One of the major reasons why Da Nang, Vietnam is a very big tourist attraction for the country is because of the beach here. The city of nearly 1 million people has hundreds of high-rise hotels lining the oceanfront and even though all international tourism has been shut down there is still a high demand to use the beach. We normally would meet there a couple times a month with a cooler of beer and sit under some umbrellas and rent beach chairs. It is a good time and we get to remind ourselves why we are lucky to be able to live here.
However, since this city goes in and out of lockdown due to Covid on a regular basis, public areas such as the beach are under a great amount of scrutiny and have so many rules for those that want to go there that it is more of a pain than anything else. Two days ago we decided to give it a go anyway and by the time we finally gave up and left we all basically determined that we are not going to go back there until things become a lot more relaxed there.
Check out Nadi in the bottom right - she loves it there although technically she also is not allowed to be at the beach
The way it works is like this: You turn up with your crew and you go to one of the many beach umbrella operations and you rent these deck-chairs for 40k VND (around $2) and you get to sit in the shade for as long as you want. When we turned up these vendors were more than happy to rent the chairs to us and we carried on as normal. This lasted for about an hour before some official came by and told us that we can not sit on the chairs. We tried to ask why and used a translation program and basically we came to the agreement with the official that we had sit on the ground. I am presuming this has something to do with Covid regulations but seeing as how we are still sitting in exactly the same place that we were before how does this really change anything?
It is still a lovely place to sit and the security / lifeguard was polite so we didn't really have a problem with complying but then 15 minutes later a friend tried to get into the water for a dip only to be "beeped" at by a lifeguard with a megaphone telling him that he had to get out of the water. Unbeknownst to us, you are not allowed to enter the water until 4:30 PM. This kind of explained why we had the place basically to ourselves until around that time.
When the masses started turning up at 4:30 we suddenly became aware that the local population must have already known this because they started turning up in droves.
Right at 4:30, people were allowed to swim if they wanted to but this is when the mask regulations kicked in. People that were going for a swim are required to wear a mask even when they are in the water. I don't know how you feel about masks or their efficacy but certainly you can agree that swimming with one on is beyond stupid. Once that thing gets wet you cant breathe through it.
People who were turning up to the beach just to stand around or let their kids run about were being sent back to the boardwalk until they put a mask on. Those who did not have a mask with them were being told they had to leave. We were sitting in the shade away from a lot of people and were drinking beer. Although he was polite (again) we were told that we also had to wear masks. We kind of complied but every time you want to have a sip of beer the mask goes down to the chin.
I don't want to rock the boat but the fact that the masks only became necessary starting at 4:30 just seems a bit silly, doesn't it?
There was a girl nearby that I guess is an Instagram model that was harassed relentlessly by the officials and she would put her mask on until the guy turned around and then go back to having her friend snap hundreds of pictures until the official would eventually come back again and tell her to mask up.
The overall mood was not one of relaxation and even though I had already left at that point, my friends told me that right at the strike of 6:30 they kicked everyone off the beach altogether. The reason why I left is because all of the public toilets were sealed off and even though I didn't do so, I think you can guess where everyone was using the bathroom during these 2 hours - awesome!
I don't want to start a mask debate but here is the thing that doesn't make sense to me: All the bars and restaurants are open now and you can pack as many people into those places as you want and everyone can do so without masks, legally. However, for some reason an outdoor area where people are definitely more spaced out than they are in a crowded bar, masks are required even if you are swimming.
Vietnam, like most countries, gets to make their own rules about how they are going to handle Covid but this is just ridiculous. Of all of the members of our group that day we determined that we are not going to return to the beach for these sorts of outings until the officials can chill out a bit. We just want to sit with some friends in the shade and drink a few beers and since these are the same people that we would be sitting with at a bar anyway (probably in much closer proximity than at the beach) I really can't understand that point of all this harassment. Personally, I would prefer they just keep the beach closed than have it open like this. You basically aren't allowed to have fun.
I don't have any ill-will towards the officials that were destroying the fun by constantly megaphoning everyone because they are just doing their jobs. Hopefully some sensibility will enter the equation before too long.