It's Independence Day in Vietnam: Do yourself a favor and stay home

Vietnam is a very crowded country. There are over 90 million people here in a place that is roughly the size of Texas. Where I live in Da Nang it seems like everywhere you go is crowded and this is just part of life. As one might expect though, most people have jobs so they are out of sight for most of the day. The frustration exists during commuting hours of in the morning and in the evening just like it would be anywhere else i nthe world.

This weekend's holiday though, Independence Day is a big one, and since it fell on a Sunday both Monday and Tuesday of this week will see banks, any government business, and schools closed - just like it would be in most other countries.

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Certain places like the beach end up seeing an absolutely massive influx of people over what would normally be there and for people like me that live here, this is a place to avoid because even though the beach here isn't really that special in my opinion anyway, it is even less alluring when there are 20,000 people all vying for a place in the sand.

The same is true of all shopping malls where many people flock to just to, I think hang out in the free air conditioning. It is an absolute madhouse on these days as many people go there to see an afternoon film or go to one of the many arcades that exist there.

I have nothing against children, I was one at one point in my life after all, but there are few things I find more annoying than hundreds of kids screaming and running amok in an area. So if you live here or are visiting here during the 2nd and 3rd of September, it probably wouldn't be a terrible idea to find a rooftop restaurant or perhaps the rooftop of the building that you live in, and just chill out there for the next few days.

There are just over a million people that live in Da Nang, but on public holidays it seems as though the population triples somehow. I went to the shop late last night and stocked up on snacks and drinks and am planning on meeting some friends that live in the same building as I do. I chose to live here after all but on public holidays I normally go through a feeling of not knowing why I continue to live here. Then a few days go by and everything calms down and I am able to remember.

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You can probably get away with going to the beach in the afternoon on these days because even Vietnamese people who have the day off work tend to avoid being in the sun and I think this comes from a desire to be as not tan as possible. In the evenings around 5pm though, look out because it's almost like 20 thousand people got teleported in all at once. It is an absolute madhouse and not the sort of thing that I enjoy being around.