I've been living in Vietnam for over 5 years now and for the most part I don't have a lot of complaints. There is much more freedom here than anywhere else I have lived. You are basically allowed to do whatever you want provided you don't hurt anyone else. I like this aspect of the joint. However, this do whatever you want extends to the realm of noise pollution and this is one massive downside of living here.
I haven't really thought about this in quite some time but recently a friend of mine went to Osaka and would send me pictures and videos of streets packed with people and cars yet it is almost entirely quiet. When he told me about the "quiet street" that he scored a monthly rental on, I quipped "what is this "quiet" that you are referring to? I don't know what that word means." He got the joke of course because he lived here for about as long as I have and this is something that a lot of us grow to appreciate a great deal after being in Vietnam for a bit.
There are a lot of things to love about this country, but the amount of never-ending noise is definitely not one of them.
One of the main problems is the popularity of karaoke and how the people engaging in it really go over the top with their choice of speakers. Sometimes you will hear absurdly loud noises coming from down the street to the point where it sounds like there is some sort of block party or massive show but upon investigating you will discover that it is just 3 or 4 drunk men sitting around a table with the system cranked up to 11 out of 10. Almost always these people are absolutely horrible singers and there is no good reason why it needs to be that loud.
This became so much of a problem in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City that the government was basically forced to do something about it and the police would get involved. I really wish they would do something about it here as well because the only thing that can really be done is for you to go down there and become nearly violent with the perpetrators. Obviously this will most likely end badly for any foreigner that does this but it has been known to happen when people have had enough and are at their wit's end. I know I have come dangerously close to running out of my house with a disguise on armed with a knife to unplug the machine and then cut the power cord in half.
If you think that this only happens during peak drinking hours you would be incorrect. This is just as likely to happen at 9 in the morning as it is at 9 at night.
Even the beach walking paths are inundated with loudspeakers put there by the government that will batter our instruction on how to not drown (i guess) endlessly thus completely destroying the tranquility that would normally come with being on a beach. In order to experience any sort of silence on the beach you have to walk far away from the beach access pathways and once you do that you introduce a completely different problem. Now you have to contend with the mountains of garbage that wash in with the tides.
In addition to the loudspeakers put there by the government, people will set up aerobic dance sessions on the boardwalk at night and they bring completely overpowered portable speakers with them. Since there are multiple competing aerobic dance setups they seem to be competing to see who can be the loudest. If you were planning on a peaceful walk on the beach you can fucking forget about that!
If you've somehow managed to find a quiet-ish neighborhood, don't plan on it staying that way. The traveling sales representatives along with their tinny speakers advertising what they are selling, are going to come by your place hundreds of times a day. How this is allowed is something I don't understand but I suppose if you leave people to their own devices they are going to do loud things. I feel sympathy for these people, because they are just trying to make some money, but dear lord, does it have to be from 5am to 2am every single damn day? I have a fantasy about getting revenge on these guys and following them home and then play a repetitive something or other at maximum volume right outside of their house when they are trying to relax.
The construction noise is relentless and nobody gives a damn who they are bothering with this. Recently a year-long build was completed just opposite my condo and I knew it would happen, but they started another one just about a block away. when that one is complete they will start another one. Once they have turned all the land into cement they will get to work on knocking of the existing ones down and building another taller one.
Like I said at the start of all of this I am quite happy that we have relative freedom in this country. I was not expecting that out of communism at all. But I think there needs to be some rules. The search for silence is something that basically cannot be accomplished if you live anywhere that has a population of over a thousand people and seeing as how there are nearly 100 million people living in a country that is basically the size of Texas, there aren't very many places with low population.
Many days I just feel like closing my doors and windows and attempting to find some sort of respite from the constant noise. When I ever do encounter silence I treasure it because it is so damn rare here. I love this country but great googley moogley do they enjoy having things be as loud as it possibly can be.