Something that I don't really even bother to talk about that often locally because everyone is affected by it is the never-ending construction that goes on in this city. I read somewhere not that long ago that excessive noise contributes to overall bad health and even very high stress levels. I feel as though this is probably true because I find myself getting angry on a regular basis because of noise and it is the noise and only the noise that is irritating me at that time.
I keep looking for a place nearby or basically anywhere in this city where construction isn't happening but I think that is a lost cause. There is construction basically everywhere and even if you move into a quiet neighborhood where everything is already built, I can assure you it is only a matter of time before someone comes by and tears down an existing building to build something even larger in it's place. When this happens it is devastating to the neighborhood because especially if the build is large, it means that there is going to be round the clock noise in that area for the better part of the next year or even longer. It happens like clockwork: The people see the construction gear being moved in and that smart people start looking for a new place to live before they even break ground. The owners of the existing property then suffer for the next year or so because nobody wants to live next to a construction zone because they know damn well that the people doing the construction are going to start drilling and pounding at first light and continue until it gets dark every single damn day. In worse situations they have lighting rigs brought in and they work well into the night as well.
Well, I moved to an area that appeared as though everything that could be build already was but then there was the demolition of a rather small building that was only 3 stories tall and that was annoying but deconstruction is far faster than construction. After they tore the building down nothing happened there for a number of months and all of us looked around and collectively crossed our fingers hoping that this was the end of it.
Then, just a week ago, these things appeared in the lot where they had torn down the building that was there before.
When I saw this the other day my heart sank. I don't work in construction and never have, but I know what this is. This is the building blocks of a gigantic crane the likes of which are used for buildings that are going to be extremely large.
This isn't necessary unless you are building something magnificently huge and normally is reserved for places that have views such as near the beach. I am near the beach but a few blocks away so I don't need to worry about this sort of construction all that often but the buildings that are actually on the beach in my particular part of town aren't terribly tall so the idea here might be to build something so huge that it will actually have a view over the top of the buildings that are built on the beach road.
I don't know what to expect but since I would imagine that the rental or ownership of this sort of equipment is bound to be extremely expensive, that there is a massive project that will be underway very soon.
Right now it is Tet or Lunar New Year so things are quiet. But if memory serves me right this is always the last hurrah for the area before construction begins anew after the break. Tet is a very big deal in Vietnam and almost all workers in fields like construction take a week or 10 days off before going back to work in earnest.
I have already put out feelers to find a new place to live because if you have a crane, there is a good chance you are renting it by the day and therefore are going to work through the night as well as during the day. I'm not willing to deal with that and sadly, for all the other landlords in the neighborhood, neither is anyone else going to be willing to either. This part of town was pretty nice and I was pleased to have stumbled upon it, but now it appears as though it is going to go the route of all the other places I have lived before.
It's a shame that it is like this but the explosion of popularity of Da Nang over the past 20 years kind of insures that things like this are going to happen. Time to move!