finished a book that I had been working on for over a year.
This is another one of those self-help guru books that has a dreamy idea about what life should be like and mostly I was rolling my poorly-functioning eyes on a regular basis while reading it. The platitudes about how everyone should pursue what they love and take more time for meditation and mindfulness reminds me of several "life coaches" that I have met through the years. They always offer the same very vague advice that if everyone actually followed it, nothing in the world would ever get done. Do you think that anyone's passion actually is accounting or accounts receivable? I finished the book but in the end the only thing I learned was that you should help other people when you can (which is good and I think people should do that) and that material possessions and money are not important. I suppose that is easy to say when you sell 6 million books presumably for a profit. The old adage is that "the only people who say money isn't important is the people that have a lot of it."
I think I'll aim for something a bit more fantasy oriented next time because that was a waste of my time.
I'll leave you with a cute pic of my dog that wants to go everywhere that I go and I can't blame her since our condo is quite small and for me it feels like a prison cell at times so for her here on her own, it is probably worse.
I hate treadmills because running sucks anyway and it really sucks if you never actually go anywhere. For whatever reason Nadi really likes the texture of it though and she just sits there and stares at me while I lift weights. Good dog!