We are in the winter season here in Vietnam just like a lot of you people around the world unless you live in Australia or a few other places and this is what the locals that are involved in the tourism industry refer to as "low season." Most of the tourists stay away this time of year because at least by local standards, it is quite cold. Too cold for a dip in the ocean to be refreshing not to mention it is also the time of year where the tides are reliably crazy and potentially dangerous. The lifeguards are on high alert and unless you have a surfboard, they are unlikely to get you get in in the water below ankle depth.
I think that for most seasoned swimmers that this would be no problem still but Asians kind of generally speaking are not very good at swimming and without these rules there would be a lot of drownings. So even though I don't like rules I understand why they exist here.
most days it is very overcast with zero sunshine so me getting a little bit of sunlight in some of these pictures is actually pretty rare. For me, someone who gets hot really easy and doesn't really want or need a tan, I am perfectly find with the sun not breaking through most days and I am even ok with the rain. An ideal day to me has no sun but also no rain, which is about 50% of them this time of year.
While it is the opposite of what business owners want to have happen, I especially enjoy what you are seeing above: A beach with almost nobody on it. Normally, the Da Nang beach is just inundated with thousands of people and it just isn't relaxing at all. I tend to stay away from the beach entirely during the busy times of year because you simply spend the entire time knocking shoulders with strangers. To me, I don't understand how anyone can consider this fun or at all tranquil.
One of the reasons why I initially moved here was because it is "sold" s being a surfing beach but during most of the year the waves are way too small to have any real fun surfing on. While the waves are considerably larger this time of year they too are very difficult to surf. Look at the above picture: There is no regularity to the breaks and they are coming from all directions. I didn't even attempt this on a real surfboard but I did try on a body/boogie board. Even with that it was really tough to catch a wave and I wouldn't say it was fun. It was a lot of exercise though!
So even though the water isn't really all that usable this time of year I still prefer it because there is almost nobody on the beach. The town is better as well because we are not constantly bombarded with tourist busses honking horns and loading / unloading 50 people while blocking traffic.
I think that most people avoid coming here this time of year but if you are like me and appreciate cooler temps - it still isn't really cold - and lower prices as well as far fewer people, to me this is the best time of year to visit here.
We only get it for about another month after which time it will be back to blazing hot every single day. I'm going to relish it while I can.