Rainy Season in DaNang, Vietnam: What You Need to Know Before You Come (Day 1 Unedited)

Hi friends it's Susan here in Da Nang Vietnam and today we are talking about rainy season a little background on this video and where how it's coming about and why I'm uploading today is that two days ago I was in a coffee shop and I met up with my friend Marvin and he was talking about launching his YouTube channel and I suggested that he follow a challenge that I'd seen another YouTuber online do that just said it changed their life it was wildly successful and this gal her name is Glo she lives in Bangkok she's an American she uploaded a video to YouTube unedited every single day for some long long stretch of time I can't even remember it was I wanna say it was over six months maybe it was 180 days and maybe he would could do like a 30 day challenge and upload something every day for 30 days and I didn't think much after that conversation we talked about many many other things and the next day which was yesterday I was at a restaurant and I was waiting for my food to arrive and I saw that I had been tagged online and I took a peek and it was Marvin and he had just uploaded a video and said he had accepted a challenge and he was gonna give it a shot so I messaged him I'm like hey wow look at you you got a piece of advice or input a suggestion you acted on it immediately

and you just uploaded a video I'm really proud of you that's great and he responded back and said are you in you doing it too and I thought wait the advice was for you not for me but as someone who has a hard time walking away from a challenge I thought today you know I should take my own advice and as we say around here good and done is better than perfect never so while it can feel wildly uncomfortable to as a YouTuber to videotape yourself and just upload it unedited that's we're gonna do for the next seven days and today we are talking about rainy season in Da Nang Vietnam so it's the time of year right now today is Friday September 25th and it is right at the beginning of what we call rainy season and all the talk of the town the last two weeks is friends meeting up with friends saying are you staying in town for rainy season and the answer to that is different for everybody and there's a lot of people now asking me if I'm staying in town for rainy season this will be my third rainy season here and I remember my first rainy season asking the exact same questions so I thought now that I'm on the other side of it let's talk rainy season so in Da Nang Vietnam so I'm in central coastal Vietnam the rainy season starts sometime around now

we usually say October through December and with the expectation that we start turning the corner around the Tet the New Year which is sometime around mid January last year rainy season lasted pretty long I wanna say we were still getting intermittent rains in March my niece Brianna came to visit for her university spring break and there were days that we had umbrellas and ponchos out we have all she was wearing a hoodie some of those days in jeans so it lasted last year much longer than typical but it also didn't feel like it was as intense as prior rainy seasons so when I had originally talked to people about rainy season and said are you staying are you staying it was interesting to me to see the broad range of responses and I remember sitting with a few guys I was just walking down the street and they were one of them was my friend and I just ran over and said hi they were sitting at a picnic table having dinner and I just asked around like what do you guys do for rainy season and they were all staying and one guy said I've lived here for a few years he said it rains you dress appropriately you take a poncho you have an umbrella there's some days where it just rains for a few days straight just is what it is like it's not that big deal and then I would talk with someone else

and I remember specifically talking with someone who had grown up in Vietnam and they said absolutely not we're leaving for rainy season and they were going to there's a number of different places around here that people typically leave to go to during rainy season because they're close and they are sunny or pleasant weather some of those places are well Thailand you go to Bangkok which is less than a two hour flight go up in the north of Thailand which is Chiang Mai you can go south to the islands there's an island off the south coast of Vietnam called Phu Quoc Island which has a different weather pattern than where I am so there's plenty of places to leave and get away there's Bali I have a number of friends who just recently left this area and they're currently in Bali for the next 2 3 months so when I heard that I thought oh no what you know what what am I getting into and I remember someone saying just try it and you can find out for yourself and here's the easy thing is if it gets to be too much or you need a break and you want some sunshine you get on a plane and you go somewhere for a week or two and get some pleasant weather or some sun so you know maybe it won't be you know as bad as you're expecting but you won't know till you try it basically and so I have decided to stay and part of the reason behind that too

is I grew up in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest and I grew up on Whidbey Island and Washington is well known for a lot of gray cloudy rainy days and when it's raining up there I say the weather usually turns sometime around Halloween where you just really feel that it's rainy and cloudy you can't count on it not being raining the it can rain for days on end and there's days where it's cold and the it might be windy and the wind is like blowing the rain sideways against the windows so I remember growing up there and I never planned my day around whether it was raining or not you just always have waterproof gear and you might take an umbrella or you run from the house to the car in into the store you just get kind of used to it so my first rainy season here I realized here's my take on it it's not that big a deal and for me the rainy season it does rain quite a bit it's intermittent it's broken up by clear hours clear days sometimes the sun comes out but the big difference for me is it's still warm outside so while I might be in a poncho I'm still wearing shorts and rubbery sandals

and I might have a poncho on or maybe a poncho over a jacket maybe an umbrella but it's warm and so excuse me you can still get out and about still be running errands the thing that I noticed that just changed my life a little bit is when it gets right into like the bulk of the rainy season is you start watching the weather because you do want to get out and about and the weather can change so drastically by the hour so when I grew up in Washington if it was a rainy day it was usually that was your weather all day long and it might drizzle or rain hard but it was the temperature was consistent and the rain was pretty consistent here it can literally be a sunny day and I've been laying on the beach before and all of a sudden you feel like Kerplunk Kerplunk and you see people jump up grab their towels throwing things in bags and you're running because it can it's like a water faucet just turned on often times you'll hear it the other night I was out walking and I can hear this rumbling that sounds like rain and it was just a warm muggy evening as I'm walking down the street and then and I just ran right under the cover of a neighboring house they have like an awning coming out and I'm looking at the people sitting there in their living room with the doors open

they're kind of smiling at me and laughing just taking cover because when it starts raining here it rains hard so you don't want to be out and about stranded without some sort of rain protection so what we do around here is this time of year every time you leave the house you take I always take a umbrella I always take a poncho in my bag and ponchos are sold at every convenience store there's a convenience store I think on every single block I'm gonna show you what I'm talking about they are one step away from what we would call Saran Wrap and they cost about $1 and that is I have a whole bunch of them they look like this so they're in every full market every Q Market J market that has fruit sodas waters they all have these really lightweight ponchos when you're in really touristy areas as soon as it starts to rain instantly there will be guys riding around on motorbikes with a stack of ponchos and he's selling them to the tourists so so smart for just about $1 each and so after you have you start having them in every single color they are extremely lightweight let me just wad this one up it's like this it is it's very lightweight now when it rains

this is how thin it is it is it can kind of stick to you it's it protects you it keeps you dry but it doesn't have that feeling like you can feel every raindrop on your body so the good news is you stay dry after having lived here through a few rainy seasons what I found myself doing is you start to become like an expert in ponchos and ordering them online to meet your needs so for example if I'm going to be going across the river on a motorbike we still will often take a motorbike Grab which is the Vietnamese version of an American Uber you call a Grab motorbike and they come zipping up they're wearing ponchos they have their helmet on they'll hand you a helmet and you put on you have your poncho on and then you put the hood of your poncho up and then the helmet on top and while it's not the most attractive look in the world I remember the first few times I would I had the hood down I just put the helmet on and then all the water is dripping down around your neck so the places around here it's just so common that everybody arrives and then you take your poncho off the poncho is dripping wet you might have a helmet that's wet you have your umbrella so all of the restaurants and different venues have coat racks that are all hey right at the front entrance everybody takes off their ponchos and their rain gear and you hang it up so it doesn't so it drips outside and then you go inside and then you come back out

put it on to leave some of the stores actually have lockers and you can just go put your helmet your rain gear whatever you want in a locker you take the key you shop and then you pick up your things back on the way out but some of the I'll have some props here I just grabbed some that I could show so here's another version of a poncho that I just grabbed at a market and this one might be you know $1.50 or $2 but you can see it's just a little bit thicker than a little bit more doesn't stick to your skin like the the real real thin ones do so these are an option but the thing to weigh is how heavy is the rain where are you going if you're on the back of a motorbike and you're going on a motorbike for 10 or 15 minutes you want something real durable and dry and if you're just zipping around town or it's lightly misting then you can have something lighter and for me because I'm on foot so much also that I'm always looking at the weight of things 'cause I'll typically carry a backpack that has a few things in it because you're walking everywhere and you might be gone for hours and you're not sure what you're gonna need and so I don't wanna carry like a real heavy plastic a poncho all day long on my back so some other ponchos that I've gotten so this is one of my favorites for maybe a longer motorbike ride is it's a really

like nice heavy material so if it's pouring rain you just feel really protected it feels nice it feels good on your skin it's completely waterproof and I also like it because it zips up the front and then snaps and what you'll start to notice when you become a poncho expert is some of them have these little almost like a little baseball cap a little beak that sticks out so it's not just the poncho you know just ending right around your face your face is getting wet but you have just a little cover when you put your head up and I have a whole bag of ponchos different colors you're wearing them all the time around here so different colors different styles depending on what you need and here's a one without arms it's just more of your what you would typically call a poncho that is kind of free flowing and it has some snaps here just to kind of keep it in place and a front pouch pocket like for a phone that has a a Velcro closure so if you need to grab something out really quickly I've also seen ponchos that they might be a solid color like the one that I have but there's a clear plastic like inset kind of a cut out so if you need to look at your phone but keep your phone dry you can see your phone through the poncho you're not pulling it out from under and it can be rain really

really hard around here so there's times where you just you walk out and you're just you're going to be drenched I find that around here during rainy season you see a lot of like linen shirts linen shorts things that dry really quickly you don't see people wearing jeans your legs if you're on the back of a motorbike they're going to be they're gonna get wet from somewhere around like mid thigh down down to the ground and then you go inside and there's air conditioning and they're wet like you want something that is gonna dry really quickly so either very very lightweight pants or linen pants or more often than not you'll see people wearing shorts because your legs dry really quickly and if it when the weather starts to get a little chillier you start to see people wearing maybe a jacket but still wearing shorts and it never gets that cold around here so I've done some videos where I'm taping myself and you can see I'm wearing a hoodie with a down jacket and people have said oh is it cold there I said well cold is relative now that I'm used to hot and humid it's maybe Fahrenheit 72 73 degrees so yes I feel like it's cold but also you can't see that from the waist down I'm wearing shorts and flip flops and so the shoes you wear during rainy season

if you're coming to Da Nang during rainy season no need to bring any fancy shoes or fancy sandals this is what we wear we all wear these rubbery shoes I just grab these from right outside my front door because we take our shoes off when we come inside you start to accumulate them in every color they're the equivalent of $5 they're at all the markets and you just slide these on they you can walk through water they're not slippery they dry really quickly you can rinse them off in the shower and just kind of stand them up to dry again slip it back on when you're coming and going so you'll find around here even like crossing the street there might be 3 feet of water that you're walking through before you finish crossing the street kind of like down where the gutters go and step on the sidewalk and you just wade through it up to your ankles it's very common that you're wading through water and just there's a lot of water these are the perfect shoes don't come with your hundred dollar Italian leather shoes they will not dry they will mold and yeah it's these or the Croc knockoffs and you'll see them at every market as you're walking towards the door there's usually gigantic cardboard boxes full of

knock off crocs every color every size and those are also very popular I've not yet made the jump to Crocs just because these ones that I have are so comfortable but I will say that I had met this young married couple they are Americans I met them during my travels and I remember meeting up with them in Saigon one year and we were we were having dinner and just laughing about things the ways that we've changed since we traveled and I'll never forget the guy said the biggest way that I think that I've changed is he said when I first came to Asia like everybody's wearing Crocs and he's like never you will never catch me wearing Crocs you're around them all the time and when you're around things all the time they suddenly seem very normal and he said until I put my foot in a pair and I can't remember if he said that he bought them or they were given to him as a gift he said my feet have never been more comfortable I love Crocs I will never these I am a Crocs ambassador I don't care what anyone thinks what anyone says they're my absolute favorite shoes ever so things that you think when you're not here or wherever your travel destination is

people change and a lot of it has to do with what's going on around you what's convenient what's comfortable what everyone's doing here everyone wears slide on slide off rubbery sandals a lot of the stores still you and they have to be on off if you wear tennis shoes it's again not gonna last too long if you wanna go in and out of places 'cause many places you take your shoes off you go inside you slide them back on go on your way and that way they keep the floors nice on the inside and you're only running around in your shoes outside when you do that a number of times you do not want to be trying to find somewhere to sit down and put on tennis shoes and lace them up so that is what you wear during rainy season it's warm ponchos rubbery sandals I've also found that I'm a I've desensitized to being rained on I did a video the other day thinking back to there's different levels of living in Da Nang during rainy season and it used to be at the first a few drops of rain you're you know you're quickly running under cover you're putting up an umbrella throwing on a poncho and now I walk down the street I'm like it's not raining hard enough and I know that my shirt's getting wet my hair is getting a little wet but you don't mind it's you just kind of get used to it then you go in somewhere and you are dry

and it's kind of a more of a lifestyle and it's just easier a lot of times to walk around and just the warm Misty drizzle is not any big thing or I'll put the hood on of the poncho 'cause I just nobody wants to walk around carrying a having an umbrella up for very long so you just become kind of used to throwing on a poncho walking around half the time being some in some phase of drying off and and being rained on again and there's also times too so your schedule shifts let me come back to that for a minute there's days where you might have your day kind of mentally planned out but if it's during rainy season I might be sitting here at my desk and then go oh my gosh it stopped raining stop what you're doing run outside because I want to get a walk in or get some exercise in and you just you can't count on when it's going to be raining when it's going to be sunny and so you take advantage of the times that are clear so you see a lot of the schedule shifts what else can I say about rainy season oh also I feel like there's two types of things that can be difficult during well three things we'll come

we'll address the third one that's typhoons in another video 'cause that's a whole separate topic but during rainy season there can be a few days in a row a storm system is coming through and it it's raining say three days in a row so you're not out like exercising or we spend so much of our lives outside living here that that can feel challenging and so you wanna find other places where you can get out socialize with people maybe have a gym membership do pickleball is very popular here just do some things so you can be out and about the other thing that some folks have challenges with is like last year when the rainy season was very long and we keep thinking any day now it's gonna be turning the corner and we're gonna start to see maybe some cloudy days and then sun will peek out and then it gets very beautiful and sunny in the spring it just we were kind of expecting it like mid January and when it kept continuing you start to feel like just things are just heavy and they're cloudy and they're raining on and off like it's it feels a little bit Groundhog Day like so we cheer each other up we still go out dancing on the beach encourage each other to get out and take walks and if you start to feel kind of heavier down get on a plane and book a trip

somewhere where you can get some blue sky and sunshine I remember I think it was our first rainy season a friend and I had met for coffee and we had just spent the last 45 minutes saying gosh I'm just feeling really low and like is it hormonal is it this is it that you know something going on is there something going around is it atmospheric pressure and right then and there we the skies opened up and bright sunshine came through and we looked at each other cancel the rest of our talk let's go straight out to the beach we're walking on the beach in the sunshine and suddenly we both were like everything's fine we're actually great what were we talking about 10 minutes ago I feel great she's like I feel great and we just were laughing at ourselves because it it was the sunshine we just really needed some sunshine on our skin so now I know a little better that if I do start to get a little bit lower or moody during a rainy season it might be worthwhile to book a long weekend excursion and like I said Bangkok is maybe a hour and a half flight it's something like that it is not long and with the local domestic airlines around here you can get flights to places relatively inexpensively

or say here to down to Phu Quoc Island just to get a little change of scenery and boost and weather change so in summary it really depends on the person I am gearing up for my third rainy season here and yeah I know what to expect and not too worried about it and it also feels a little bit that change of season kind of pleasant where summer is very warm and sunny and there's activities outside all the time and you have that kind of fall cozy it's you can hear the rain it's pouring it might be loud there might be thunder and lightning and it has that kind of that cozy feel and you can focus on some different things maybe it feels a little more comfortable to focus on something a project that you've been wanting to do people or people meet up and they'll do like a painting day there's a lot of creative cafes around here where you can paint fabric paper canvas ceramics there's a crocheting meetup and there's coffee meetups and maybe meet some new people so there's plenty of activities and that's something we'll cover on another video too there's improv and there's movies and bowling and skating all kinds of things that I never go to because the weather is so beautiful outside and it's so nice

and the beach is right here to get out and walk and meet up with friends that yeah gives a little change of scenery and a bit of a change of activity so there's kind of some nice side benefits to that as well if you have any questions on rainy season if you like this type of just real talk unedited video sit down talk about a certain topic please let me know and if you have suggestions for things that you would like to hear me talk about please let me know that as well thanks for joining today and a safe and happy travels what are we doing today when it rains we we dance we're doing it it is pouring pouring I don't think I've ever danced in rain so hard but hey this is nutty absolutely everybody's drenched there's a handful of people that have ponchos right you know when the rain first started

it's like oh oh better go in everybody's safe so tonight when we all left the house to come to dork dancing I left the house at 5 got here at 5:30 it was a sunny day then the dark clouds rolled in then there was a kerplunk and then it started gushing and as you can see it's lightning and thunder and pouring rain it was breezy for a while the wind was blowing the rain sideways and it is like a shower here like like one of those jungle shower heads tropical rainforest and as soon as you get completely drenched it's a whole new level like it unlocks a new level of freedom you're not trying to stay dry the rain is warm you're shutting your eyes you're waving your hands in the air you're jumping there's music people are whooping and hollering and never experienced this level of dancing in the rain before highly recommend dork dancing's over that's a wrap thanks for joining rain or shine we dance